Breaking Through to the Other Side

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See this list as a starting point for further research.

www.usableweb.com
As the web site editor, Keith Instone, states: "Usable Web is a collection of links about human factors, user interface issues, and usable design specific to the World Wide Web". Though it is not being updated anymore, Usableweb.com is still a highly comprehensive entry to web usability resources.
www.hcibib.org
This comprehensive resource on HCI, Human Computer Interaction, lets you search in the HCIBIB - a free-access online bibliographic database on Human-Computer Interaction containing more entries on the field than anyone will ever need.

www.useit.com and the Alertbox
Jakob Nielsen's highly acknowledged and popular usability recommendations with his trademark "my way or the high way" attitude. There is also a bi-weekly newsletter (the 'alert box').
www.creativegood.com
Mark Hursts' highly interesting website on online customer experience and more. Look out for his yearly Holiday Report and Newsletter (including a few good laughs).
www.uie.com
User Interface Engineering's specific experiences.
www.taskz.com
"Executive resources for user-centred design" including articles with an attitude.

browsers.evolt.org
A browser museum where a large number of browsers can be downloaded.
www.searchenginewatch.com
To learn more about search engines.
www.clicktracks.com
"User tracking revealed" with a demo - illustrates how the server log can be used.
Most serious web sites have predefined, hand coded error response pages that provides those users that seek in vain with a more useful response. For example try typing in the URL of a major portal followed by / and add some gibberish - like this non existing URL www.lycos.com/asdasd

www.sigchi.org/web/
The Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction of ACM runs a moderated email discussion list - the archive is on www.acm.org/archives/chi-web.html
www.esomar.com
The World Association of Research Professionals for best practise in research, papers and a comprehensive listing of market research professionals
www.acm.org/sigchi
Keep up-to-date in the field of web usability try the SIGCHI (pronounced: sigg-kai) branch of ACM, Association for Computing Machinery. Maybe there is a local group in your region.
www.upassoc.org
The profession has its own international organization, the Usability Professionals Association (UPA), "promoting usability concepts and techniques worldwide".

Read more about the American Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) at www.w3.org/wai and about the European process of making web sites accessible at europa.eu.int/information_society/... or The European Secretariat for the Design for All e-Accessibility Network (ESDeAN) at www.eaccessibility.org/
www.cast.org/bobby
Test whether your web site is accessible with Bobby. This site tests whether a given web site is accessible, gives information about identified problems and recommends changes. As any other automated test, this clearly should never replace testing with real persons - disabled or not. Some say that Bobby only finds 25% of the problems. In order to reveal the remaining problems consider checking the accessibility manually. Also consider testing the web site with disabled users.
diveintoaccessibility.org
Free book by Mark Pilgrim: This book answers two questions. The first question is "Why should I make my web site more accessible?" The second question is "How can I make my web site more accessible?"

www.watchfire.com
It is important for a web manager to be attentive to how long it takes to download pages. Various programmes may be of assistance, e.g. Linkbot. It is also important for a web manager to know the implications for the website's usage related to the total response time: server response time plus page size plus user web connection. What does it imply for the user situation - how do users feel about using the web site in comparison to other web sites, including competitor web sites? Do response times of a web site imply that it has competitive strengths or weaknesses?

www.openmobilealliance.com
About open standards.
www.forum.nokia.com
Usability guidelines for the Series 40 (e.g. Nokia 7210 or 7250i - devices with 128 x 128 pixel displays) and the Series 60 (e.g. Nokia 3650, 3600, 6600, 7650 or N-Gage - devices with 176 x 208 pixel displays) or other manufacturer web sites.
www.crossroadscopenhagen.com and http://lacomoco.it-c.dk
Location based services and context dependent mobile communications are some of the areas currently being exploited by an initiative in the Oerestad Region (Greater Copenhagen, Denmark) called Crossroads Copenhagen.

Researchers from government agencies, schools and private companies are developing situation based mobile services, and studying how the user's profile in addition to the time and place of events should determine the services and information available.

To quote their presentation material: "It is the information that will find the right person at the right time instead of the person needing to search through information relevant in the current situation".