Web Design World is coming soon (very soon) – October 18-20 in Las Vegas – and if you’ve never been before (or even if you have and want to attend this year), they have a great deal to pass along to you! I know it’s late in the game for #highered but I thought I would pass this along just in case.
First of all, Web Design World has a great line-up of rock stars in design, UX, content management and more. There will even be a session entitled “Education vs. Other Markets: How Does Design Differ?” with Patrick Haney and Dan Rubin. You can check out the full conference agenda at http://bit.ly/WDWAgenda.
The organizers of Web Design World are extending a special discount for the 3-day Web Design World Passport package – just for higher education web designers and webmasters! To save $400 off the Passport package rate, simply register at http://bit.ly/WDWReg and enter the promo code EDU10.* That’s it!
* Please note: $400 discount is applicable to new registrations only. No refunds will be given on prior registrations.
I just wanted to clarify that I am not attending Web Design World nor is this a paid endorsement. Just a friendly post about a discount that pertains to my favorite group, higher education web rock stars!
Someone checking for the same piece of information over and over again, like checking the same stock quotes or weather. Google uses cookies to help cater to mobile users who check and recheck the same data points.
Bored
Users who have time on their hands. People on trains or waiting in airports or sitting in cafes. Mobile users in this behavior group look a lot more like casual Web surfers, but mobile phones don’t offer the robust user input of a desktop, so the applications have to be tailored.
Urgent
Request to find something specific fast, like the location of a bakery or directions to the airport. Since a lot of these questions are location-aware, Google tries to build location into the mobile versions of these queries.
Keeping these three user types in context can really help shape your project. If your site doesn’t accomplish your users goals they likely won’t come back.
Even if you can use a mouse most of the time its easier to use a keyboard to fill out web forms. HTML has a nifty attribute called “tabindex” which allows the site creator to dictate how the user will navigate through the forms or links on the page.
The default tab order is usually enough, most forms are filled out linearly and browsers account for that. Sometimes developers get overzealous and add unnecessary tab orders, making the forms a nightmare to fill out.
I encountered one of these nightmare forms the other day. I went to write a letter to my representatives, and going through all the forms I eventually landed on this form. Long story short I started at the top and tabbed my way through it. But the fields led me in a crazy order.
Try to follow this maze
So what happened?
Half the fields had tabindex’s on them, while the other half did not, it made for a pretty unique experience. On Firefox atleast it loops through all the non-tabindexed fields first then hits the tabindexed fields. I used the Web Developer Toolbar to display the tabindex’s in yellow so you can see what I mean. Because these tab index’s were forced there was no way to move from the Prefix field to the First Name field without using a mouse.
The lesson here kids is to use only what you need. Don’t try to be user advanced technology when its not needed, you might just be frustrating more users than you help.
Using the right tabindex
For 99% of all web forms created it is a good idea just to ignore the tabindex attribute and let the order of the fields on the page handle how the user flows through the form. Especially if the form will have new fields or or change frequently, its just another thing to remember to do.
For those one in a million forms that you have to use tabindex my suggestion is to test, test and retest every time you change the form. It would be very easy to forget once and have a large group of frustrated users on your hands.
Working through technical issues, I changed my screen resolution to better match the HD requirements of some sites and I tried to buy a new mic at Target (We had gift certificates) but it totally sucked and didn’t work with my computer.
Anyways next episode and three new sites reviewed. Check them out and let me know what you think. Do you like the format? Is three sites too many? Not enough? I spend about 5 minutes on each site but it feels almost like I am rushing through a checklist of requirements for me to give it the thumbs up. I don’t want the show to become a checklist. Next episode I am going to try something new depending on your comments. So comment below or Twitter me.
I did not want to reveal the title for the new site till next episode but since it was taking waaay too long to re-encode the video without the title on it I thought what the heck why not let everyone know the name of the site. Enjoy.
In the last few posts I talked about my passion to critique higher education web sites via EduStyle.net. I decided to take it one step further and actually show you what I look for when reviewing these sites.
Again this is the first time I am doing this whole video thing, you actually get to see my mug. Kinda weird right? I was uncomfortable with it at first too.
Anyways here it goes, 15 minutes of fame, I might even do this again. Also I suggest you play the video in full screen to see the sites in greater detail.
