As primary tools in the usability field, heuristic or expert evaluations can be rich areas for methods studies and improvement. Early results of one methods study suggest that performing evaluations in limited segments, with breaks between each segment, may increase the effectiveness of the evaluator in identifying usability problems.
Read MoreIn addition to having some insightful professionals and academics as our audience, I know that there are readers who are new to the field or interested in entering the field. Sometimes, we discuss some fairly in depth issues about practice and methodology while other times, we’re talking about the impact of technologies on our designs. One thing we don’t do enough I think, is write something more geared towards the newer readers.
Here are some considerations and steps I usually take when I’m moderating a usability test. For those who are experienced, I encourage you to add your thoughts. For those of you who are learning, I encourage you to ask questions of the other readers here. This article does not discuss the screening for candidates, setting up the test scenarios, nor the reporting of the data. If this type of article is helpful to you, do let us know and we’ll do more of them.
Read MoreSo you have a blog, and you're worried that it might not be accessible to people with disabilities? Don't worry! A few simple changes can increase your blog's potential readership.
Read MoreAlthough the concept isn't entirely new, XMLHttpRequest technology is implemented on more sites now than ever. Compatibility is no longer an issue (IE, Mozilla and Opera all support it), and the benefits to using it are amazing. There are too many PHP programmers avoiding any work with javascript beyond simple form validation, and for good reason. It's difficult to keep several languages proficiently under your belt. But using the XMLHttpRequest object is not as hard as everybody thinks, and you don't need to buy and memorize another reference manual.
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, or AJAX is a method of sending and receiving data (usually XML) from a server-side application through javascript. Since javascript offers the ability to change the contents of a web page on-the-fly, this technique allows web programmers to venture closer to programming truly interactive web applications similar to those built with Java and ActiveX.
Read MoreMost users concentrate on MySQL's databases and tables — after all, that's where most of the action takes place — and they don't usually look deeper to understand how it handles access privileges, passwords, and security. This approach is usually more than adequate for most development activities — unless you happen to be a database administrator whose job involves setting up and securing the databases against unauthorized usage or malicious mischief.
With that in mind, this chapter examines the MySQL access control system and throws some light on the MySQL grant tables. These tables, which are an integral part of the server's security system, offer database administrators a great deal of power and flexibility in deciding the rules that govern access to the system. Additionally, this chapter also discusses the management of user accounts and passwords in the MySQL access control system, explaining how passwords (especially the all-important root password) can be modified and how to reset a lost superuser password.
Read MoreDoes the Loch Ness monster exist? Were all those crop circles really the work of some drunken college students? How about that whole "aliens helped the Egyptians build the Pyramids of Giza" thing? Myths abound; some are passed down from generation to generation while others are more suited to the tabloids.
There's no shortage of myths in the corporate world either — most of which are based on a lack of understanding. Over the years I've received many e-mails from readers with some pretty wild, and even dangerous, misconceptions about intranet development and management. In this article I'll take a look at five of these common intranet myths.
Read MoreThis article deals with the display of tree-structures that are driven by a database. There are actually a few approaches to transform a 2-dimensional structure into a tree, and it seems odd that most are unknown to many developers.
The most obvious approach is using the parent-ID as a back-reference for recursion. But then what happens if the tree-structure gets a bit bigger? How about 5 childnodes and a depth of 5 levels? Well, suddenly you end up with 52 database requests and your application becomes incredibly slow... That's why we're just about to bin the idea of using the parent-ID!
Read MoreMany desktop applications have user interface controls that allow a user to find matches for things as they type. This feature can be very useful for long lists of items such as states, countries, streets or product categories. Many web browsers implement this sort of functionality in their address bars. As you type, web site address matches that are part of a list of recently visited sites appear in a menu below the address bar. This reduces the amount of time it takes to access information.
Another place this is implemented is in HTML select menus. Unfortunately this only works with the first letter typed, it is not implemented in all browsers on all platforms and it doesn't shorten the list of choices to only matches.
Check also DMXzone's own Ajax AutoComplete Dreamweaver extension to get field auto completion right out of the box!
Firefox's built-in search box lets you search Google from wherever you are. You don't have to settle for that built-in searching, though, because you can build your own Firefox search engine plug-in to search through any site from the Google search box.
Read MoreThe biggest challenge for Web Designers is the unthinkably huge number of possible ways to solve any given problem. We usually don't think of this because we have our habits and traditions to fall back on, but there are literally billions of possible pixel combinations for each page we make.
There is a better way to manage this vast complexity than by making big decisions up front and hoping for the best. To make better sites — sites that are functional, beautiful, and "usable" — we have to break our design problems up into small independent chunks based on the real issues within our requirements. Christopher Alexander, who came up with this stuff, calls these chunks patterns.
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