USABILITY AS A PROBLEM OF EXPRESSIVE WEB DESIGN TOOLS: FROM THE PRACTICE OF WEB USABILITY TO THE CONTEXT OF WEB ACCESSIBILITY

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of analyzing the issue of web usability and web accessibility of using educational web resources in the context of the problems of expressive web design tools. The author considers web usability and web accessibility systems as components of a universal design problem that goes beyond narrow technical issues of website content consumption. An important component of the research discourse of the publication is the study and interpretation of the experience of using educational Internet resources from the point of view of the system of expressive means, aesthetic solutions and artistic and project properties of web design. It is concluded that the artistic nature of an educational website has the capacity for representation within the user experience. It is proved that the parameter of external consistency of expressive means is extremely important for the problem of web accessibility. If a website's learning model uses more than one visual system, this requires coordination of visual solutions at all levels of interface design. The author emphasizes that the practice of gaining experience using an educational web resource is based on functional criteria. At the same time, the usability characteristics are not enough to identifythe typological structure of a certain site and to determine, on this basis, a universal approach to the construction of visual solutions. Practically in all the considered cases there are artistic-figurative or aesthetic-stylistic features, which are either part of the functioning system, or are considered as independent aesthetic components. The inevitability in the functioning of websites requires designers to come up with such solutions that would determine not only the functional properties of the website, but also its artistic direction. The conducted analysis shows that the aesthetics of network Internet resources is formed based on the principles of usability and is a utilitarian system that has its own functionality and a wide range of usage norms. Based on this, educational websites have significant differences compared to representative web resources that form visual messages within a different artistic and figurative system.