When I’m designing a website, I have a specific process that I follow. For the most part, I follow the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) process, in its most basic form.
- Requirements
- Design
- Implementation
- Verification
- Maintenance
I’m constantly simplifying things for my clients. So keeping the SDLC process basic, makes it easier to explain to them.
The same simplicity should apply to user experience. To me, user experience is all about how easy a person can navigate a website, find information on a website and how the design makes the user want to stay, read more and return. Really, when you think about it, why does it need to be more complicated?
I think this definition of usability, translates into more focus on the way a design works for the end user. For this reason, I often find myself testing and re-testing the layout of graphical elements, created for website use.
This testing/re-testing means viewing a basic HTML/CSS wire frame, including the graphical elements, multiple times, in various browsers, on multiple operating systems. Anytime I have to modify or tweak the design, I have to perform a hard refresh in each web browser instance.
The problem with the “hard refresh” is the differences from one operating system to another. On a Linux or Micro$lop Windoz system, a “hard refresh” is performed with the CTRL+F5 key combination, which works on most web browsers.
The CTRL+F5 key combination has an unrelated affect, for Mac users. On a Mac, the web browsers require different key combinations and from what I can tell, these combinations may be different from one version of a browser, to another.
How do I perform a Hard Refresh in my Web Browser on a Mac?
Below are the key combinations, I verified to be working under Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4 (11E53), tested on a MacBook Air:
- Apple’s Safari Version 5.1.7 (7534.57.2) – Command+R
- Google’s Chrome Version 19.0.1084.56 – Shift+Command+R
- Mozilla’s Firefox 13.0.1 – Shift+Command+R
- Opera Version 11.60 Build 1185 – Command+R
