My Usability Checklist
Here are the steps I used to evolve my site to one that's usable and meets the needs of my audience.
1. Take care to use:
- correct tag syntax,
- image alt tags,
- optimized images, and
- colours that work well together and view similarly under different OSs.
2. Offer both text and graphic links, and always specify alternate as well as primary fonts.
3. Check that your Web pages display similarly at screen resolutions from small to large, and in different browsers. One easy way to do this is to see that tables are set to percentage widths rather than fixed-pixel widths.
4. Pay attention to your Website visitors:
- Ask what they think of your offerings, and listen seriously to their suggestions.
- Use surveys and feedback from email, web forms or message boards to learn who your visitors are, and what they are looking for when they visit your site.
- Be sure to keep asking what improvements they would like to see!
5. Keep in touch with users through an email list once you've established a relationship with them. Make sure you:
- keep them posted on seasonal or breaking news in your field
- inform them of all new website developments and offerings
- let them see that you are trying to offer what they've asked to find
6. Never stop testing, and never expect your site to be 'finished': by definition, a good Website is an ever-changing, growing, evolving entity.
7. Take advantage of the mutability of the Internet, using it to enhance your Website's evolution in order to keep visitors happy and coming back for more.
Building a Usable Site/Getting Online/User Research/Compatibility and Display/Applying the Lessons/Readable Fonts/Live Testing/My Usability Checklist/Looking Ahead | 
