The Great Usability Debate: Internal vs external testing?
There is an ever-urgent need for companies to both acquire and retain online users, especially in today’s economic environment. Our new Usability and User Experience Trends Briefing highlights this, but which is best for achieving reliable results - internal or external testing?
Is your e-commerce channel performing as well as it could?
Despite the growth in the e-commerce channel, many retailers are still unable to make truly informed decisions regarding the strategic development of e-commerce in their business, as they are unable to effectively benchmark the performance of the channel.
This is the case for both retailers who think they're performing well and those who don't.
Opera - most HTML code isn't standards compliant
Last week, Opera released the results of a survey conducted using its MAMA (Metadata Analysis and Mining Application) search engine.
The engine, which currently indexes 3.5m web pages, is designed to track "how web pages are structured."
Basic .htaccess tricks for SEO and convenience
If your website is hosted on an Apache web server, .htaccess is a great way to create SEO-friendly URLs, take care of issues that can harm SEO and make your life as a webmaster more convenient.
Web-based HTML and CSS validation tools
Are you validating your website's HTML/XHTML and CSS? If not, you should be.
Embedding Flash content using SWFObject 2
Embedding Flash content into a web page seems simple and in theory, it is.
But if you're using embed/object tags alone to embed Flash content, potential issues lurk under the surface.
Free and low-cost PDF software programs
Providing certain documents in Adobe PDF format has many advantages. The format is open, available on almost every platform, widely-used and the Adobe Acrobat Reader is installed on most consumer and business computers (PCs, Macs, etc.).
Typography tools and tips
In my opinion, one of the most overlooked and least understood aspects of web design is that of typography.
In my experience, many web designers treat typography as an afterthought, ignoring the fact that it's a major element of good design.
Here are some great tools and tips for typography, as well as some links to websites that offer free and paid fonts:
Web editors: 5 reasons to love standfirsts
Better search results, higher clickthrough rates, more targeted traffic, improved usability… why every web writer should embrace standfirsts.
SEO Wars: Alt Battles
There is no such thing as the 'alt tag' in HTML. There is, however, the alt attribute which is applied to the image tag.
The alt attribute is designed to provide alternative text for an image. I've seen it create wars within marketing departments.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
