Web, Programming, Usability, etc.
The World Wild Web
Design, UI, CSS, etc… Everything that might go into a site.
Don’t Make Me Think: The Workshop, with Steve Krug – Notes and Opinions
Oct 4th
Chicago, September 30, 2005
Notes and Opinions
It’s unbelievably hard to get rid of all of the usability issues on a website. Our capacity for finding usability problems usually exceeds our resources for fixing them, so we’ve got to shoot for the biggest ones that affect the most people and try to keep ahead of the curve.
But how do you identify the biggest ones? What’s an expert’s opinion on the most important things to get right? How does that apply to my site? I went to this seminar with precisely these questions, and wasn’t disappointed.
Enterprise Information Architecture, with Louis Rosenfeld: Seminar Notes and Opinons
Oct 1st
Chicago, September 29, 2005
Notes and Opinions
The running definition of IA: “the art and science of structuring, organizing and labeling information to help people find and manage information.” However, it’s still impossible to distill a single definition that accurately describes IA, even among its experts.
Since I’m aware that my own track record with presenting information for public use is troubled, I signed up for this seminar to get some help. Since you might be in the same boat, I’m posting my notes for you to get a taste of what’s presented, too.
The Browser Test Limbo: How low can you go?
Jan 27th
I test in old browsers. Browsers so old there’s no expectation I’ll ever receive a visit from one.
At present, here’s a sampling of popular browser statistics:
| IE 6 | 65.5% |
| IE 5 | 4.4% |
| O 7 | 1.9% |
| Ffox | 19.2% |
| Moz | 4.0% |
| NN 4 | 0.3% |
| NN 7 | 1.1% |
(These stats were leeched from w3schools.com, since they get more traffic than I do, I’m sure)
IE4 and IE3 don’t even make the list. So why test in them? Easy: I’m obsessive/compulsive. And curious.
While I don’t care whatsoever if IE3/4/5 don’t get the visual goodies on a cool, simple, clean, wysiwyg editor, I do care if I’m writing sloppy JavaScript code. So I reported an error on that page that occurs in IE4, just to be thorough.
If it’s an easy fix, great: The Man In Blue can claim it’s backwards compatible all the way back through IE3.
If it’s not an easy fix, who cares? Nobody uses that browser anyway.
But still, I’d want to know about the error. Unlikely, it’s still possible some legacy software somewhere has an old imbedded component in it that would break on my code. If I can avoid that with minimal care, I’ll do it.
So to those who give crap to testing in old browsers: Go right ahead. I don’t mind.
But as I see it, professionalism incorporates at least looking at the extra mile, if not going there.
