Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines

Many people have opinions about web design and usability, but the U.S. Department of Health and Family Services has a guidelines book based on research.

Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines

Here are the topics covered:

Guidelines by Chapter (2006 ed.)
Chapter 1 – Design Process and Evaluation (8 pages, 1.8 MB)
Chapter 2 – Optimizing the User Experience (13 pages, 8.9 MB)
Chapter 3 – Accessibility (7 pages, 2.4 MB)
Chapter 4 – Hardware and Software (5 pages, 2.8 MB)
Chapter 5 – The Homepage(10 pages, 11.8 MB)
Chapter 6 – Page Layout (14 pages, 20.4 MB)
Chapter 7 – Navigation (13 pages, 12.8 MB)
Chapter 8 – Scrolling and Paging (5 pages, 4.4 MB)
Chapter 9 – Headings, Titles, and Labels (9 pages, 7.7 MB)
Chapter 10 – Links (15 pages, 16.7 MB)
Chapter 11 – Text Appearance(11 pages, 11 MB)
Chapter 12 – Lists (9 pages, 6.4 MB)
Chapter 13 – Screen–Based Controls (Widgets) (22 pages, 14.7 MB)
Chapter 14 – Graphics, Images, and Multimedia (16 pages, 16.5 MB)
Chapter 15 – Writing Web Content (11 pages, 10.8 MB)
Chapter 16 – Content Organization(10 pages, 9.8 MB)
Chapter 17 – Search (9 pages, 8.9 MB)
Chapter 18 – Usability Testing (10 pages, 1,020 KB)

Great Free Stuff

I always love free stuff. Here's the latest from Microsoft.

State of the Art: A Web Site to Call Your Own. Microsoft Office Live is a suite of services, mostly free, to help the little guy get into the game of online sales and marketing. By DAVID POGUE. [NYT > Business]