|
| Recent
Articles |
Search Friendly Vs Search Optimized
Last month Stoney DeGeyter wrote an excellent post about the differences between developing a site to be search engine friendly and one that has been...
Taking Usability Up A Notch
According to Jakob Nielsen, web usability testing is now in its 14th year. Testing itself, as you know, is as old as time. How many humans suffered from upset...
Targeting Your Audience
Over the past couple of years I've been quietly developing a series of small and unambitious news sites. Even before I'd heard of the internet I've...
Conversion Rate Optimization: Google Takes The...
Within the e-commerce sphere, the "mind games" between site owners and search engine designers have focused on search engine optimization (SEO).
Using The H1 Tag
Some are not aware that there's a h1 tag. Some use is as they please. Others try to think what makes the most sense and act accordingly. Let's see what is the...
Pull Your Site Out Of The Supplemental Index
I met Krishna De in Cork last month. She gave a fantastic presentation on marketing and leveraging the Internet to achieve your business goals. In fact...
|
|
|
07.03.07
Why We Care About Usability & Accessibility
 By Kimberly Krause Berg
Every day another light bulb goes off in someone's head when they wake up and realize that what they've been doing isn't enough to count.
Once, when I watched SiteLogic's Matt Bailey present to a search engine marketing conference audience what their optimized web pages sounded like to people who relied on Assistive technology to use the Web, I could feel the entire room change. He'd made his point. Poor SEO techniques could make web site pages completely unusable for people.
His presentation was about how to fix that problem.
I'm not sure where my friends' passion for accessibility or usability comes from. I don't know what hooked me either.
Joe Dolson is wrapped up in accessible design practices and when he writes in his blog or in the Usability/Accessibility forum at Cre8asiteforums, it's clear he deeply cares about the end user experience. I don't know why it matters to him, but we need people like him to keep teaching and reminding us what matters most.
My friend Elizabeth Able has intimate knowledge of the needs of disabled web users, and not just because her mother runs a school for the blind. Liz's personal experiences and born intuitive insight make her a perfect advocate as a self employed web designer.
Today's UPA Journal presents an article called, What is our role as Usability Professionals, by Silvia Zimmermann. She writes,
As Usability people we usually tend to focus on making things easier to use. To allow for good usability and an excellent user experience we integrate user centered design methods and standardized usability processes into our daily work. We are used to doing this; we advocate for it day after day; we even try to persuade our clients and the people around us to do the same because we have a strong belief in it. And without question, making things easier to use is an honorable thing to do, because it generally enhances the overall user experience.
| Learn How We Increased Conversion By 816% and Become A Certified Online Testing Professional™ Click Here |
|
It bothers me when I hear stories from software development companies who don't have a usability specialist on hand or do user testing. There are other companies that budget in usability and accessibility but it's all smoke and mirrors. They don't actually implement the changes. Rather, it looks good to document that they tested a few things and called it a day.
I'm noticing more articles and blog posts from people who are becoming interested in how usable web design is the logical next step in marketing. It's a bit of putting the cart before the horse, however.
When you build something to be accessed via the Internet, plan on optimizing for search engines and people at the same time.
Search engines don't need your consideration as much as your family, friends and customers do.
Comments
About the Author:
Usability Consultant, Kimberly Krause Berg, is the owner of UsabilityEffect.com, Cre8pc.com, and Cre8asiteForums. Her background in organic search engine optimization, combined with web site usability consulting, offers unique insight into web site development.
|
