Welcome to November's edition of USEworthy. We have been researching Santa's little helpers 'avatars' in time for Christmas... do they assist you with your shop or take up your time giving you nothing in return? Paul Blunden discusses the customer experience online and the problems facing online retailers.

 
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Hot in the news this month are the legal issues of making your site accessible with The RNIB claiming that it "is prepared to support disabled individuals who have a case that we feel demonstrates that discrimination is taking place." This country could see more cases of website discrimination being brought to court. We give you the low-down on your legal responsibilities in the first of our four part accessibility series. For all those of you attempting to design with accessibility in mind Arlene Kline negotiates the JavaScript/Accessibility minefield with Java 'Guru' Dafydd Hopkin.

Now that the nights are drawing in Arlene has been snuggled up with a good book. Her review of 'The Usability Business: Making the Web Work' follows.

Remember the frustrating 'paperclip' man on word that will assist you to write a letter just in case you missed that lesson at primary school? A few sites are gearing up to offer their customers a helping hand on their sites in time for Christmas. We find out what real users really want from the Avatars and how they found three that are already offered.

Read more about Avatars

Arlene Kline negotiates the JavaScript/Accessibility minefield with Java 'Guru' Dafydd Hopkin.

Read more about Javascript

Over the next four months we will discuss the issues involved in accessibility: Legal, Business, Technology and Moral. This month we will start with the legal issues.

Read more about Accessibility Legal Issues

I went shopping recently, to one of the major retailers, you know the ones I mean. They have elaborate loyalty card schemes and are almost overly enthusiastic in making you feel really welcome – well in the adverts anyway. The brands are all about value for money, quality, choice and the importance of me as a customer. 

This book provides a great deal of reports from the 'coal face'. There are numerous accounts of the difficulties encountered when dealing with organizational politics, adapting usability skills to work with new applications and to work within various development methodologies.