Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Right-Justified Navigation Menus Impede Scannability (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

Right-Justified Navigation Menus Impede Scannability (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox): "8 hours after posting this article, I got email from the University of Michigan design team that they had redesigned their navigation menu. Fast work.

Redesigned navigation menu from the University of Michigan.8 hours after posting this article, I got email from the University of Michigan design team that they had redesigned their navigation menu. Fast work.

Redesigned navigation menu from the University of Michigan.
U. Michigan's old (left) and new (right) nav menus.

Usually, I don't update my articles just because somebody redesigns a website I criticized. After all, any site I mention is only used as an example of a larger principle and the critique of any specific design choice is still valid, whether or not the mistake is live on one particular site. But fixing a usability problem the same day is unusual, and also allows me to show you the above screenshot of the improved menu. I think you'll agree that it's much easier to read than the earlier design."

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, April 28, 2008:

Right-Justified Navigation Menus Impede Scannability

Summary:
Users scan lists by moving their eyes rapidly down the left edge. Menu items that are right-aligned make scanning more difficult.

study his site useit.com: Jakob Nielsen on Usability and Web Design

Monday, April 21, 2008

Technical Articles on Genealogy Websites

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Document Object Model

Document Object Model - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "(DOM) is a platform- and language-independent standard object model for representing HTML or XML and related formats.

A web browser is not obliged to use DOM in order to render an HTML document. However, the DOM is required by JavaScript scripts that wish to inspect or modify a web page dynamically. In other words, the Document Object Model is the way JavaScript sees its containing HTML page and browser state.

Because the DOM supports navigation in any direction (e.g., parent and previous sibling) and allows for arbitrary modifications, an implementation must at least buffer the document that has been read so far (or some parsed form of it). Hence the DOM is likely to be best suited for applications where the document must be accessed repeatedly or out of sequence order. If the application is strictly sequential and one-pass, the SAX model is likely to be faster and use less memory. In addition, non-extractive XML parsing models, such as VTD-XML, provide a new memory-efficient option."

DOM Inspector - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "DOM Inspector (DOMi) is one of the web developer tools included in Mozilla Application Suite and Mozilla Firefox. Its main purpose is to inspect the Document Object Model (DOM) tree of HTML and XML-based documents.

A DOM node can be selected from the tree structure, or by clicking on the browser chrome. Besides DOM node, other views are also available, including box model, XBL bindings, CSS style rules, computed styles, and JavaScript objects. Document stylesheets and JavaScript objects can also be selected from the tree. The active element is highlighted with blinking red border, which is helpful in 'debugging' CSS.

Other than inspecting, editing is also possible, though not via a rich text interface."

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Sonderzeichen

Sonderzeichen: "Ø and many other

HTML - Special Codes:

"

Friday, April 11, 2008

RootsWeb.com - Find Answers RootsWeb.com - (Page 1 of 2)

RootsWeb.com - Find Answers RootsWeb.com - (Page 1 of 2)

Uploading web account pages


Question

How do I upload pages to my web account?

Answer

Once you have created your web pages, you must upload them to the server so the rest of the world can see them. There are several types of programs that can be used to upload files. If you create them online in the Online Editor you automatically upload them when you "save" them in the Editor. Other HTML Editors you may include an upload utility as part of the program. Consult the documentation for the program you are using.

Many current browsers support file uploads and include a File Transfer Protocol (FTP). FTP is a special type of connection that allows you to transfer (copy) files from your computer to a server such as RootsWeb. You can upload files to the server as well as download from the server to your computer. General instructions for uploading to the Freepages server using your browser are available by clicking here. Consult your browser documentation for instructions specific to your browser and the version you are using. If your Web account is not located on the Freepages server, modify the ftp:// address in the instructions to reflect the location of your account.

Frames Suck Most of the Time (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox December 1996)

Frames Suck Most of the Time (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox December 1996): "Part of the genius of Tim Berners-Lee's original design of the Web was a total unification of several concepts in a single idea, the page:

* the user's view of the information on the screen
* the unit of navigation (what you get when you click a link or activate a navigation action like a bookmark)
* a textual address used to retrieve information over the net (the URL)
* the storage of the information on the server and the author's editing unit (except if using embedded objects like image files which do require the author to manage multiple files for a page)

The fundamental design of the Web is based on having the page as the atomic unit of information, and the notion of the page permeates all aspects of the Web. The simplicity of the original Web contributed to its ease of use and its rapid uptake."

World's Worst Website