era's Feed

Password Composer - generate unique passwords for web sites

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:25:00 -0400

Firefox extension incorporating Nick Wolff's Password Generator bookmarklet Tagged by era under 03a, browser, extension, firefox, security, usability, 20060619-0123,

Weblog Usability: Top Ten Design Mistakes in Blogs (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:25:00 -0400

Guess how many of these guidelines de.lirio.us violates ...? Tagged by era under blog, deliriousbugs, erablog, reference, usability, web, 20060619-0123,

Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005 (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:25:00 -0400

Why not to mess with fonts and links, use gratuitous pop-ups, Flash, or IE-only design, etc I'm generally vaguely skeptical of Nielsen's "Alert Box" columns, but this is very focused and to the point, and based on a survey of his readers. Must read for anyone who has or plans to have a web site. Tagged by era under 03a, blog, design, erablog, reference, usability, web, 20060619-0123,

When Bad Design Becomes the Standard (Alertbox Nov. 1999)

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:25:00 -0400

Nielsen pulling percentages out of his hat again "If we were starting from scratch, we might improve the usability of a site by 1% or so by having a navigation rail on the right rather than on the left. But deviating from the standard would almost certainly impose a much bigger cost in terms of confusion and reduced ability to navigate smoothly." Tagged by era under article, blog, erablog, quips, usability, web, 20060619-0123,

Ten Good Deeds in Web Design (Alertbox Oct. 1999)

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:25:00 -0400

For a change , some do's instead of dont't from Nielsen Tagged by era under design, reference, usability, web, 20060619-0123,

Ten Most Violated Homepage Design Guidelines (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:25:00 -0400

The mistakes all the big sites continue to make Tagged by era under design, reference, usability, web, 20060619-0123,

PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption (Alertbox)

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:25:00 -0400

For once, Jakob Nielsen gets it spot-on "For online reading, however, PDF is the monster from the Black Lagoon." -- Jakob Nielsen Tagged by era under advocacy, blog, erablog, pdf, peeve, quips, usability, web, 20060619-0123,

Jesse Ruderman Â» How to rig an election

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:25:00 -0400

If I worked for Diebold and wanted to help republicans win --- I would work harder on usability for machines going to friendly districts Tagged by era under blog, conspiracy, erablog, politics, quips, usability, 20060619-0123,

To write a good game, think like a player

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:25:00 -0400

From an on-line Interactive Fiction magazine issue from 2001 ... Dunno how I stumbled over this "If you're writing a story-game, the code should automatically unlock and open doors you walk through if you have the key; it's just tedious if it doesn't. But if you're writing a puzzle game, then the code definitely shouldn't - if a player has had to work like fury to get that key then let them have the satisfaction of getting to unlock the damn door with it. Otherwise it plays like the game is tapping its watch saying 'I've grown grey hairs waiting for you to get on and solve that! Can we hurry up, please?'" Tagged by era under quips, usability, writing, 20060619-0123,

Clean, cutting-edge UI design cuts McAfee's support calls by 90% - SoftwareCEO Feature - 2004-07-06

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:25:00 -0400

McAfee's GUI makeover Tagged by era under advocacy, design, development, gui, software, usability, 20060619-0123,

Jef Raskin, Creator of the Macintosh Computer, Dies at 61

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:24:00 -0400

Usability guru Jef Raskin died in February of 2005 You'd think THEY would have thought of giving the page a sensible title, but nooo. Tagged by era under article, computing, design, erablog, gui, history, usability, 20060619-0123,

OK/Cancel: On Unix Command Lines and Pianos

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:24:00 -0400

On how the command line is to a Unix weenie like the keyboard to a pianist "I call this class of interface 'mastery interfaces', and they are curious because they are amazingly unusable to beginners and effortlessly usable to 'experts'. This characteristic creates something of an odd social dynamic amongst the userbase. The experts can barely (if at all) re-acquaint themselves with the frustrations that newbies face, and thus have very few (and skewed) insights on how to make the system more broadly usable." Tagged by era under blog, cli, erablog, quips, shell, ui, unix, usability, 20060619-0123,

Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:24:00 -0400

Common-sense newbie hints for assessing the credibility of a site (UC Berkeley library Internet workshop) Tagged by era under critical, howto, newbie, usability, www, 20060619-0123,

jwz on Linux Solutions (tm)

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:24:00 -0400

"I've been saturated with Unix-peanut-gallery effluvia for so long that it no longer even surprises me when every question -- no matter how simple -- results in someone suggesting that you either A) patch your kernel or B) change distros. It's inevitable and inescapable, like Hitler." Tagged by era under erablog, linux, quips, usability, 20060619-0123,

GovOffice [PrintView version]

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:24:00 -0400

Why is it that the "printer-friendly" page always looks better than the "real" page? Tagged by era under blog, design, erablog, peeve, usability, web, 20060619-0123,

Guess which site is Google's #1 hit for the search string "http"

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:24:00 -0400

I typed in "http;//ubuntulinux.com" by mistake, and had a hard time figuring out how I ended up where I did This is all Knoppix' fault. It supplied me with a choice of US, German, or French keyboard, all of which suck for me. (Serves me right for not getting Gnoppix instead. Or, welp, the Ubuntu Live CD, which is what I am downloading now.) ... And partially Firefox's, for having the "I'm feeling lucky" button as the default for Google keywords. Tagged by era under blog, curious, erablog, humor, search, usability, www, 20060619-0123,

The Art of Unix Usability

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:24:00 -0400

A companion to The Art of Unix Programming, by ESR et al. Tagged by era under 000tbd, book, design, gui, hacker, programming, ui, unix, usability, 20060619-0123,

Bookmarklets Home Page - free tools for power surfing

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:24:00 -0400

Little JavaScript snippets you can store as bookmarks for enhanced surfing usability Tagged by era under 02a, bookmarklet, browser, collection, javascript, site, tool, www, 20060619-0123,

Querying ARIN's WHOIS CBT - training and reference

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:24:00 -0400

Sheesh, you need some Adware Player for their tutorial Tagged by era under advocacy, blog, erablog, usability, w3c, 20060619-0123,

IE not recommended

era — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:24:00 -0400

"Some design elements on this Web site may render awkwardly if font sizes are changed in browser preferences or if viewed through Internet Explorer, because of its cavalier treatment of HTML and CSS standards" Tagged by era under blog, browser, erablog, quips, usability, w3c, 20060619-0123,