[thelist] Use of <abbr title>

[Madhu Menon]

At 05:03 PM 3/13/2002, iris wrote:

>abbreviation: a shortening of a word (for example:
>etc. instead of etcetera)
>
>acronym: the first letters of several words (for
>example: WAI = Web Accessibility Initiative)

Couldn't let this pass. I have a language nazi reputation to maintain,
after all. ;)

I'm afraid you're not completely right.

An abbreviation *is* a shortened form of a word or phrase. However, CNN,
PHP, WWW, ISP and IRS are all abbreviations too.

An acronym is an abbreviation that's pronounced as a word and not as
separate letters. Examples are NASA, SONAR, WaSP, COBOL, BASIC, and AIDS.


<joke type="lame">

Q: What did the older computer say to the younger computer?

A: Practise safe hex, son. Always use a virus scanner.

</joke>


Hey, I told you it was lame. I guess that needs a tip to make up its
lameness. ;)


<tip type="E-commerce best practices" author="Madhu Menon">

Mandatory registration annoys the heck out of many people and can be
responsible for driving away a large number of potential buyers from your
site.

Avoid making registration or logging in compulsory for important functions
such as adding an item to a shopping cart. Imagine if supermarkets asked
you to fill out a personal details form before you could start shopping there.

Also give people the option to just fill out an address in the checkout
phase if they don't want to register. It's faster and less painful.

If you *must* get people to fill out a registration form, keep it to the
bare essentials. Name and contact information is all that you need. Don't
have fields such as "Birthday", "Anniversary", "Interests", "Occupation",
"Gender", "Income", "Education level", and "Grandma's name" (OK, I'm
exaggerating about the grandma.)
Even if these fields are *optional*, the mere appearance of a long form can
be enough to deter many people from shopping on your site.

</tip>

Regards,

Madhu

<<<   *   >>>
Madhu Menon
User Experience Consultant
e-mail: webguru at vsnl.net