Java
Web Authoring
Multimedia Authoring
Sound
Colour
Practical Graphics
Creative Graphics
Fractals
Anamorphic Images
Human-Computer Interaction
See also the web design section of the Web Authoring references page, and the colour blindness links on the Colour references page.
Usability
-
The STC Usability
SIG Web Site has a goldmine of various resources, including articles,
links, book reviews, newsletter archives, etc.
-
From Isis Information Architects:
Interface Hall of Shame
and Interface Hall of Fame
-
PC Computing presents:
Usability Hall of Fame, Hall of Shame
-
Bad Human Factors Designs --
a scrapbook of illustrated examples of things that are hard to
use
-
Yahoo! pages on HCI
-
Usability at
Helsinki University of Technology
-
James Hom's The Usability
Methods Toolbox has details of various usability techniques,
including prototyping, inspections, inquiries and testing.
-
The Usability Laboratory
-
User Interface Design News
-
The Windows 95 User Interface: a Case Study in Usability Engineering -
an article from the CHI96 proceedings giving details of the evolution
of the design of Windows 95
-
The comp.risks Archive
provides many examples of possible consequences of bad system design.
Disabilities
-
Bobby - a free
service to help web authors make their
pages accessible to people with disabilities
-
Freedom Scientific -
assistive technology for blind and visually impaired computer users
-
Publications concerning
Blind
People and Graphics
Devices
-
MouseSite, a site
for exploring the history of HCI, including mice and other devices
-
The Classic Typewriter Page
-
An article by Charles Poynton entitled Reducing eyestrain from video and computer monitors
-
Bat keyboard -- a
chord keyboard
-
The Twiddler, a chord keyboard and mouse combined!
-
SecureTouch Touchscreens manufacture different sorts
of "rugged yet responsive" touch screens
-
Mouseburger (!!!)
-
Introducing
the Dvorak Keyboard -- lots of information about this keyboard
-
The Typing Injuries FAQ contains a lot of
information
and pointers to information about all sorts of devices
-
Pointing Device FAQ -- mice,
trackballs, and other devices
-
Logitech's
Mice
and
Trackballs
sites.
Books
Title: Designing the User Interface
Author: Ben Shneiderman
ISBN: 0201694972
Price:
Publisher: Addison Wesley Longman Higher Education
Year: 1998
A good comprehensive book for the HCI part of both the 31N5 and IT41
courses, containing a lot more information than covered in the course.
Its major drawback is that it contains very little information about
the World-Wide Web. There is also a
website for the book.
Title: Human-Computer Interaction
Author: Jenny Preece
ISBN: 0201627698
Price:
Publisher: Addison Wesley
Year: 1994
Useful book, in a different style to Shneiderman, with more visual
layout on the page rather than the essay style of Shneiderman.
Strongly recommended for reading, possibly as a resource for exam
revision. The book does not, however, cover the WWW.
Title: The Design of Everyday Things
Author: Donald Norman
ISBN: 0262640376
Price:
Publisher: MIT Press
Year: 1998
This is a wonderful little book. I don't often recommend computing
books for bedtime reading (except perhaps for their soporific effect),
but this is one of the few. It's not written for a specifically computing
audience, more for anyone, and it looks at design of everyday things
that you use, from doors to telephones to light switches to software.
Read this and not only won't you look at things in quite the same light
again, but you'll have a good understanding of general design issues.
If you're strapped for cash and wondering which books to buy, this has
got to be high up on your list.
Title: Human-Computer Interaction
Author: Alan Dix
ISBN: 0132398648
Price:
Publisher: Prentice Hall Europe
Year: 1997
Useful background reading. There is also a
website.