University of Tasmania, Australia

Usability relates to:

• page design: what students will see on each of your web pages
• content design: how well your material is logically structured on each page
• site design & navigation: how intuitive is the logical structure of your home page and organiser page(s)? the links/icons you provide? How easy will it be for students to find their way around your site, and know where they are in 'hyperspace'?
• accessibility: How easy will it be for students with disabilities to access the material on your web site? Will your material be readily accessible to students accessing that material from home, through a modem? (This in turn relates to file formats and sizes.)

Useful links

Web publishing

• UTAS web publishing guidelines

The Yale Center for Advanced Interactive Media Web Style Guide - a very comprehensive guide to web design and style.

Usability

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox - All you need to know about usability from this renowned expert.

Usable Web - collection of links about a range of usability issues.

Accessibility

UTAS accessibility website - includes information for units with an online component.

Web Accessibility Network for Australian Universities - WANAU

World Wide Web Consortium W3C - Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

IMS Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning Applications - comprehensive suite of principles and guidelines covering flexible media delivery (text, audio, images etc.); asynchronous and synchronous communications (discussion board, email, chat etc); testing and assessment.

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