Web Usability

Welcome to the Web Usability section of Safalra’s Website. This section concentrates mainly on the usability of HTML on the internet, but some of the issues (such as opening new windows) are also relevant to other hypertext systems in other environments. If you’re really interested in usability on the internet, I recommend Jakob Nielsen’s excellent book, Designing Web Usability:

• Designing Web Usability at Amazon.com
• Designing Web Usability at Amazon.co.uk (for British readers)

This section contains the following pages:

• Common Web Browser Window Sizes

  Statistics on common web browser window sizes, widths, and heights

• Contact And Feedback Form Usability

  How to make a good contact or feedback form

• Opening New Browser Windows

  How to open new browser windows, and the usability problems this can cause

• HTML Code Hiding

  A website attempting to hide its HTML becomes inaccessible to 30% of its visitors, loses its ranking in search engines, and only delays crackers by seconds

• Scrolling Text In Web Pages

  The use of scrolling text in web pages is counterproductive — many users don’t notice it at all, and those that do are frustrated by it

• Default Radio Button Selection In HTML

  A group of radio buttons should always have one specified as selected

• Removing Link Underlines In HTML

  Link underlines can be removed using CSS, but this causes problems for visitors

• Removing Link Outlines In HTML

  There are two methods for removing the dotted rectangle from active links, but both make it difficult for visitors to move around the website

• Changing Link Colours In HTML

  How to change link colours in HTML, and problems to avoid

• Human Input Validation

  ‘Human Input Validation’ not only harms usability, but breaks anti-discrimination laws in many countries