Improving The Age site search field usability in 5 minutes
Jun 4, 06:53 AM CommentDespite being someone who uses the web daily (and a regular reader of The Age) I find myself getting caught-out by the design of their site search every time. Here’s how I’d tweak the design to improve it’s usability in 5 minutes.
The Age website search field causes me to pause for a second every time I use it. It’s not a huge issue and the system works perfectly satisfactorily (the search results could do with some fine-tuning, but that’s another story) but for some reason the design of the search text-entry field defies convention and bears more of a resemblance to a ‘raised’ drop-down style form component than the usual ‘recessed’ text field. This, coupled with the fact that the button is joined to the text field, doesn’t look like any other buttons across the site and is all placed below the main navigation always seems to catch me out and make me have to think for a second before proceeding.
The existing Age search field is ‘raised’, and bears more of a resemblance to a drop-down style form component than the usual ‘recessed’ text field
Instead, I’d suggest The Age redesign their search field to look ‘recessed’, in alignment with the current convention for text fields. Leaving the standard formatting would be preferred, but if they really had to override this with an image, at least make it look similar and not like form elements with different functionality. In addition I’d recommend they move the button a little further to the right so that it does not appear to be a single element.
Rearranging page code & advanced CSS techniques to improve SEO
Sep 8, 02:37 PM | Comment [1]I was conducting a review of some XHTML and CSS templates for a client recently when I came across an interesting SEO concept that I hadn’t heard of before. At first I was skeptical (and I still am a little), but upon closer inspection I started thinking that there could be something it it. Not only in terms of SEO, but accessibility too. The articles I found describing this technique date back to 2004/5 and the fact that I’ve not found anything more recent on the subject just further fuels my skepticism. Anyway – I thought I’d post my discovery here and see what the wider web design world had to comment…
So what is it? Well, the idea is this: Rather than structuring your HTML in the usual order of header/navigation, content and footer, you build the pages such that the main content appears first, with the navigation and footer underneath. Then, using CSS to style the page you pull the navigation/header back up to appear above the content when viewed in a browser.
Darebin libraries website
Jun 13, 03:35 PM CommentHaving experienced many online offerings from local governments and local councils in the past, as well as having worked for a few, I had pretty much resigned myself to accepting that most are going to be rubbish in terms of antiquated code using tables for layout and inline styles, bad interface design, little or no regard for usability or accessibility and, more often than not containing outdated content.
Whatever the reasons for this, be it that the website is perhaps considered a low priority, that there’s no dedicated resource allocated to the website or that it’s simply too hard to get people to agree to a redesign, the sites’ users seem destined to lose-out.
BTD quiz #2: Usability issues resulting from a staggered web application release
May 14, 12:14 PM | Comment [3]Here’s another little usability conundrum for all you user experience designers out there. This question was asked of me recently while designing an online transactional web application for a company here in Melbourne and I’d like to hear any suggestions you may have about how best to tackle this issue…
The client wanted to release their shiny new web app as soon as possible. The reasons for this from a business point of view were obvious, not least to get to market first ahead of the competition! In order to do this however, the plan meant releasing a basic version of the app with a limited feature-set first, with the intention of releasing updates over time, adding features within various sections of the application.
Google local business listing problems
May 8, 10:56 AM | Comment [2]I recently set up a local business listing for myself in Google to both help my customers find me and improve the SEO of my site.
It works really well and if you do a search for “Web Designer Melbourne” up I pop.
Work update
Mar 25, 12:18 PM | Comment [1]I just realised it’s been a really long time since I updated the portfolio section of this site. Not without good reason though, and it’s not because I’ve been slacking off and enjoying the Melbourne sunshine (the chance would be a fine thing). It’s because most of the projects I’ve worked on of late have either been internal web applications (so not available for public consumption) or have not gone live yet. As such I don’t want to publish anything visual just at the minute, partly because I’m not really allowed to in some cases but also because I don’t want to spoil the launches for my clients.
That said, I’m enormously proud of some of the things I’ve been working on of late so I wanted to share some of the more notable pieces to give some insight on what I’ve been up to:
Lessons learned from Gordon Ramsay
Mar 22, 03:29 PM | Comment [1]I’ve been loving Gordon Ramsay’s kitchen nightmares series’ (the British ones were much better than the American ones – much less ‘reality TV’ shenanigans).
Each week Ramsay helps a struggling restaurant to turn things around, always with the same basic method of combining determination, attitude and drive with keeping things simple, manageable and meaningful to the customers.
Target accessibility lawsuit given class action
Oct 9, 01:27 PM CommentThe legal case against Target in the US has been in the headlines again this week as a federal judge in has just granted “class action status” to the lawsuit.
Like many in the web industry, I have been aware of this case since it first came to light back in early 2006 (when a 24-year-old student, along with the American National Federation for the Blind filed the suit, alleging the Target Corporation is breaking the law by failing to make its website accessible and usable for the blind), but I wasn’t too clear on what this recent “class action status” meant, and what the ramifications might be.
BTD quiz: 3 Approaches to the same usability design problem
Sep 2, 09:59 PM | Comment [4]I am currently in the middle of designing a transactional web application that, amongst other things, will enable users to run reports on a number of accounts, and conduct searches of other site users.
In developing the wire-frames and projected work-flow for the site I have encountered a little usability problem that, while I imagine it is a common issue, I have not been able to find any writings regarding it’s best-practice solution anywhere on the web. As such I thought I’d post the problem here in a similar vein to Dan’s simple quiz series. I think I have my answer, but I wanted to share the problem with you to provoke some discussion in an effort to establish the best approach.