The proposed $100 machine will be a Linux-based, with a dual-mode display—both a full-color, transmissive DVD mode, and a second display option that is black and white reflective and sunlight-readable at 3× the resolution. The laptop will have a 500MHz processor and 128MB of DRAM, with 500MB of Flash memory; it will not have a hard disk, but it will have four USB ports. The laptops will have wireless broadband that, among other things, allows them to work as a mesh network; each laptop will be able to talk to its nearest neighbors, creating an ad hoc, local area network. The laptops will use innovative power (including wind-up) and will be able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data.

User Interface screenshot of OLPC

 
The BBC logo was designed in 1956 by Richard Levin and modified in 1991 by Lambie-Nairn. The colour is blue (Pantone 2767).

The BBC uses the typeface Gill Sans.

Good collection of logos information about  used fonts, colors, designed by..

Many designers don’t think about the code behind the sites they design. This is a huge problem because it slows web projects down, which costs money. The good news is designers don’t need to learn code; they just need to change the way they think.

"[Usability refers to] the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use."   

                                                                                                         - ISO 9241-11

"Human-centered design is characterised by: the active involvement of users and a clear understanding of user and task requirements; an appropriate allocation of function between users and technology; the iteration of design solutions; multi-disciplinary design."                     
                                                                                                         - ISO 13407

Usability means that the people who use the product can do so quickly and easily to accomplish their own tasks. This definition rests on four points: (1) Usability means focusing on users; (2) people use products to be productive; (3) users are busy people trying to accomplish tasks; and (4) users decide when a product is easy to use.

                                                        - Janice (Ginny) Redish and Joseph Dumas

After all, usability really just means that making sure that something works well: that a person of average (or even below average) ability and experience can use the thing - whether it's a Web site, a fighter jet, or a revolving door - for its intended purpose without getting hopelessly frustrated.

                                                                        - Steve Krug, Don't Make Me Think

Usability starts with a philosophy - a belief in designing to meet user needs and to focus on creating an excellent user experience - but it is the specific process and methodology that produce the real goal of usability. A new usability process starts by looking at who uses a product, understanding their goals and needs, and selecting the right techniques to answer the question, "How well does this product meet the usability requirements of our users?"

                                                                                           - Whitney Quesenbery

It is important to realize that usability is not a single, one-dimensional property of a user interface. Usability has multiple components and is traditionally associated with these five usability attributes: learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors, satisfaction.

                                                                                    - Jakob Nielsen useit.com

Usability is a measurable characteristic, that is present to a greater or lesser degree, that describes how effectively a user can interact with a product. It can also be thought of as how easy a product is is to learn and how easy it is to use.

                                                                                           - Jeff Axup, UserDesign

PIE has a good list of IE BUGS

1.You can get free links from showcase sites like zengarden, stylegala, cssimport or cssbeauty

2. You don’t have to spend extra thought and time deciding on styling the mark up of your document (upper- or lowercase, quotes or no quotes on attributes)

3. You don’t need to spend extra thought on which tags should be closed and which can (or should) be left open

Continue reading..

http://home.tampabay.rr.com/bmerkey/cheatsheet.htm

From basic concepts to advanced good for beginners

 

Styling a table with CSS has major advantages since it separates the structural markup from presentation formatting. It offers extra flexibility on the way you present your table. You have the freedom to style each side of a table cell separately..

Douglas Bowman recently accepted an offer to join Google as Visual Design lead he redesigned websites like Capgemini, Blogger and webmonkey

check his css presentation Pushing your limits.

Another great CSS reference/example site. Has examples of CSS menus, layouts and more. I learn a lot form this site. It is unique