For the past month, I've been away from the computer screen. Now I'm back reading on it many hours a day. Which got me thinking: How do we read online?

Lazy Eyes - How We Read Online from Slate

This is pretty cool :]

PodiPodi is an experimental project in Interaction Design born with the aim to give web designers a way to enhance their websites with two new levels of interaction.

PodiPodi

Linear vs. non-linear. Author-driven vs. reader-driven. Storytelling vs. ruthless pursuit of actionable content. Anecdotal examples vs. comprehensive data. Sentences vs. fragments.

Writing Style for Print vs. Web by Jakob Nielsen

Despite what you’ve read, the volume of text on your page in and of itself has no impact on the success of your site. Statisticians will tell you otherwise, because they observe specific behaviors and perceive patterns and think that their perceptions easily translate into concrete conclusions. They’re usually wrong on this score. The fact is it doesn’t matter what volume of copy you have if the copy is well designed.

Volume Doesn't Matter by Andy Rutledge

This article highlights 5 further principles, heuristics and approaches for effective web design — approaches which, used properly, can lead to more sophisticated design decisions and simplify the process of perceiving presented information.

Five More Principles of Effective Web Design from Smashing Magazine

Website Optimizer, Google’s free website testing and optimization tool, allows you to increase the value of your existing websites and traffic without spending a cent. Using Website Optimizer to test and optimize site content and design, you can quickly and easily increase revenue and ROI whether you’re new to marketing or an expert.

Google Website Optimizer

Users scan lists by moving their eyes rapidly down the left edge. Menu items that are right-aligned make scanning more difficult.

Right-Justified Navigation Menus Impede Scannability by Jakob Nielsen

If you’re interested in analyzing and optimizing your page layout - here’s some extremely useful tools that you can use to help.

7 Incredibly Useful Tools for Evaluating a Web Design from Six Revisions

This tutorial explains how to improve form usability adding an auto message which appears and disappears with a nice fade-in and fade-out effect when an user select a field.

Improve Form Usability with Auto Messages from Antonio Lupetti

Bad content, bad links, bad navigation, bad category pages... which is worst for business? In these examples, bad content takes the prize for costing the company the most money.

Four Bad Designs by Jacob Nielsen

There are many sexy websites but then there are websites that aren't as sexy but are more effective. Are your sexy websites effective?

If your Web site gets great traffic but no sales or sign-ups to back it up, it's time to take a good, hard look at it. Chances are, your site is scaring off customers. Follow these tips to make your Web site more friendly to customers and encourage better conversion rates.

50 Ways Your Web Site is Discouraging Conversions — and How to Fix It from Inside CRM

How User-Friendly is your Site? from Demo Girl