Outside links that produce windows

If anyone knows the answer to this one, I'll be really grateful. I have some links to other sites (with permission) but don't want the user to leave my site. I've been told to set up these links so the new site is a new window, preferably smaller. But, this adviser doesn't know how to do this. Does anyone? It's late, but I've been spending a lot of time looking for this without success.

Problems with images

Hello all,

My website seems to function properly except for my images. None of them show up. I'm assuming I've simply made a mistake in designating the source for these in the Dreamweaver program. Has anyone had similar problems and now knows the fix?

Thanks,

Jake

nice Photoshop button tutorial

This might be a little late, but I think it is very well done and wanted to share it. This simple tutorial covers--in very nice detail--making very pretty (reusable) buttons in Photoshop. I hope you like it! The blog this links to is that of a designer-- she always has some nice stuff and regularly offers tips and tricks to improve everyone's design. Enjoy!

One more thing

I have a quick question about web etiquette and plagiarism. If I link to a website in my page, am I taking up any of that linked websites bandwidth up? Should I ask them permission. I've incorporated a few websites into my websites via these links, and it feels like I am plagiarizing. I guess it's because I have not created the content, I don't know? Anyway, what is the netiquette for links? And what about pdf files? I've used others' pdf files in my own site? Do the same rules apply?

small scale turns into LARGE SCALE

Since we've all been frantically attempting to complete our sites by wednesday, I am not expecting a huge response to this post. However, thought I'd put it out there since our usability articles and discussions have primarily focused on large-scale sites. I didn't think that I was creating a large scale site initially, but it turns out that I was. Has anyone else's website exploded on them? I am creating a research paper website for my high school students, and although there are many steps to writing a good research paper, I didn't envision it being that complicated. Boy, was I wrong. Keeping in mind usuablity forced me to create many more pages; I felt the need to break information into smaller chunks, thereby forcing me to create more pages and links. More pages and links equals more work. For example, I wanted to let students know what their grades meant: A,B,C,D, and F. Instead of keeping the grade descriptions on the same page, I felt the need to seperate them because in terms of usability, it is much easier to read a single paragraph than five. Anyway, I'm not complaining (ok, I am), but my small scale website grew into a bit of an unruly beast.

Hope everyone is doing well. Good luck.

Usability Testing (for Wednesday's class)

Hi.

I know that we're left to formulate our own usability tests for class this week, but I was wondering if anyone had some further advice for me as I'm thinking about my own.

Our guest presenter suggested we do the following:

• Think up 5 tasks, three of which are relatively easy/common, the other two being more obscure
• Note the activity of the participant -- where do their eyes go? What do they do with their mouse? How long does it take them to find X thing?
• Repeat with 4 others (preferably drawn from representative user groups)

Am I missing something? We are basically just designing a series of treasure hunts, right?

I found this site to be helpful in designing my tests, but I didn't know if we had to write up something formally to turn in, or if it's going to be more like the card-sorting exercise . . .

Thanks,

JB