Usability - Introduction to usability
The usability is the discipline that stands between you and the site itself. Applying usability principles and experience acquired on the head, the expert seeks to eliminate all those problems that you may encounter interacting with the site thus improving the experience of surfers.
Usability is a term increasingly in vogue among the makers of Web sites.
A good definition of usability is "that which asks the user to a site to think as little as possible," providing an environment where they can move at ease, effortlessly finding what he needs.
So usability is a set of clarity, aesthetic qualities, communication skills and interactive use and speed of the consultation. The web editor, who writes and arranges the content of sites, is one of the greatest leaders of the "web usability"
(+) Usability = (-) Design?
Many are convinced that the higher the usability of a multimedia application is the worst result of the same aesthetic. Many discussions on the mailing-list-oriented sector of this clash between usability experts and designers. Probably Jakob Nielsen useit.com style ( http://www.useit.com/ ), has influenced the creation of this urban legend ... but ... we're just talking about an urban legend.
The same web designer should be a usability expert and build websites thinking that users will actually use these pages.
Usability does not detract from the look and feel, and no limits to creativity.
Accessibility
Accessibility (Accessibility) offers solutions to allow disabled users to access content and services on the Internet bypassing or removing obstacles that are often invisible to the eyes and mouse for the able-bodied users.
Blind users will have problems with understanding the images on the site, with the visually impaired too small, color-blind with certain combinations of colors and users with older computers / software problems with some non-standard technologies (Java, Flash, etc.. ).
These are some challenges to make the Internet a Universal Media. Ignore means designing sites without considering its target.
The "Stanca Law" for the accessibility of new technologies
The Parliament has finally approved unanimously the "Stanca Law" ( website link ), which allows disabled access to new technologies and digital information, including the Internet, surpassing the current digital divide. Even after the Senate Chamber, in fact, the political forces expressed their full consent to the measure that puts Italy in the first place in Europe on this front, with the most comprehensive legislation, just as is ending the "European Year of Disability ". Taken from: MIT site of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology.