Definitive Usability/User Centered Design/Information Architecture resource list

Well, every other forum has one, so I figured I’d get this one kickstarted.

Usability
Usability Grand Poobah Jakob Nielsen
Usability Views - Article Aggregator
Usability News from Wichita State University
Web Developer’s Reference Library- Usability Contains quite a few book excerpts.
Usable Web
WebWord
UsabilityNews
Jeffrey Zeldman’s [i]Daily Report[/i]

User Experience
Good Experience
37 Signals

Accessibility
Joe Clark’s Building Accessible Websites (serialized.)
Dive Into Accessibility
Validate your accessibility guideline compliance with Bobby
Web Accessibility Initiative
Accessify
Web-Savvy
WAVE-Web Accessibilty Validator

Information Architecture

IAWiki
Jesse James Garrett- featuring “The Elements of User Experience” diagram and “Visual Vocabulary” sitemapping standard.
IASlash
Adam Greenfield’s v-2 Organization
Christina Wodtke’s Elegant Hack

Webzines
Digital Web
Evolt
Boxes and Arrows
A List Apart

Mailing Lists
Sigia - L
CHI-WEB
“TheList” at Evolt

And last but not least…
Usability@SitePoint

I know it’s incomplete, but it’s a start.

Accessibility
Web-Savvy
WAVE analysis

Usability & User Experience

37signals Resources - Design Not Found, 37Better Project, etc
Evolt’s Usability Directory

If I may be so bold, Accessify has a number of tools to make creating accessible pages a little easier:

http://www.accessify.com/tools-and-wizards/default.asp

For usability articles:

http://www.usabilitynews.com/ (obvious)
http://www.usabilityviews.com/latest_by_date.html (links to usability articles)
http://webword.com/index.html (excellent usability blog)

Don’t forget the Web Accessibility Initiative from the standards people. :slight_smile:

~~Ian

Original post has been updated. Keep 'em coming!

Usability:

[list][*]Croc O’ Lyle - Lyle Kantrovich’s blog (hey, that me!)[][url=http://www.upassoc.org/]UPA - Usability Professional’s Association[][url=http://jthom.best.vwh.net/usability/]The Usability Methods Toolbox[][url=http://www-3.ibm.com/ibm/easy/]IBM’s Ease of Use site[][url=http://world.std.com/~uieweb/index.html]UIE - Jared Spool’s Team[/list]Great Idea - keep it going!

Lyle

Usability

“Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug

http://www.sensible.com/

A must read if you ask me. Easy to read in about five hours and really helps you get your head in the right place regarding usability.

BOOKS

Information Architecture for the world wide web

Amazing book and a must read for anyone serious about it.

Some books I would also recommend:

  1. Usability: The Site Speaks for Itself, from Kelly Braun and others

  2. User-Centred Web Design, form John Cato

  3. Web Style Guide, 2nd Edition, from Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton

I would recommend as the best acceessibility free tutorial on the Web:

Free registration required.

Another very valuable tutorial:

Two best links for usability I know on the web are:

National Cancer Institute: http://www.usability.gov

University of Wichita: http://psychology.wichita.edu/optimalweb/default.htm

I have more links like that, if anyone is interested in.

More from Webnauts:

  1. 10 Web usability tips (HFI): http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/10tips.asp
  2. Advanced User Interface and Usability: http://www.cre8pc.com/ui_adv.html
  3. Assuring usability: http://www.usability.serco.com/trump/methods/integration/assurance.htm
  4. Cognitive Walkthrough for the Web: http://staff.aist.go.jp/kitajima.muneo/English/PAPERS(E)/CHI2002.html
  5. Cost effective “User Centred Design”: http://www.usability.serco.com/trump/index.htm
  6. Creating a website - step by step: http://www.jessett.com/web_sites/usability/index.shtml
  7. Criteria for optimal web design (SURL): http://psychology.wichita.edu/optimalweb/position.htm
  8. Designing Help Text: http://infocentre.frontend.com/servlet/Infocentre?access=no&page=article&rows=5&id=167
  9. Designing Scalable Interfaces: http://infocentre.frontend.com/servlet/Infocentre?access=no&page=article&rows=5&id=221
  10. Effective Form Design: http://infocentre.frontend.com/servlet/Infocentre?access=no&page=article&rows=5&id=116
  11. First Aid Manual for Usable Flash Sites: http://www.flash99good.com/
  12. How do Develop an Effective GUI Standard: http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/guistandards.pdf
  13. How to Make a Good Design Brilliant: http://www.coolhomepages.com/cda/usability/
  14. IBM Usability Tutorials: http://www-105.ibm.com/developerworks/education.nsf/dw/usability-onlinecourse-bynewest?OpenDocument&Count=500
  15. Improving Web Site Usability and Appeal: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnsiteplan/html/improvingsiteusa.asp
  16. Information & Design - Usability Toolkit: http://www.infodesign.com.au/usability/toolkit.html
  17. International standards for HCI and usability: http://www.hostserver150.com/usabilit/tools/r_international.htm
  18. ISO and Industry Standards for UID: http://www.usability.serco.com/trump/documents/Usability_standards.ppt.pdf
  19. List of Usability Methods: http://jthom.best.vwh.net/usability/toc.htm

I thought I should bring to the consideration of all usability fans and professionals this link bellow

http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/pub/webprouse/

before it would be too late for someone(s)…

The Church of Usability:

http://builder.cnet.com/webbuilding/0-3881-8-5069140-1.html

To usability testing and more:

http://www.infodesign.com.au/usabilityresources/evaluation/usabilitytesting.asp

Design and Usability best practices. :tup:

http://www.webdesignpractices.com/index.html

The Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture

http://www.aifia.org

An often overlooked aspect of usability is the web through the eyes of the color blind. I’ve taken to running many sites through these filters and it’s amazing how terrible some are.

(1) My favorite and most useful online tool to see color effects for Protans, Deutans and Tritans. There are also other helpful tools on screen. I’ve used this site regularly during development to see the side effects.
http://colorfilter.wickline.org/

Since many of you are used to what Sitepoint looks like on a daily basis, see what it looks like here (Good Job!). http://colorfilter.wickline.org/index.cgi?a=1;r=;l=9;j=1;u=www.sitepoint.com/%3FSID%3D7aac32cdc04ced10e21ca0438a99bb02;t=p

(2) Simulations and Daltonize corrections:
http://www.vischeck.com/

(3) Short but informative article on color vision and color deficiency:
http://www.firelily.com/opinions/color.html

'ello there :slight_smile:
I recently did an in deapth accessabillity review on a hospitals website, except for the WAI guidelines I also used this which was a great help:
http://aprompt.snow.utoronto.ca/download.html
/Dan