I was told by my boss to put together a presentation for work regarding Usability on the web.

Basically, I work with some very talented graphic designers, but they're not altogether well-versed in the nuances of the web, hence we (the web developers) have to try to code whatever is in their PSD file, and see if it's even possible, because limitations of coding don't necessarily cross their minds when designing.

I suggested that it might be a good idea to talk about the fact that a site with high usability and effectiveness doesn't necessarily have to be one that is flashy, or a "piece of art". I'd like to get them thinking about load times, accessibility between different browsers, etc also so that we can all live on a commune somewhere spreading love. :)

If you guys/girls know any links that could provide some good insight into this, I'd greatly appreciate it.

PS Oh and I don't believe that design and usability have to be 'enemies' by any means. There are tons of wonderful CSS sites that have great simplicity and usability intertwined

Here's a recent blog post by Joshua Porter, the Director of Web Development at User Interface Engineering - that's sure to start a conversation among your designer colleagues.

I faced a similar issue a couple years ago with the design team at the agency where I work. Many were not in tune with designing with standards, usability or CSS in mind, so I taught a basic HTML/CSS class. The class was held once each week for one hour over an 8 week period. I was able to give them enough information to at least understand how a developer approaches a designer's work, and they were coding simple pages by the end of the class. It changed all of their work for the better (they will attest to that) and made my life easier for sure. A few of the designers really got the concept. One used her experience in the class to move into a senior designer role at Nickelodeon.

Read through the W3C guidelines for accessibility ( level A - AAA) if you can print off the checklist you will get some helpfll insight into why you should adhere to some sort of standard while building.

:)

oh no you didn't just link to Jakob Nielsen...

Also why not give your boss an example that's not a website. Another context for the same idea...

Eg. Macs don't have an eject button on the machine itself. Has the aesthetic of the computer been placed above it's usability? (yes obviously!)

Another thing I found useful to explain the benefits of a well built CSS website - load it in your mobile phone's browser to demonstrate how functional it is with all of the styling removed. Even a total non-techie can understand this kind of demo. Then try and load a Flash website and show how it just doesn't work at all!

There are no limits :-)