Everyone has their own way. I’ve been around many development environments and witnessed or experienced the blood, sweat and tears borne by the web development team. Sometimes it feels they get no support or respect.

Someone came to Cre8asiteforums, a community largely made up of search engine marketing practitioners, asking for Your 10 Rules To Follow To Ensure Usability.

I was wondering members’ views on what their 10 definite rules would be to ensure, or at least strive for, good usability. I’m not talking about Nielsen’s heuristics etc. I mean 10 (current and relevant) easy to follow, actionable points that the general developer could follow.

Because he asked for the non-heuristics side, not wanting a re-hash of the zillion lists you see around the Internet on “Top 10 Things to Do To Make Your Website Usable”, we were able to have a different kind of conversation. The responses ignored link colors and font sizes.

Examples:

Unless specifically directed otherwise I develop with the goal to have 100% functionality without having to rely on:

* CSS
* client-side scripting (JavaScript etc)
* plugins

Usability doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s not just your site’s usability. Users are comparing your site against the easiest sites they’ve used …even if they are not in your industry or developed by a much bigger company.

I took the liberty of having a little fun with it:

1. Ignore everything everybody ever told you about what you SHOULD do.

2. Start all over and work out the top business requirement for building it. Hold onto it for dear life. Make every function, every link, every sentence and every breath a page takes traceable back to the original business requirements. This will support you when stakeholders start begging and flirting with you about the cool things they hope you slip in there for them. Just Say No.

3. Decide who it is for and design it for them. Don’t pick the least common denominator. Understand your users and build it for them.

4. Show the mockups to everybody before you begin to code. Walk up to strangers. Ask them for feedback. They may not be your target visitor but they may use the web.

5. Test during the code phase. Regression test every time you add something new. That also means testing designs and functionality on browsers and mobile devices.

6. When you get to Alpha or Beta stage, run it through validation tests for standards and accessibility. Do this now, not later. Keep checking after every code freeze or “I think this page is done” moment.

7. Never ever put up moving things that cover up anything or keep moving without a way to stop it.

8. Put a way to contact you on the site, so you know what’s not working.

9. Do something with it. If you can’t finish a task, neither can anyone else. Accept that everybody will conduct that task differently than you do and how you coded it to function. Have a swig of beer, swallow your pride and polish it up.

10. Usability begins while the site is still in the womb, not after its born. Code as if you’re in labor. You are.

You’re welcome to visit and read the thread to see more responses, or join in and add your own.

Special thanks to Jim Hedger for his coverage of the recent hoopla on Usability and SEO.

The rumors that “SEO is Dead” prompted Jake Lowrey of OffSiteOptimization to interview SEO’s about life without search engines and the future of search marketing. The series starts off with answers to his questions from me, an SEO escape artist.

No Search Engines? Kim Krause Berg Says, ‘Go Local’ delves into my take on the topic.

Here’s a quick snippet from the article:

“Over the next year or two Kim would like to see the industry strive for more excellence and professionalism.

‘SEO/M is a vital part of the web design and marketing food chain,’ she said, adding that sometimes it appears as though that is not taken seriously.

‘The SEO industry is still viewed as a bunch of wild, free-spirited folks who like nothing better than competing and playing head games with data and rank,” she said. “What isn’t communicated well, yet, is how smart these people are and how valuable the experienced ones are to a company that wants to be found quickly in search engines.’”

As an occasional Search Engine Strategies Conference Reporter for SearchEngineRoundTable , I can choose the topics I want to cover. I purposely combine topics I know something about, such as SEO and Usability, with areas I have no skills or knowledge about. This keeps me learning while I’m working.

In New York last April, I chose AJAX and SEO because it was new to me. Far too new, frankly. I did my best to cover CSS, AJAX, Web 2.0 & Search Engines for the blog, but didn’t do it justice. Much of that could be attributed to what I later realized was a presentation designed for attendees who are already developing with AJAX.

Fortunately I came away from that session intrigued and have kept my eyes out for good sources of information someone at my level might understand.

Rich McIver, from SoftwareDeveloper.com, came through by sending me a heads up for How to: Get Google and AJAX to Play Nice: The best ways to incorporate the benefits of AJAX without making your site blind to search engines.

From the first page:

AJAX allows you to incorporate a lot of innovative site design characteristics. Some designers take the AJAX craze too far, however, by incorporating AJAX to a degree that it hurts their site’s usability and accessibility.

As I read along, I had in mind the recent discussions at Cre8asiteforums on WCAG Samurai Errata for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0.

Now, I have even more questions related to AJAX and Accessibility.

The article provides brief information on sitemaps, noscript, Hijax and links to White Papers on the topic for further help.

This month marks the next stop in the long running High Rankings Search Engine Marketing Seminars, as they set up in Denver, Colorado for a 2-day comprehensive study of organic search engine optimization and marketing techniques, June 28 - 29.

Geared towards small and medium businesses in a more intimate setting, the talks and workshops cover keyword research, design issues, copywriting, link popularity, and more. The Denver seminar introduces the popular Jennifer Laycock, for her debut with High Rankings, as she speaks on social media marketing.

In addition, Mike Churchill is presenting the topic of web analytics, substituting for Matt Bailey. Some of you may be familiar with his wife, Christine, who is also presenting at the seminar.

Two seats are being offered, at no charge, to non-profit organizations. You’re invited to submit information to the High Rankings team by June 15. The two chosen non-profits will be provided with their passes by June 20.

Jill Whalen and her team of speakers are approachable, lively, funny and expertly deliver information, techniques, examples and even an entire workbook for attendees to take home containing everything they’ve heard in the talks. The second day workshops are perfect for hands on work and applying what’s being taught to your own web site. There’s no waiting to get home! Attendees are encouraged to take advantage of their time to get as much help as possible for their websites, directly from experienced presenters.

There’s still time to register and use your code word, “CRE8PC” to obtain a 25% discount off the total fee.

Read everything you need to know about the High Rankings Search Engine Marketing Seminar or catch my Bringing Search Engine Marketing to Your Business Doorstep: Jill and Pauline on SEMNE interview. Read an inside testimonial of What a High Rankings Search Engine Marketing Seminar is Really Like for more details on the seminar experience.

SiteLogic’s Matt Bailey, while in Boston delivering a presentation at the Direct Marketing Association’s ACCM conference, managed to sum up three basic SEO truths (he calls them “mistakes”) into an article and as an added bonus, tossed in a 48 page power point presentation as well. He’s posted the whole party in The Basics of Search Engine Optimization.

I’d tell you what the 3 biggest SEO mistakes are that businesses make, but that would totally ruin the fun. Go see for yourself.

And Matt? You’re allowed to sleep once in awhile.