Though its purpose is to target web design guidelines for government websites, this publication has long been a resource for everyone.

Download free: Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines to view and print Guidelines Book by section

or buy the print version at the US Gov Bookstore for $25 US

This resource now contains 209 guidelines for effective Web design and usability and covers a wide range of Web site design issues, including home page design, page and site navigation, graphics and images, Web content organization, and effective Web content writing. Each guideline includes a “Strength of Evidence” rating that indicates how much research there is to support that guideline. It also includes a “Relative Importance” rating that shows how important that guideline is to the overall success of a Web site.

Free or affordable education is readily available for anyone who wants to build a website. It’s been this way since the Internet began delivering websites. Yet, if the instruction manuals are only a click away, why do we continue to see new websites that look ridiculous?

Desperation makes some people do unethical things like stealing content, brandnames, images and source code. Just as stealing from retail stores raises the costs for all of us, so too does the practice of ripping off someone else’s websites for your own personal gain.

I hate seeing something as genuine as a blog, whose one-time mission was self-expression from the heart, be degraded into a garbage pile of link bait schemes. I understand the motivation to rank and be found in search engines. But, the things that I value are honesty and integrity.

These two elements are hard to find on the Internet. For every purposefully designed and thought out website, there are 100 whose sole purpose is a quick revenue fix or support for ranking schemes.

I favor a good work ethic. If only search engines could tell the difference between a website where the owner worked hard to build it, and the one whose owner is too lazy to care about who finds it and tries to use it.

Cre8asiteforums’ Website Hospital is one of many web design oriented forums that offers website feedback. At Cre8asite, even Internet applications can be tested, at no charge. While this option is informal, it is also free. More importantly, people offer advice and even provide code, if needed, in these forums.

I’ve noticed that a website help request will garner more responses when the owner talks about the site, asks specific questions on where help is hoped for, and the site itself looks as though it has a strong purpose.

It’s not hard to tell the difference between a link drop and a genuine request for help, and yet I’m always amazed at how many people drop a link anyway. Sometimes the feedback they receive is negative. These posts are found in search engines. Where is the logic in purposely baiting negative site promotions?

SEO and User Centered Design

There’s, of course, the long running debate over which is more “important” - marketing a site in search engines or developing a site that people can use. Experienced professionals, having been around the block a few times, understand there is no debate. The two are equal priorities and they often seamlessly blend together .

I think that it comes down to a choice.

Website intentions are transparent on an Internet where millions of people, from around the globe, have access to your website. It takes only a few brief seconds to understand whether or not a website is worthy of their time.

People who use the Internet are patient people, often willing to put up with a lot of nonsense and confusion when they know there’s a real carrot to be found.

Indeed, they are much smarter these days. They can tell the difference between site owners that really care about their customers and visitors and those that don’t (or haven’t learned how to communicate this).

Ready to Invest a Bit of Time?

Here are some new finds and some old ones that you may have missed.

1. Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP: A Developer’s Guide to SEO. Pre-orders being taken by Amazon. Read more about it here.

2. SEM SEO Certification Blog, by David Temple. Education about the education.

3. The SEO Intern Training Programme offered by Fresh Egg requires that you get to the UK for the training. There are two ways to learn and interns learn from esteemed practitioners from the industry.

4. The Search Engine College is expanding and growing. In addition to search engine optimization and marketing courses, they offer a website usability self-study course that’s loaded with practical information and extremely affordable.

5. There are contests offered by companies worth keeping an eye out for. They may be free to join and the return is in the form of hands on learning opportunties. An excellent example is Marketing Pilgrim’s SEM Scholarship

6. Students may want to check into the Blogging Scholarship offered by Scholarships Around the US. It’s worth $5000.

7. Self-teaching options for website usability are available for anyone wanting immediate, actionable help such as How To Quench Your Website Visitors’ Thirst, 23 pages of information, checklists, tips, pointers, and resources to help you increase traffic, sales, subscriptions, and return visits or Ring Bell For Service, 80 Checkpoints to Improve Web Site Traffic, Sales and Usability.

8. If you don’t know what’s ailing your website, try website reviews that range from $1075 for in-depth help to $185 for a quick checkup of smaller websites.

9. Free Quick Kick-Start Guide to Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

10. Free Web Design From Scratch tutorials.

How many industries make it so easy and affordable to learn the tricks of the trade?

Update November 1, 2006. Thank you for making this blog post the first of mine that has ever gone past 2 Diggs.

For those following the case of website consumer against website retail, in this case, Target, for not being accessible for special needs visitors, a new article sparked some new discussion.

Called, Blind Web surfers sue Target: Suit alleges that the retailer’s Web site is inaccessible for visually impaired, the article’s angle is the viewpoint of blind users, who rely on screenreader software such as JAWS, to access websites.

The fact that the Target website made online purchasing difficult to impossible for a JAWS user brought on a lawsuit.

My irritiation with the coverage of this lawsuit is that it’s a marketing fiasco that is NOT reaching companies and corporations that really need to be paying attention. Unless presented with a business case, many people in management positions have their hands covering their ears, singing Iron Butterfly’s 17 minute long Inagaddadavida to themselves, rather than listening to their customers or clients.

In forums like Cre8asiteforums, where we’re discussing this topic (again), in Why Was Target The Only One?, those interested in accessibility are present and accountable. These forum posts are little more than us preaching to our own choir. We KNOW the situation and we KNOW standards compliancy is the logical route to take.

I feel that this lawsuit, while raising the issue of special needs web usage up several notches on the mainstream radar, is not finding its way to CEO’s, presidents, VP’s, department directors, managers and project managers. Companies that design, develop and sell software applications aren’t testing with blind users. They don’t consider a business case for carpal tunnel sufferers or MS sufferers who can’t use a mouse.

It’s not about who can buy earrings and toasters from Target, or not. It’s not about whether JAWS struggles with mangled up code. Websites that do work are a click away.

It’s whether or not companies are united in the belief that the Internet is a global medium, or just limited to whatever was agreed on during that 9am coffee and donuts meeting last Tuesday. If the potential for a lawsuit is not making a dent in corporate-speak, what will?

Target apparently feels they don’t need to be Section 508 or Accessibility standards compliant because they believe the Americans With Disabilities Act law only covers physical spaces.

A physical space, in today’s world, is no longer something you arrive at by a transport vehicle. To my way of thinking, my house with my computer that can take me to an online order website IS a physical space, regardless of whether or not I can see the order form or use a mouse to access it.

Has no one been reading the statistics on the age of the USA population? (It may be similar outside the US too.) The number of older computer users is escalating and along with them, physical ailments that begin to make using computers difficult. Not preparing for them is a huge mistake.

Finally, accessibility is far bigger in outreach than the narrow viewpoint the news media forces it into. Software that records websites for audio playback later is a huge boon for a busy society that finds little time for reading but can listen instead. Those who have trouble reading, can’t stay focused or suffer from mild forms of seeing impairment all benefit from sound recordings. Websites that are coded for audio usage are smart.

The Target lawsuit and others like it are getting the word out, but their voices are not loud enough to be heard by decision makers, who need to be listening and taking immediate action. We don’t have time for court cases.

Lawsuits are simply not somebody else’s problem anymore.

As fast as technological advances have taken us to a new age of promotion and entertainment, there’s much to be learned from a mysterious, intelligent bowling ball chained around the marketing industry’s ankles. Rather than presenting a heavy burden, this bowling ball is green, enthusiastic and growing larger every day, thanks to companies like digital-telepathy, a digital marketing agency.

Based in San Diego, California, digital-telepathy’s (aka “dt”) approach to internet marketing “goes beyond branding and traditional marketing, by connecting with customers through their values and emotions.”

What comes to my mind, when I hear this, is the new commercial from Dove called The Campaign for Real Beauty. It’s about time marketing went beyond stereotypes. Dove’s campaign targets our perception of beauty. digital-telepathy, through its green approach to working with clients, is a refreshing option for businesses who want to be socially responsible and planet friendly in their marketing and business planning.

A discussion with dt’s Marketing Director, BJ Cook, about their “green think tank” sparked my interest in interviewing him and the company’s founder and president, Chuck Longanecker.

Launched in 2000, dt is evolving and adapting to client needs and current marketing trends. This growing company offers an exceptional example of a corporate blog, called digital-telepathy Internet Marketing Strategy & News. Their devotion to education and passion for the environment are notable in their playful Green Love Tour. They get down to business with a clean and simple corporate site, digital-telepathy, Inc.

I’m proud to introduce you to Chuck and BJ, as well as Arnold Yoon, Operations Manager at dt. Grab a comfortable chair and a cup of green tea, while I inquire about this “green” way of doing business.

Kim: What is “green marketing”?

(Continue reading…)

Some 10 US cities got to see advertising the rest of us won’t get to, and maybe we could care less. According to the IEBlog, mobile billboards chugged around announcing the arrival of IE7. The billboard states “Download with Confidence”.

I thought it rather daring of Tony Chor, Group Program Manager, to write :

If you haven’t tested your website with IE7 yet, please use the tools Scott posted about a few weeks ago to help you prepare.

We have to prepare for hurricanes, marriage and dinner with the family during the holidays.

Why in heaven’s name must we prepare for a new browser?