Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

Sites about the relationship between humans and computers and the analysis of that relationship.

Resources in this category:

Accessibility at Microsoft
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/

Microsoft offers demos and tutorials for people with vision, hearing, dexterity and language impairments. Learn how to access Microsoft Windows, Office and Internet Explorer. Information about assistive technologies and new products is also available.

Accessibility--Computing @ UW Madison
http://www.doit.wisc.edu/accessibility/

Web designers and developers can reach larger audiences and increase usability by making websites accessible to the blind and visually impaired. Take a free course, see videos and get guidelines on how to make your site accessible.

Apple Accessibility
http://www.apple.com/accessibility/

Discover all of the accessibility features for Macs and Mac software! Apple's accessibility site offers resources for people with vision, hearing, physical, learning and language impairments. Learn more about the Voice Over screen reader and helpful features of OS X, and hardware like the iPhone, iMac and MacBook computers.

Argus Center for Information Architecture
http://www.argus-acia.com/

"The Argus Center for Information Architecture provides leadership in defining and advancing the evolving discipline of information architecture. The Argus Center serves as a focal point for learning about the theory and practice of information architecture. Towards this goal, we: manage a selective collection of links to the most remarkable content, events, and people in our field; produce original articles, white papers, conferences, and seminars that draw from the experience and expertise of the Argus team; conduct research, independently and through partnerships, focused on improving our collective understanding of information architecture."

Color Contrast Verification Tool
http://h10014.www1.hp.com/hpweb/accessibility/color_tool.htm...

This handy site lets you enter your website's back and foreground colors and measures their accessibility in terms of brightness and color difference and color contrast.

Dive Into Accessibility
http://diveintoaccessibility.org/

An e-book about making web sites more accessible to those with disabilities.

Freedom Machines
http://www.pbs.org/pov/freedommachines/

Created in connection with a public television documentary about assistive technology and its impact on the lives of people with disabilities. Includes a photo gallery on the principles of universal design, an explanation of assistive technology, a lesson plan for classroom teachers, and updates on information included in the film.

HCI Bibliography
http://www.hcibib.org/

This site contains articles, case studies, definitions and many other resources devoted to human-computer interaction.

HTML Source: HTML Tutorials
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/

Presents step-by-step tutorials for creating your own website. Covers HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Includes useful information on the basic principles of web design and web accessibility.

Interaction Design
http://www.interaction-design.org/

"This website features the beginnings of a free, open-content, peer-reviewed Encyclopedia covering terms from the disciplines of Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Design, Human Factors, Usability, Information Architecture, and related fields."

LarsWiki--Linux Accessibility Resource Site
http://larswiki.atrc.utoronto.ca/wiki/LarsWiki

What is accessibility? How can I use free and open-source software to increase accessibility? LarsWiki answers these questions and offers resources for users of the Linux operating system. Whether you're programming video games or government information systems, you can find open-source software to make it accessible.

Online Accessibility
http://www.umich.edu/~webacces/About.html

Online Accessibility from the University of Michigan provides information to help designers build more accessible web sites, with a tutorial and resources available.

Research-based Web Guidelines
http://www.usability.gov/guidelines/

This site provides over 50 of the top Web design and usability guidelines based on research studies and supporting information from the field. Each guideline provides: A brief statement of the overarching principle that is the foundation of the guideline, Comments that further explain the research/supporting information, Source(s) of the research/supporting information. A score indicating the "Strength of the Evidence" that supports the guideline, and One or more graphic examples of the guideline in practice.

SitePoint
http://www.sitepoint.com/

Compilation of articles and blog entries on a variety of web development topics: HTML, CSS, web design, JavaScript, Flash, server- and client-side coding, and much more. Information ranges from basic to advanced. Also includes handy CSS, HTML, and JavaScript references.

Technology and Young Children
http://www.techandyoungchildren.org/index.html

A terrific resource for parents and educators for exploring the positive and negative impact of technology in children's lives and for learning the "do's" and "don'ts" of using technology with children, offering everything from Best Educational Practices to Internet help with tutorials, good search engines, and web design tips.

Text Encoding Initiative
http://www.tei-c.org/index.xml

"The Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) is an international project to develop guidelines for the preparation and interchange of electronic texts for scholarly research, and to satisfy a broad range of uses by the language industries more generally." Visit this web site to learn about TEI, a markup language commonly used for digitizing texts and other resources. The web site includes information on the history of the project as well as how to use the markup language.

Usable Web
http://usableweb.com/

Usable Web is a collection of links about information architecture, human factors, user interface issues, and usable design specific to the World Wide Web. Value adds: descriptions, multiple organizational schemes (by date, topic, destination, author, popularity), search engine queries to even more resources.

useit.com: Jakob Nielsen's site
http://www.useit.com/

This popular site focused on making computers more usable, is written by Jakob Nielsen, one of the most famous and opinionated individuals in the "Usability" movement. This site is filled with suggestions on how to make websites, and interfaces in general, easier for us humans to use.

WAVE Accessibility Evaluation Tool
http://wave.webaim.org/

"WAVE is a free web accessibility evaluation tool...used to aid humans in the web accessibility evaluation process. Rather than providing a complex technical report, WAVE shows the original web page with embedded icons and indicators that reveal the accessibility information within your page." Just type in your web address, upload or copy and paste HTML code!

Web Accessibility Test Site
http://www.cynthiasays.com/

Anyone wanting to check their html code for validation will find this site useful. It will highlight errors and warnings once it has been run through the validator.

Web Accessibility in Mind
http://www.webaim.org/

This non-profit organization based with the Center for Persons with Disabilities and Utah University has been at the forefront of web accessibility solutions and standards since 1999.

Web Accessibility Initiative
http://www.w3.org/WAI/

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), in coordination with organizations around the world, pursues accessibility of the Web.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/

This site provides provides documents on guidelines from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCA WG). There are also minutes from previous meetings of the Group.

Webmastering.info: The Webmastering Handbook
http://www.webmastering.info/

Great information source for webmasters of all skill levels. The place to start if you are curious about the multiple facets of creating and maintaining websites, covering topics from programming to website promotion.