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Tania Lang – Using AJAX to enhance UX

Web Directions South 2009, Sydney Convention Centre, October 8 2.40pm.

Presentation slides

Session description

AJAX is changing the way that users interact with websites – it has the potential to provide richer and more interactive online user experiences but also introduces its own set of usability and accessibility problems. This session will present views from leading usability experts from around the world from an experienced practitioner workshop conducted at the Usability Professionals Conference in USA.

We will also discuss key usability issues we have unveiled through our own usability testing of a range of websites using AJAX over the last 2 years. The session will highlight some of the pitfalls and user frustrations with AJAX as well as how AJAX can be used to enhance the user experience. We will present usability and accessibility issues and common user behaviours with AJAX applications.

Finally we will discuss interaction design guidelines for developing user friendly AJAX designs. This is not a technical session and will appeal to designers, developers and anyone working with interactive websites or web applications.

About Tania Lang

Tania Lang PortraitTania Lang is founder and principal of Peak Usability as well as a member of the UPA, WIPA and the Queensland Representative for CHISIG in Australia. She is considered one of the leaders in her field and is passionate about usability. She regularly presents and conducts training workshops to increase awareness and adoption of good usability and UX design practices. With over 10 years experience as a UX practitioner and consultant, Tania has conducted hundreds of usability tests and has learnt a lot about online user behaviour and how this has evolved over the years. She has worked on UX projects for Telstra, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, Suncorp, Flight Centre, iiNet, RACQ, NRMA, Ergon Energy and numerous government agencies.

Follow Tania on Twitter: @tanialang

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