CmapTools for concept mapping and OWL authoring
I’d be among the first to admit that, despite being a stickler for standards, sometimes I like to do things my own way. For use cases, I should be using UML but I take one look at the diagrams and I run for my life. For preparing ontologies, I should be writing OWL, but I end up [...] More about CmapTools for concept mapping and OWL authoring
Dreamweaver CS3 crashes and won’t start up again
Hey kids, this is definitely one of the weirdest bugs I have ever clapped eyes on, so to speak. Not for the first time, I was happily writing CSS and Dreamweaver CS3 crashed. The crash Something feels a little too familiar - this is DW after all - but I try to restart anyway: it’s 1am and I [...] More about Dreamweaver CS3 crashes and won’t start up again
Accessibility may affect feasibility of Sharepoint intranet
Microsoft’s Office Sharepoint Server 2007 clears up some problems with cosmetic improvements, but delivers enough new ones out-of-the-box to remain beyond the reach of assistive technology users. Significant development will be necessary to ensure a basic level of accessibility. More about Accessibility may affect feasibility of Sharepoint intranet
Good online editorial design
In this item, I will refer to “editorial design” as the refinement and optimisation content presentation for content-driven websites. Of course, editorial design for print predates the Internet and web designers may even take some cues from it, but this item is concerned only with the digital domain. More about Good online editorial design
Accessibility row over Better Connected 2007
A very public row broke out recently over a report concerning the results of a survey published by Socitm entitled Better Connected 2007, which surveyed the level of accessibility of 544 local authority websites. The brouhaha centred upon the methods employed by Socitm to generate metrics amounting to a thumbs up or down. The ink on the [...] More about Accessibility row over Better Connected 2007
Information Design library released!
I have arrived at a logical pause in my efforts to write an Information Design library, so in the current fashion I’m releasing it as a “beta”. Some time ago, I wrote in a post entitled “21st Century Job” that an Information Designer … “…makes sense of complex information and communicates it … so that information is [...] More about Information Design library released!
Accessibility and web applications
What AJAX isn’t, in this context Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a significant leap forward in computing technologies and on one side of the coin, for the first time the Internet looks capable of delivering on the promise it showed a decade ago. The flipside is that, during this time, the detritus of the [...] More about Accessibility and web applications
Human analogies and UI: the literal approach
Designers generally accept the HCI suggestion that human analogies can be useful in creating effective UI solutions. This is especially important when looking at graphical data overviews, or ‘dashboards’. Using a human analogy in UI design is to cross the bridge between two and three dimensions. We only need to look at icons to see how [...] More about Human analogies and UI: the literal approach
Languages and the public sector
I was asked earlier whether public bodies had a legal duty to publish content in foreign languages. Consult a specialist in Public or Administrative Law for a better opinion, but as far as I’m aware, apart from Welsh authorities whose requirement is statutory, public bodies govern communications policies by way of a publication scheme under the [...] More about Languages and the public sector
WCAG 2.0: clear as mud?
Joe Clark reports that WCAG 2.0, the product of five years’ hard labour by the WAI is a poor effort. The new raft of guidelines, set to become a standard shortly, closes none of the loopholes afforded by its predecessors whilst maintaining the infuriating trend of being unintelligible to most of its audience. Whilst much of the [...] More about WCAG 2.0: clear as mud?
