The bee I picked up

The bee I picked up one day on the carpeted staircase of my previous company's offices. It was rigid and weightless and flawless. Bees in London still fascinate me as they're different from the ones I grew up with. A reminder that I'm in a foreign country. Anyway, it went straight to the scanner.

Tips for faster websurfing

A colleague asked,

I am looking for your personal tips and tricks for using the Net faster. Ideally, these should be things that you have tried yourself and you know that they save you time.

1. Regarding bookmarks/favourites: Ditch the hopelessly inefficient and time-wasting hierarchical bookmark managers built into Netscape and IE. The list quickly becomes unmanagebly long, and the subfolders you create to order them quickly become confusing and timewasting. Use Powermarks (PC only, unfortunately): bookmarks are tagged with keywords, not user-defined categories, so finding a specific bookmark among thousands is simple. (The other killer feature: bookmarks are stored on-line, so you can access your bookmarks from anywhere in the world.)
2. Microsoft’s Web Accessories for IE 5: The “Image Toggler” in particular is a timesaver if you’re only after text content, but the others — Images List, Links List, Open Frame in New Window — are also very useful (albeit mostly for web designers).
3. Quicker searching:
1. The Google Toolbar for IE on PC: Add the web's best search engine to your browser toolbar.
2. If you find this overcomplicated, just add the Google Search button to your IE links bar: Performs search on any highlighted text or just click button to prompt pop-up search box.
3. Search straight from the Address field by installing Total Search. Typing 'gg query' searches for query on Google, 'az query' searches on Amazon, and dozens more customisable shortcuts.
4. Similar functionality, straight from your Windows Taskbar: Dave's Quick Search Taskbar Toolbar Deskbar.
4. Use Explorer’s Links bar for your most-often used shortcuts: They show up as buttons if screen space allows (you can shorten their names by right-clicking and renaming them), then as a dropdown list. They can also link to programs on your computer. I use mine for the Google Search button, online dictionary, online currency converter, online translator, intranet phone extensions, calculator, and various “bookmarklets”; (see no.7 below).
5. You can even assign keyboard shortcuts to these links! Right-click: Properties on the link.
6. Bookmarklets: “simple tools that extend the surf and search capabilities of Netscape and Explorer web browsers”, that sit in the browser’s Links bar. Too many to list, but you’re bound to find something useful and timesaving. (See mine here.)
7. Use the keyboard to speed up your surfing (IE Windows only): [Esc] does the same as Stop (stops page loading and animated GIFs); [F5] does the same as Refresh; [F6] takes you straight to the Address bar so you can start typing, [F4] Takes you straight to the menu of previous sites visited; [F11] toggles Full Screen mode; [Alt-leftarrow] is Back; [Alt-rightarrow] is Forward.
8. Use autocompletion when typing a web address. As soon as your partially-typed address matches a previously visited site, it appears in a menu below the address line. Pressing [Tab] immediately goes to the first one. Pressing [Tab] again goes to the next, and so on (or use the arrow keys). It quickly becomes second nature.
9. Use “Find” on a page. If you’re on a page crowded with information, don’t waste time scanning it visually: type [Ctrl-F] to look for the occurrence of a particular word.
10. Get used to opening links in new windows (Right-click: Open in new window or [Shift-click]). Saves clicks of the back button, and also allows you to load open a page and carry on reading the current page while that one finishes downloading in the background.
11. Personally, I’m suspicious about “accelerator” programmes that claim to accelerate your internet connection. The most important limits to your browsing speed — your bandwidth, the target page’s size and server speed, and congestion on the web — are beyond the control of locally-running software. And many of these programmes are spyware risks.

Note: The above tips apply mostly to Internet Explorer on the PC. Another speed tip I neglected to mention was using the Opera browser instead. Besides being fast and full-featured, it boasts more speed-enhancing productivity shortcuts than any other browser, including different types of search integrated in the browser, and “mouse gestures”, which I’ve never seen anywhere else. Unfortunately, I cannot wholly abandon IE for Opera, as it is only responsible for me as web designer to experience the Internet the way most people do. Too much customisation and you lose touch with the average user.

Good books on usability

“Can you recommend a couple of good usability books?”

For general principles from the off-line world, Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things is indispensable. So is Edward Tufte’s books, e.g. Visual Explanations. But bear in mind these don’t directly touch on the Web.

For software development in general (but very relevant to websites), my favourite book by far is Alan Cooper’s The Inmates Are Running The Asylum. Truly eye-opening. Treats the issue of Usability as part of the larger “Interaction Design” discipline.

For dry, academic usability testing and measuring methods, at great length and thoroughness, see Larry Constantine & Lucy Lockwood’s Software For Use.

The above are just the books that I know from having read them. You can also find book reviews at Usable Web and UIDesign.net. And of course by searching for “Usability” on Amazon.