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Ajax Design and Usability (Full Day) For course resources, please click here (new window) We currently have no public dates for this course. Please contact us if you would like to be notified when new dates are arranged or would like to have the course run in-house.

Topics

• What is Ajax?
• How does it work?
• How does it differ from other web technologies?
• What are its strengths and weaknesses for usability?
• How do I apply Ajax effectively in design?

If you are losing sleep on any of these questions this course will cure your insomnia. It is a highly interactive tutorial that looks at the application of Ajax from both theoretical and practical standpoints. Previous experience of Ajax is not essential.

Course Outline (Subject to Change)

About Ajax

• Ajax in context
• How Ajax works
• How Ajax is different
• How Ajax is similar
• Ajax and Web 2.0

Perceptual Issues

• Inattention blindness
• Change blindness
• Attentional gambling

Engaging Users

• Flow
• Feedback
• Activity

Design Goals and Guidelines

• Progressive enhancement
• Graceful degradation
• Optimize screen space
• Maximize efficiency
• Preserve expected navigation behavior
• Address accessibility and search engine optimization

Accessibility

• Disability discrimination issues
• Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.0)
• Providing equivalent services
• Ajax and assistive technology

Search Engine Optimization

• Search crawler behavior
• “Hijax”

Effective Use of Ajax

• Reducing navigation
• Real-time update
• Attracting attention

Implementing Ajax Solutions

• Ajax toolkits

Questions and discussion

Biography

William Hudson consults, writes and teaches in the fields of user-centred design and usability. He has over 30 years experience in the development of interactive systems, initially with a background in software engineering. William was the product and user interface designer for the Emmy-award-winning "boujou"; now an indispensable tool in many film studios. He has specialized in interaction design and human-computer interaction since the late 1980's. William has written and taught courses which have been presented to hundreds of software and web developers, designers and managers in the UK, North America and Europe. He is the founder and principal consultant of Syntagm, a consultancy specializing in the design of interactive systems established in 1985. He has conducted over 250 expert evaluations of intranets and e-commerce web sites.

William has written numerous articles for the ACM's SIGCHI Bulletin and interactions magazine, some of which will be discussed during the event. He also developed and presented courses for Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g), the world's premiere usability consultancy.

More Information

For more information on this course or to arrange a date for an in-house presentation, please contact us.