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Usability
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Underwater in Fiji You can check our assessment of a wide range of Web Site Categories in different categories, ranging from Banks to Web Designers.

We are Database Specialists, and don't have too much time to spend on Web Site design. Therefore, we follow some basic principles to ensure that our Site is usable. Our design approach is to promote good design in Web Sites that are good to look at, interesting to read, and load quickly.
You can check our Usability Criteria.

If you would like to share your views on Usability,or have any recommendations for Books or Web Sites, just let us know.
If you would like an independent assessment of the Usability of your own Web Site, then here are some Usability Checking Services.

Yale's Web Design Guide is highly recommended, and we like a book called "Web Site Usability", edited by Jared Pool, which reports on an in-depth analysis of 11 commercial Web Sites.

Jakob Nielsen,with his "UseIt" Site is the person usually referred to as the Usability Guru who can command $10,000 or $20,000 a day (depending who you believe) for telling large corporations how badly-designed their Web Sites are.
Personally,we feel that his Book, "Designing Web Usability", is a fine example of a badly-designed User Experience.

Here is our Current Top 10 Web Sites that we love to look at ...
and you can check out some more Web Sites that we like, and the Cool Sight of the Day.

Nr.
NAME
TYPE
DESCRIPTION
1 Luke Pepper Web Designer A young Designer with a great future.
3 Google Search Engine The minimalist Site always quoted, (especially by Jakob Nielsen), as an example of 'less is more is good'.
4 Philip Greenspun Individual "Travels with Samantha", (voted Best of Web '94.)
5 Raven Recording Commercial A Beautiful Site devoted to Gabrielle Roth and Dance.
6 NY Academy of Sciences Education Simple and Effective.
7 Sprout Web Designer Intelligent design, good to look at, with intuitive navigation.
8 Webbed Environments Web Development Good use of white space and provides easy navigation.
9 Art-in-a-Click Commercial Visually striking and somewhat unusual.
10 Trade Partners UK Government Somewhat busy, but visually appealing and easy to navigate.

Here are two Web Sites that we HATE to look at ...
(and I recommend that you check out the well-known Web Sites That Suck).
Nr.
TYPE
DESCRIPTION
1 PostBoo This has to take pride of place - arrogant and self-indulgent, and disables the 'Back' Key so that you are locked in to their 'Site That Sucks'.
2 Cartier Love the products, Hate the Web Site - another Flash infested-Site but they promise a non-Flash option ("coming soon" !!!).

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