UX Designer vs UI Designer

What is UX Design?

How to Keep Customers Focused on Your Website

“Try reading a book while doing a crossword puzzle. That’s the intellectual environment of the Internet.”

In his book, “The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing to Our Brains,” Nicholas Carr describes what we have long suspected--that our use of the Internet is creating neurological changes in the brain, affecting our ability to remember facts, or pay attention long enough to fully understand what we read.

Now, what was that again?

Though many disagree with Carr, the research he cites in his book has important implications for content creation. Among the findings:

• The more links there are in an article, the lower the comprehension of the reader. This may be because readers devote more of their attention to evaluating links and deciding whether to click them.
• Readers of hypertext click through pages rather than reading them carefully. Worse, readers of hypertext could not remember what they had read or not read.
• People watching a CNN news story retained far more information without the headlines scrolling at the bottom of the screen.
• Users click instead of reading and finding answers. Study participants who searched for answers to questions in print did better than those searching for answers on Web pages.

Does your content distract and overtax your readers? Are your messages too long and complex? Can your visitors find the information they need quickly? How do you engage users who are “clicking instead of concentrating”?

• Keep in mind that less is often more on the Web. Eliminate distracting site features such as flash animation or scrolling text.
• Make copy easy to scan with subheads and bullets.
• Use site navigation to break your information into shorter pages.
• Make hyperlinks more descriptive. Don’t tell readers to “Read more”; tell them what they will read if they click.
• Write website content in a conversational, less formal tone.
• Get to the point in the first words. Don’t expect readers to read a long introductory paragraph.
• Use adjectives, hyperbole, corporate-speak, and jargon sparingly.
• Consider using video to communicate more complex information.

BY LAURA HALE BROCKWAY  | entrepreneur.com | more info: 

W3C Adds Time Element Back to HTML5

If HTML5 editor Ian Hickson’s recent decision to remove the  element from the HTML5 specification left you scratching your head, you’re not alone. The W3C, the group that oversees HTML5, feels the same way and have stepped in to override Hickson’s earlier decision to remove the widely used element from the HTML5 spec. That means is once again part of HTML5.

There’s a hint of friction in W3C member Paul Cotton’s post to the HTML Working Group, suggesting that the W3C feels Hickson overstepped his bounds in removing . “Therefore we direct the HTML5 Editor to NOT process this bug further,” writes Cotton, who goes on to say that the  element will be reinstated to the spec by Nov. 8.

The HTML WG wants, ahem, more time to hash out. It’s unclear exactly what this means for the WHATWG version of the HTML5 spec (see our article onthe Difference Between the WHATWG and the HTML WG), but the W3C’s new love for time should be welcome news for web developers who’ve already deployed  on their sites.

While Hickson’s move to toss time out was probably premature, there are nevertheless some problems with . The  element offers the ability to add semantic meaning to pages by marking up dates and other time data, but not all use cases have been covered and some gray areas still exist. For example, the code 2:30 could refer to a time of day or perhaps the length of a movie. Both are theoretically valid uses and figuring out the details and the various potential use cases, is exactly what the HTML WG wants more time to do.

In the minutes from the last HTML WG meeting developer Tantek Çelik, makes the case for re-instating  just as it was, but also adding several new capabilities. Çelik suggests accounting for use cases like a  tag with only a year (commonly used on sites like Wikipedia or for copyright), and also for using  with only a day and month, commonly used when specifying dates like Christmas — 12/25 or 25/12, depending on where you live. Still to be decided are use cases like duration and some details around time zones.

Like the rest of HTML5,  remains a work in progress. Now that it’s once again a part of the HTML5 spec that work can resume and those who are already using  in some of its well-established roles can breathe easier.

Source: Scott Gilbertson

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