Drop-down menus and accessibility (or lack of)

[Tags: web design, accessibility]. Thanks to Hannah Watson for posing a question about drop down menus and accessibility that prompted me to find this page that confirms:

"Dropdown menus for navigation are a bad idea and cause serious usability problems...
"For a detailed discussion of the drawbacks of navigational drop down menus, as well as an advice on fixing some of the worst problem if you have been forced to use them, please check http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/forms/navmenu.html"

Internet users judge Web sites in less than a blink

[Tags: web design, new media]. Here's the rundown:

" TORONTO (Reuters) - Internet users can give Web sites a thumbs up or thumbs down in less than the blink of an eye, according to a study by Canadian researchers.

"In just a brief one-twentieth of a second -- less than half the time it takes to blink -- people make aesthetic judgments that influence the rest of their experience with an Internet site."

Sadly...

"the results did not show how to win a positive reaction from users, said Lindgaard, a psychology professor at Carleton University in Ottawa. "When we looked at the Web sites that we tested, there is really nothing there that tells us what leads to dislike or to like.""