Making your website as accessible and simple as possible for your users isn't always easy. Luckily, there are many standards and practices that visitors expect on any modern website. We've boiled some of these rules down to our top 12 favorites for you to use as a checklist on your current website or next big project!

1. Layout: Studies have been done that prove Web users look at the top of a page first and then work their way down the left hand side (think of a backwards 7). Try to include your important text, navigation and headings in those areas to increase their visibility.
2. Contrast: Try to choose colors for your text and background that contrast well to make it easy on the eyes. If your foreground and background colors are too similar some monitors may not display the differences well enough to make your text readable.
3. Whitespace: It's tempting to try to include as much information on your page as possible, but overcrowding makes pages difficult to read or scan quickly. Use whitespace between paragraphs, content boxes, graphics and navigation elements to keep your pages digestable.
4. Treat Type Consistently: Keeping the sizes and typefaces you use consistent will help users read your content more easily. Headlines should be larger, body text should be in a single size, and try not to use too many different fonts.
5. Make Links Recognizable: Links should stand out from the rest of the text on your site. Common practice is to underline links and color them blue. If you don't follow these rules, keeping the design of your links consistent will help users know what's clickable.
6. Header: This is one of the first things a visitor sees on your site, so it needs to have a consistent design and persistent navigation on every page. Include your logo at the top left and link it to your homepage to help users quickly return home.
7. Footer: Just like your header, this area should be consistent throughout your site. Include your address, phone number, copyright info, and links to your social media profiles.
8. "About Us": Your about page should be clear and informative. It's the go-to page for people wanting to know more about your website and, if you're a business, why they should use your company over another.
9. Calls-To-Action: A call-to-action is an area on your site that elicits a user interaction, like a "buy now" button or link. Make sure your actions are clear and go where promised, try replacing "click here" with "view gallery" or "see all services".
10. Buttons on Bottom Right: People read from top left to bottom right. If you want users to move through to the next page, put your buttons or links near the bottom right. If you want users to go backward, put your buttons or links on the bottom left.
11. Clear Page Titles: If a page on your site shows the products you sell, call it your "Salon Catalog" or "Wine Tasting Menu", not "Page 4." This helps users when bookmarking a page and also promotes proper indexing by search engines.
12. Break Up Long Blocks Of Text: We read slower online and we read even slower still if all the content is one long paragraph. Break up your text into smaller paragraphs and use sub-heads or graphics to help users scan more easily.

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I was watching Good Morning America, yesterday morning and Bob Woodruff did a profile on the band 4Troops.  The group is comprised of four U.S. soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.   I listened to their performance and I was amazed. Here are four young soldiers who served our country and are now collaborating to foster support for American veterans.

They are releasing a CD on May 25, 2010.   You can pre-order it now.  I am sure you will enjoy their music, the message in their songs, and hope you will support them.

http://www.4troopsmusic.com/

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I passed around my UC 3.400 Light For Life flashlight at the January PNAI meeting.
We didn't get to discuss a lot of the features, but it was apparent that the thing is wickedly bright.

A number of members were interested in finding out more, so for those not present and those seeking more information about this rugged, bright duty light, here are some sources:

The UC stands for Ultra Capacitor, because it does not use batteries. This first model is the 3.400, and it's made by the tactical gear company, 5.11 Tactical. A smaller one, about 8" long, called the 3.300 is being released about now.

Find them at their website 5.11Tactical.com and also Quartermaster Uniforms

It will be interesting to see this original use of the ultra capacitor become more widespread, as the technology develops and the size -and price- do the inevitable downsizing. There will probably be an Ultra Capacitor flashlight in a few years that is about the size of a Surefire Aviator but for 1/4 the price.

(Ultra capacitor technology has sprung from the large units installed in today's Hybrid cars to quickly capture regenerated energy from their braking systems).

I have found it to be extremely rugged, and agree that it would be nice if the "High Power" 270-Lumen mode could be switched on all the time, but really the 90-lumen's is very good on these rainy Northwest nights.

Right now, the 5.11 Light For Life is in it's Patent Pending stage. Who knows, if you pick up one of these first-run models, someday you might pass yours down to one of your grandchildren, and they can brag to their fellow officers about having "one of the originals"!

P.S. I got mine on a great deal on EBay. The optional AC charger is a great idea, too, if you can afford the extra $40.

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If you haven't noticed, just recently, Comcast boosted it's upload and download speeds to its high speed Internet customers.  We use a standard connection plan with an added boost that costs an extra $8 per month.  The speeds shown above in the image are pretty remarkable.  I conducted this test in the early morning to ensure I was'nt competing with neighbors for bandwidth.  You can find this speedtest site at:  http://www.speedtest.comcast.net

 Enjoy

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In the US, the RIAA has a huge job on its hands policing people's computer use, but the Recording Industry Association of Japan is far more concerned with mobile phones when it comes to copyright infringement. That's because Japanese music lovers acquire new tunes on their handsets, not from their laptops. Given this reality, it was only a matter of time before criminal charges were brought against a unauthorized mobile phone download service—something that finally happened this week (read more)

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1/3 of the info at twice the price.  Recently, while at the the Thurston County Superior Court pulling a case file for one of my clients I realized they had doubled there per-page printing price.  It's gone to $1.00 for the first page and .50 cent for each additional.  I used to think .25 for the first page and .25 each additional was overboard too.  Especially since the state worker has to do no more than pull the pages from the printer and collect the cash from the customer.

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