Web Usability - Key Issues

accessibility
- platform/browser assumptions
- physical assumptions (sight/hearing)
- font sizes
- colour schemes - remember:
  - colour blindness (~8% of male population)
  - contrast
- The web allows the user to customize the display
- Don't take that away:
  - No text in images (can't be resized, or handled by a screen reader)
  - Tables should be relative, not fixed size
  - Fonts should be relative sizes, not fixed
readability
- Basic Psychology - what do you want users to focus on?
- Minimize Distractions such as:
  - Animation next to text
  - Unrelated images or sound
  - Page clutter
  - Changing styles (fonts, colours, backgrounds, etc)
download speed
spell-checking & proofreading
Standards
- Only use non-standards when you absolutely have to
- eg. Link colours (new links, visited links), button design...
Answer the fundamental questions:
- What does the user want from your page?
- What do you want the user to get from your page?