Digital Training Direct  
Training Resources
Usability Elements:
Site ID
Recognisable company logo, large or framing everything
Google
Concierge
Font Bureau
Home
Reassuring link to the homepage;
the logo or word "Home”
MTV
What's On When
Found
Net Doctor
Search
Obvious search facility
BBC News
The Onion
Dabs
Clinique

Utilities
Contact us, How to order, Help; usually less prominent

Foreign & Commonwealth Office DfES
Sections
Like departments in a store, with subsections when necessary
CD Now
Salon
The Gate
Page name
The subject of the page, matching the link followed
The AA
DTI
You are here
An indicator, often part of a navigation bar, which tells the user their general position within the whole site.
Asserta Home
Oxo
Motley Fool
Breadcrumbs
Similar to “You are here”, but with only the path back to the homepage. They usually work best high up on the page.
Met Office
Computer World
The AA
Navigation
Apple
tabs
Twenty Nervern Square mystery meat buttons
Nono blurred navigation
Lancrigg Hotel bad label (food)
The Train Line misleading button
BUPA sections? goals? colours
The Red Light Sting spider navigation, labels
Walker Art sitemap
Design
Food Lovers Club
good palette, bad noise
Handbag 3 columns, hover colours
Oxo splash page, no text
Harrogate Turkish frames mismatch
Interactivity
Which Mobiles dhtml, hidden layers
Imagery
Gil Doron wild b/g animation
Guess the icon
Sykes Cottages Unfathomable images
PPP Healthcare  
The Gate  
Loch Lomond  
Flash case studies
Shell - Advance oils Can Flash be accessible?
Shell - Oil & Gas  
The Halkin Is this site user-centred?
Access Sites
Tesco Access Text only
National Trust Visually impaired facility
British Dyslexia Assc. Bobby Approved
 
Online Resources

Usability Links:

Jakob Nielsen
www.useit.com

Bruce Tognazzini (heuristics)
www.asktog.com

Jesse James Garrett
www.jjg.net

Usability News
www.usabilitynews.com

Usability links
www.usableweb.com

Usability Net
www.hostserver150.com

Usability Special Interest Group
www.stcsig.org/usability

Boxes and Arrows
www.boxesandarrows.com

Widgetopia and Elegant Hack
www.eleganthack.com/widgetopia/

Handbook of User-Centred Design
www.ejeisa.com

Usability Testing
jthom.best.vwh.net/usability

Style Guides
www.stcsig.org

 

Talks / Events:

AIGA Experience Design London
www.aiga.org

Nielsen Norman Group
www.nngroup.com

 

Accessibility Links:

Legislation

Disability Discrimination Act 1995
Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO)

Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001
HMSO


Legal Implications for the web
Journal of Information Law & Technology
(Web Accessibility and the DDA)
Digital Media Access Group (Legal resources)


Design advice
Liverpool University (Accessibility Tool Kit)
Disability Rights Commission (Inaccessible website demo)
Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB)
Robert Gordon University

Accessibility analysis
BOBBY

Colour blindness simulator
http://colorfilter.wickline.org

 
Video demos:

Screen Readers
The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) of the University of Wisconsin-Madison offers 3 videos online to explain how screen readers and magnification software assist the blind in using the web.

RNIB video
The Royal National Institute of the Blind has produced a 15 minute video called 'Websites That Work' showing how disabled people use screen readers and other devices to access the web. Call them on 020 7391 2178 for a copy free of charge in CD format.
 

Tools:

Survey Analysis
www.websurveyor.com (software)
www.confirmit.com (agency)
www.supersurvey.com (online service)

Link Validation / Web Page Analysis
www.watchfire.com
www.linkguard.com
www.linkalarm.com

Web Statistics
www.thecounter.com
www.webtrends.co.uk

Inspiration:
www.linkdup.com
www.wowwebdesigns.com
www.webbyawards.com

 

Booklist

Don’t Make Me Think!
Steve Krug (New Riders) October 2000

Designing Web Usability
Jakob Nielsen (New Riders) December 1999

Web Site Usability Handbook
Mark Pearrow (Charles River Media) 2000

Handbook of Usability Testing
Jeffrey Rubin (John Wiley & Sons) 1994

Web Navigation
Jennifer Fleming (O’Reilly) 1998

Web Accessibility for People with Disabilities
M. Paciello (CMP Books) 2000

Net Words - Creating High-Impact Online Copy
Nick Usborn (McGraw-Hill) 2002

The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman (Basic Books) 1988, new preface 2002

The Elements of User Experience
Jesse James Garret (New Riders) 2002

 

Usability Glossary

 

Recommended London bookshop:
Holborn Books
on Sicilian Ave in Holborn just off Southampton Row. Map
http://www.pcbooks.co.uk
Digital Training Direct