Welcome to redQueen

Four things

January 26th, 2006

Amit has kindly “four thinged” me - I feel so privileged…

Four jobs I’ve had

  1. Veterinary Nurse
  2. Grace Bros. Sales Assistant
  3. Technical Officer in Ichthyology
  4. Web Content Producer

Four movies I can watch over and over

  1. The Princess Bride
  2. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
  3. Star Wars (I have all of them)
  4. The English Patient

Four places I’ve lived

This one is a little boring, I haven’t even got out of the inner west!

  1. Annandale, Sydney
  2. Haberfield, Sydney
  3. Camperdown, Sydney
  4. Rozelle, Sydney

Four TV shows I enjoy

  1. Simpsons
  2. The Office
  3. Anything on Animal Planet
  4. The Goodies (an old favourite)

Four places I’ve vacationed

  1. Czech Republic
  2. France
  3. New Zealand
  4. England

Four of my favorite dishes

  1. Fettuccine Alcatraz (at Reggios)
  2. Sushi
  3. Ice Cream (any flavour)
  4. Bonfire Chicken

Four sites I visit daily

  1. Google
  2. SMH
  3. flickr
  4. Australian Museum

Four places I would rather be right now

  1. The Big Day Out!
  2. Snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef
  3. Margaret River
  4. Cinque Terre

Four bloggers I am tagging

  1. The unheard word
  2. Ruth Ellison
  3. Ajay Ranipeta
  4. Lindsay Evans

Sorry guys - don’t feel obliged.

Posted in Personal, 4 Comments

Page source order

January 17th, 2006

Is page source order important for screen reader users? Roger Hudson, Russ Weakley and I recently completed some work examining this very question. However, we did not want to stop with one line of inquiry while we had screen reader users to work with - so we decided to investigate the usefulness of skip links and structural labels at the same time.

During this project we worked with some remarkable people who were incredibly generous with their time and knowledge. I have been involved in task-based testing with screen reader users several times before, however this testing involved a number of new experiences for me.

First of all I got to see Bruce Maguire navigate our sites using his BrailleNote – a device that allows him to read every line of text on the page in Braille. It was amazing to watch someone interact with the web in this way – the speed at which he read and navigated the site was astounding.

Secondly, for this study we decided to recruit a relatively inexperienced screen reader user who had only been using JAWS for a few months. We felt this was important, as often user testing with blind users involves those who are proficient at using their technology. By working with a person who had lost her sight late in life we learnt many more interesting things about how screen reader users interact with the web and what practical problems they encounter. While observing this inexperienced user operate JAWS I could feel her frustration with learning this technology and for the first time understood how hard it is to master.

So if you ever get the chance to observe someone use an assistive technology - do it! It truly brings home the importance of adhering to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as well as expanding your understanding of how people access your site.

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Posted in Old site archives, 1 Comment

Jump in, the water is warm!

January 16th, 2006

I have finally done something about getting a site/blog with the help of WordPress and a few friends. Coming from a web content background my main motivation for creating Red Queen was to build further resources about this field.

However, once I started writing I realised there were other reasons why I wanted this site. They included not being so afraid about putting my opinions on public record and that the more I struggle to express my thoughts in words the better my writing will become.

So here goes nothing – hopefully I will keep my head above water.

Posted in Personal, 4 Comments