I know this blog has been officially “dead” for a long while, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I now have a new personal web site that’s quite different.

The new site is more of a hub for my online activities, so check it out if you’re interested in what I’m doing next. The new site is aldubayan.com.

Please note that this post (obviously) means that I will not update this site anymore.

So, check out InterfaceFix, and, if possible, let me know what you think. I appreciate any kind of feedback.

And don’t forget to subscribe to the blog’s feed. If your site(s) usability concerns you (and it should) , you will definitely find it helpful.

The web site will initially be a blog that contains articles revolving around web usability and information architecture. Its aim is to promote this field, and help people make their web sites and applications easier to use. What will make it different from the few other usability blogs is that it will target anyone who works on a web site - from owners to developers. Which means that most posts wouldn’t require you to have any background knowledge in this area, and will hopefully be enjoyable to read.

I’ve done my best to avoid all the issues I’ve encountered with this site (i.e: web in mind), from the design to the posting frequency (which is once or twice a week minimum by the way), so the new web site will be better in terms of overall quality.

Once I release the site, I will write a few posts there, send the link to a few people for feedback before letting anyone else know about it. So, if you’re interested in this topic, and would like to help, please contact me and let me know.

If you have any suggestions or things you’d like to see or learn about, please let me know. I’d really appreciate it.

What you will learn:

How to write for the web, and structure your contents in a way that increases its usability and effectiveness.

Prerequisites:

Nothing besides being familiar with the web.

Target Audience:

People who own, manage, design or develop web sites - not just web writers. However, if you’re a web writer (or if you’re involved in web writing), then you’ll benefit most of this book.

Clarity:

Very easy to understand. Full-color screen shots and examples. Everything taught makes sense and is often backed up by either example or research.

The Good:

• Simple presentation with colorful examples.
• Inspirational topics and guidelines.
• Great resources on various usability-related topics (links, books, researches..etc).
• Practical and entertaining material.

The Bad:

Couldn’t find any. I was very pleased with every thing I got from this book.

Bottom line:

This book is a must-read and worth every cent it costs. Just as Steve Krug’s book Don’t Make Me Think is considered THE book for layout usability, this one is probably the book for copy usability.

Podcast:

TWIT (This Week In Tech). A podcast on everything technology-related.

Why?

Perhaps because it’s the only tech podcast I’ve listened to that’s actually funny and interesting. Oh, and John C. Dvorak. I love that guy’s honesty and sense of humor.

Podcast (Video):

Diggnation. A podcast where two dudes (the owners of digg.com) discuss some of the most popular stories submitted to their web site.

Why?

It’s pretty hilarious. And what I especially like is that it’s not scripted like so many video podcasts (vidcasts?) on the internet.

Blog:

LifeHacker. A blog that offers productivity tips and a plenty of useful hacks.

Why?

I’ve learned so much software and personal improvement tips that helped increase my productivity this year, which made it my personal favorite.

Service:

10 minute email. A site that makes you a random e-mail to use for 10 minutes.

Why?

Basically, it allowed me to view the contents of tons of web sites that require free subscription without exposing my real e-mail.

Software:

Firefox.

Why?

Despite all its great features, the add-ons alone makes the most useful thing in my PC.

Firefox Add-on:

Adblock plus with Filterset.G update. A Firefox add-on that blocks web ads.

Why?

Because I get to serve the web without around 95% of the ads.

Gagdet:

A Jailbroken iPod Touch.

Why?

When an iPod Touch/iPhone is Jailbroken (aka: Hacked), you get an installer that allows you to install tons of different applications on it - all kinds of applications: games, money management, IM clients, and even web servers!.

Book:

The 7 Habit of Highly Effective People. A very popular book talking about personal success.

Why?

It’s probably the only self-improvement book that offers practical solutions based on things we already know. So it’s crap-free. And it really works.

Videogame:

Warhawk. An online war game on PlayStation 3.

Why?

Almost perfectly balanced online play. Multiple vehicles and lots of interesting weapons. Very addictive gameplay. I would buy a PS3 just for this game if I didn’t have it already.

Those were the things that stood out this year, and really made a difference - whether it’s entertaining me, educating me or just making what I do easier. If you haven’t checked any of those, I highly recommend that you do. Especially the jailbroken iPod Touch/iPhone, that’s just too awesome to pass.

What you will learn:

A plenty of guidelines that will help you improve the usability and accessibility of your website. Most of the book is about usability though.

Prerequisites:

Nothing besides being familiar with the web.

Target Audience:

People who own, manage, design or develop web sites. If you have a good background in usability, then you might not find anything new here.

Clarity:

The guidelines are very simple. Most guidelines come with an example (graphical, mostly) to make things even clearer.

The Good:

• Simple, straight to the point presentation with colorful examples.

• Accompanying every guidelines are two ratings for its relative importance and strength of evidence .
• A plenty of guide lines backed up by research results, not just personal opinions.
• Could be used as a reference when designing/reviewing interfaces. You can find the guidelines ordered by strength of evidence and relative importance in the book’s appendices.
• A free version of the book is available (legally) for download at the book’s web site.

The Bad:

• Some guidelines are just too obvious (like recommending that we use at least two radio buttons in web forms).
• Not as much research results and statistics as I’ve hoped for.

Bottom line:

This isn’t really worth purchasing. If you’re new to usability, check Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think. Otherwise just download the PDFs to quickly skim through the guidelines and note whatever you might find interesting.

I’ve been involved in web design for about 3 years now. What started as something very exciting is now something very boring and repetitive. There are hardly any new things to learn when you reach a certain level. It doesn’t take many years, and I’m certainly almost there already.

This is the main reason I’ve been away from this the last few months. I lost interest in a plenty of web design resources because I keep reading/hearing the same things over and over again (and for some reason, most articles seems to be targeting beginners anyway). Even when I start a new web design project, I don’t get that satisfying dose of challenges while working on it. The only exciting part left for me is making your design accessible and usable. Now that’s fun (in a geeky way).

Maybe if you’re a graphic designer you will actually enjoy what you’re doing, because every project seems different to you. But if you’re more of a slice ‘n’ dice guy with some good design background like me, then you probably know what I’m talking about. It’s more like a matter of when to get a project done than how.

It could be that I’m just more interested in the programming part of web development, but you can’t deny that Web Design starts getting dull after a while.

If you think otherwise, PLEASE please prove me wrong.

Facebook is one of those sites. I’ve been using it for over two months now, and I still find myself having to stop often to think where should I click next to proceed.

To be a little more specific, Facebook suffers from those usability issues:

• Using unconventional (and unusual) names for objects and actions like “Wall” and “Poke”.
• Lack of visual aid. Even using simple ASCII arrows for “back” links (for example) aren’t there. Navigating through a site where all its links look the same is pretty irritating.

• Wrong placement of links as shown in the following screenshot:

  

  “back to group” has nothing to do with the group’s photos. Why place them on the same line? a better placement would be:

  

  Doesn’t that make much more sense? It does indeed. And That’s only one example of the links’ placement issue.

• Having to go through unnecessary step(s) to complete an action. For example: you can’t use an application installed in someone else’s profile unless you install it first. I don’t know if that’s technically required, but logically it doesn’t make any sense.

Are there no better alternatives? is there something special about it that I fail to see?

I don’t know. It’s the first (and hopefully last) social networking site I join, so I don’t know much about the alternatives.

What do you think?

What you will learn:

How to make a site look prettier by picking the right design, colors, fonts and images.

Prerequisites:

A good background in Web Design and Photoshop would help, but not necessary (There’s one part of the book though that requires some advanced experience in Photoshop).

Target Audience:

Web Developers who want to make pretty/attractive designs.

Clarity:

The author (naturally) uses a lot of images and figures to illustrate the ideas. You might find yourself scratching your head from time to time though if you don’t have some graphic design background.

The Good:

• Nice, colorful presentation.

• Shows you some of the things you need to learn to come up with attractive designs.

The Bad:

• Grids were briefly explained, so you might have a hard time understanding examples that rely on them.
• There’s a little bit of everything, but not enough of anything.
• Many parts of the book target absolute web design beginners.

Bottom line:

If you’re an intermediate/advanced Web Designer, this book probably isn’t for you. If you’re a Web Developer who knows nothing about the graphical side of Web Design, then this book will put you on the right track to start learning more about this.

I’m still working on the migration from my old account to my new one, so you might encounter an error or two as you’re browsing.

By the way, what do you think of the new name?