Web Usability, User Interface Design, Web Design And Development

Web Usability Books / User Interface Design Books

• Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability - People won't use your web site if they can't find their way around it. Whether you call it usability, ease-of-use, or just good design, companies staking their fortunes and their futures on their Web sites
  
  
  are starting to recognize that it's a bottom-line issue. In Don't Make Me Think, usability expert Steve Krug distills his years of experience and observation into clear, practical--and often amusing--common sense advice for the people in the trenches (the designers, programmers, writers, editors, and Webmasters), the people who tell them what to do (project managers, business planners, and marketing people), and even the people who sign the checks.
• Prioritizing Web Usability - Prioritizing Web Usability is the guide for anyone who wants to take their Web site(s) to next level and make usability a priority! Through the authors’ wisdom, experience, and hundreds of real-world user tests and contemporary Web site critiques, you’ll learn about site design, user experience and usability testing, navigation and search capabilities, old guidelines and prioritizing usability issues, page design and layout, content design, and more!
• Designing Web Usability : The Practice of Simplicity
  
  
  - Cross-platform design, response time considerations, writing for the Web, multimedia implementation, navigation strategies, search boxes, corporate intranet design, accessibility for disabled users, international considerations, and future predictions.
• Site-Seeing: A Visual Approach to Web Usability - Site-Seeing takes a fresh approach to Web usability by applying visual communication principles and decision-making to Web design. Specifically, readers will learn the key concepts behind visual organization, look and feel, technical considerations, and clear planning that stem from audience awareness. Through numerous, full-color examples author Luke Wroblewski deconstructs "the good, the bad, and the ugly" of Web design.

Web Usability / Web Design Tips

• Fast Response Time - less than 15 seconds
• Check for Cross browser compatibilty - I use Internet Explorer, FireFox and Opera. My thumb rule - If site looks good in firefox - it'll work with other browsers
• Use pop-ups only when absolutely necessary - for e.g. for collecting email addresses for opt-in lists
• Less JavaScript
• No 'click here' links - Give some meaningful caption
• No misleading information
• Visible Text - proper size - It shouldn't strain user eyes
• No annoying background music / No fade-in fade out effects
• Don't fix the size of the text - allow users to increase / decrease
• Don't make page to look like it's your first webpage
• Open PDF files in new windows
• Proper navigation support
• Useless and outdated information
• Group information properly.