Publications

Recent publications

July 27, 2008 - Which readability testing tool should we use?

Short articles

Conference papers

  • University website accessibility revisited
    (Co-authored with Scott Rippon and accepted for Ausweb07)
    A 2003 accessibility audit of Australian university websites found that 98 per cent failed to meet basic requirements for web accessibility. This paper presents the findings from a second audit in early 2007. We wanted to see if there had been any improvement since 2003. Overall, accessibility has slightly worsened. Every site failed to meet the basic standards. The biggest problem was with text alternatives for non-text content (e.g. images). This was a key problem in the 2003 study, yet is easy to fix.

  • Creating a keyword search vocabulary for Course Finder
    (Co-authored with Guy Sangwine and Scott Rippon and accepted for Ausweb06)
    This paper describes creating a keyword search vocabulary for an online course catalogue. It covers the design approach, the basic structure of the vocabulary, and lessons learned during the design process.

  • Usability versus accessibility: best friends or worst enemies? (PDF, 53kb)
    (Invited paper for VALA 2006)
    Some people think usability and accessibility conflict. This paper examines the relationship between the two design fields. It compares and contrasts definitions, techniques and methods used by both sets of practitioners. The paper defends the view that usability and accessibility are complementary design philosophies. It recommends that practitioners in each field embrace the methods and techniques of the other.

  • How usable are university websites? A report on the prospective student experience
    (Accepted for AusWeb05. Winner of the best paper award)
    This paper reports on a study of prospective student experiences of university websites. 39 participants tested 15 university websites. Only 62 percent of tasks were completed successfully. The study highlighted 5 key usability problems: poor information architecture, poor content, poor search, problems with PDF documents, and designs that assume students have an intimate understanding of the higher education sector.

  • Using paper prototyping as a user-centred method of informing design decisions: a case study
    (Accepted for AusWeb04)
    Paper prototyping is a method for designing and testing user interfaces. This paper reports on a paper prototyping design exercise to test 2 designs for a web-based searchable university course database.

  • How accessible are Australian university web sites?
    (Accepted for AusWeb 03)
    A selection of key pages from 45 Australian tertiary education web sites were reviewed to see how they complied with basic accessibility standards. 98 percent of sites failed.

  • Testing web page design concepts for usability
    (Co-authored with Derek Brown and accepted for Ausweb03)
    We tested 5 visual design concepts by "greeking" all text elements on each of the designs. Users had to rely on the communicative aspects of each design when attempting a set of identification tasks.

  • Redesign of the Monash University web site: a case study in user-centred design methods
    (Accepted for AusWeb 03)
    This paper presents a case study of a user-centred design approach to the redesign of a large university web site.

  • An accessibility audit of WebCT
    (Accepted for AusWeb 02)
    This paper provides an accessibility audit of WebCT. It identifies a range of accessibility problems and suggests strategies to ensure that universities who have purchased this product understand and are able to meet their legal obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.

  • Designing for improved usability: the my.monash portal
    (Accepted for AusWeb 01)
    my.monash     is a web portal providing members of the Monash University community with a personalised gateway to Web-based resources and information. This short paper documents the results of a usability evaluation of the portal's customisation interface and show how the application of usability design principles to the redesign of the interface achieves significant usability improvements.

Published articles and books

  • Testing web page design concepts for usability
    (Ariadne 40, July 2004)
    We tested five visual design concepts by "greeking" all text elements on each of the designs so users had to rely on the communicative aspects of each design in order to attempt a set of identification tasks.

  • How accessible are Australian university web sites?
    (Ariadne 38, January 2004)
    A 2003 study of the accessibility of Australian university web sites showed 98% of sites failed to meet the basic requirements for web accessibility.

  • Case study: migrating down under
    (CM Focus, 2003)
    In this article, I explain the importance of preparing content for migration into a content management system, so you can maximise return on investment.

  • Philosophy in Cyberspace
    (1st edition, 1995; 2nd edition, 1998)
    An extensive guide to online resources for academic philosophers and students published by the Philosophy Documentation Center.