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From Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox:

In our current round of usability research, only 76% of users who expressed a desire to run a Google search were successful. In other words, 1/4 of users who wanted to use Google couldn’t do so. (Instead, they either completely failed to get to any search engine or ended up running their query on a different search engine — usually whatever type-in field happened to be at hand.) . . . Also, for this round of research we’re deliberately recruiting above-average users.

Following that link:

Unless a specific study calls for participants with a different profile, we mostly recruit people with respectable jobs — an engineering consultant, an equity trader, a lawyer, an office manager, a real estate agent, a speech therapist, and a teacher, to take some of the job titles from the first week of our current study.

What an eye-opener.

July 2000

The first Web site for Northern California Publishers & Authors (then called Sacramento Publishers Association) was hosted by one of those companies that offered free sites if their banner ads were displayed at the top of each page.

I remember because I built it.

That site was built with (gasp!) tables for positioning. Tables, and bright colors, and that little stats tracker at the bottom of the page.

(Oh geez, it looks like that account was never closed. When I opened up the archive file to take a screen shot, the tracker image was linked to Extreme Tracking — “Counting since: 22 Jul 2000.” Oops.) Continue reading “Web site redesign: NCPA”

Loraine Holden, author of Don’t Get Thin, Get Healthy, wanted the ability to add articles on breaking health news to her Web site. Her previous webmaster set up a blog for her, but it wasn’t integrated into her site.

So Loraine asked me to add the blog link to her site. Continue reading “Web site redesign: Golden Green Press”

If you’ve visited this site in the last couple of years, you might not notice any changes except a different graphic here and there. But the entire site has been completely remodeled: new walls, new roof, new floor. Only the wallpaper remains the same. Continue reading “The new! improved! Williams Writing Web site”

Someone on one of the lists I subscribe to advised people to make sure their sites download quickly. She punched one of my hot buttons. I hate slow-loading sites. The whole world doesn’t have cable. Even if everyone did, slow sites hog resources.

Ever notice how some days, cable or not, the Internet is slower? For dialup access, the rated speed for a modem may be 56.6 Kbps. That’s the top speed. The actual connection speed can be anywhere from 24.4 to 32 to 44 Kbps — just like rush hour on the freeway. Continue reading “For Web sites, size does matter”