Usability - Topics A-Z
Topics A-Z listing of articles and resources about web usability.
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Accessibility, Usability and User Centred Design - 2. Usability
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Content of the presentation includes: the what, why, when and where of usability; planning, measuring and executing usability testing; discount usability and the various usability testing tools you can use; and lastly, the various usability adoption stages.
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From Here to Usability
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The seminar focused on bad designs for websites, provided a general introduction to web usability including what it is, why should you care and how do you get it, then covered information about developing a usability strategy, including how much does a project need and how you can go about institutionalizing usability.
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How To Create Government Websites That Dont Suck
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The presentation is focussed on New Zealand goverment websites and suggests how to create government websites that rock by: Creating a citizen-centred culture; Creating an a site which is actionable and citizen-centric; Improving findability / discoverability; and lastely Following a user-centred design process for your online strategy.
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Usability for Government: improving service delivery
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Slides from the paper presented at the Local Government Web Network Conference, 22 August 2008, in Sydney by Ruth Ellison and Adrian Newton from Stamford Interactive
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Usability: Part 1 - Archive
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Usability resources for website development including universal design principles and user centered design.
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Usability: Part 2 - Archive
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Usability resources for website development including universal design principles and user centered design.
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Usability: Part 3 - Archive
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Usability resources for website development including universal design principles and user centered design.
- Do Government Agencies and Non-Profits Get ROI From Usability?
- Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, February 12, 2007. "Summary: Although the gains don't fall into traditional profit columns, there are clear arguments for improving usability of non-commercial websites and intranets. In one example, a state agency could get an ROI of 22,000% by fixing a basic usability problem..."
- Capturing User Research
- By Jim Ross. UXmatters, Published: April 2, 2012. "... You have to juggle a lot during any user research session, even without the added job of capturing the experience for later analysis. Throughout each user research session, you’re setting participants’ expectations, guiding them to demonstrate tasks, keeping them on track, reminding them to think aloud, managing the pace of the session, and keeping an eye on the clock. You’re also tracking your own behavior, maintaining appropriate eye contact and body language, ensuring you use a neutral tone to avoid bias, and using your interpersonal skills to make participants feel at ease.
Throughout this process, you’re also trying to understand what you’re learning, assessing whether you’ve received the information you need, determining what else you need to cover, and deciding where to take the session next. In the back of your mind, you’re keeping track of the questions and topics you had planned to cover, while remaining flexible and responsive to the natural flow of participant feedback...."
- To Underline or Not Underline Links
- Posted by Kim Krause Berg. cre8pc, March 9, 2012. "As visually entertaining the latest trends in web design may be, there are a few usability walls we run into while reading. One is the appearance of a hyperlink.
Should you underline a text link? These days it's not the only way to signal a place to click. Other clues may be a different text color, font size or hover color. Your best choice is to pick one style and be consistent through out your web pages..."
- Recent Findings On Captcha and The User Experience
- by Kim Krause Berg. Search Engine Land, February 3, 2012. "The opinions on what makes a form or Web application user friendly may vary but most everyone dislikes Captcha fields. Some Captcha's are so difficult to decipher they actually increase form and page abandonment.
Along with the freedom the Internet provides humans, it is unfortunately humans who also created barriers to our free flow of information. It's uncanny the amount of search engine marketing money spent to bring people into websites, only to chase them back out because they must prove they are indeed, human.
Spam helped create the need for Captcha. To defend ourselves from the onslaught of unsolicited and unwanted information that comes in the form of blog comments, log in, purchasing tasks and forums discussions, we must first solve a puzzle..."
- Why Blending Usability and SEO Really Matters
- by Kim Krause Berg. Search Engine Land, November 11, 2011. "Whenever the phrase, “usability and SEO”, enter a conversation, there’s a very good chance it goes in one ear and out the other. Corporate management interprets it as “We need more money”, and middle management fixes their poker face until they’re free to run to Google to look up the term.
Though there is improvement, traditionally the term, “usability and SEO” represent two distinct countries, each with their own culture and belief systems. SEO inhabitants live, eat, breathe and play in the realm of marketing, especially in search engines..."
- The vital importance of the first click
- By Gerry McGovern. New Thinking, 7 November 2011. "If customers get the first click right they have twice as much of a chance of completing their task than if they get it wrong..."
- E-Commerce Usability
- Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, October 24, 2011. Summary: Sites have improved, and we now know much more about e-tailing usability. Today, poor content is the main cause of user failure.
"It's been 11 years since our original studies of e-commerce usability — long enough that it's definitely worth revisiting the topic. The bottom line? The number of usability guidelines for e-commerce sites has increased from 207 in the first edition of the report to 874 in the new edition. Using this rough metric, we now know 4.2 times as much about e-commerce user experience as we did during the dot-com bubble..."
- Six avoidable website mistakes
- By Tyler Thia, ZDNet Asia, September 17, 2011. "Usability and delivering site content in a pleasant, uncluttered manner should be the main priorities for companies looking to develop new websites or revamp existing ones, experts say..." The six things to avoid are: 1. Cluttering of website; 2. Unclear navigation taxonomy; 3. Not understanding users' needs; 4. Lack of "visual hierarchy"; 5. Choosing flash over function; 6. Making changes willy nilly..."
- How Long Do Users Stay on Web Pages?
- Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, September 12, 2011. "Summary: Users often leave Web pages in 10–20 seconds, but pages with a clear value proposition can hold people's attention for much longer because visit-durations follow a negative Weibull distribution.
How long will users stay on a Web page before leaving? It's a perennial question, yet the answer has always been the same:
Not very long.
The average page visit lasts a little less than a minute..."
- 10 things you can do to improve your Web site right now
- By Justin James. 10 Things Blog, August 11, 2011. "Takeaway: Even if you don't have the time or resources for a full-blown site redesign, you can make some small, easily implemented tweaks that will have a huge impact.
We often look at our Web sites and know that they need to be overhauled, but we just do not have the time to do it. A major Web site redesign project can takes weeks or months (depending on the size of your site and the technology underneath it) to complete. Meanwhile, your site is turning away visitors right now. Here are 10 easy things that you can do to improve your site..."
- A Focus on User Experience
- By Xinghui Guo. FutureGov, 2 August 2011. "Within the last month, I wrote about two organisations revamping their websites with a focus on user experience. I thought that was a really interesting approach to take—looking at how the hoi polloi interact with the government and education sector, and realigning information flow in that way..."
- Top Ten Must Have Books on Usability and Search Engine Optimization
- by Kim Krause Berg. Cre8pc Holistic Design: Usability and Search Engine Marketing, June 21, 2011. "... Understanding the theory and practices behind a unified Usability and SEO approach can be found in the 10 books below..."
- Attractive websites not enough to inspire loyalty, University of Melbourne study reveals
- by Patrick Stafford. Smart Company, Wednesday, 13 July 2011. "Internet shoppers are beginning to trust websites that are more physically attractive but they are becoming less loyal and will shop from a variety of sources, a new study from the University of Melbourne has found.
The survey's author says businesses need to make websites more physically attractive and to push how websites can provide rich, relevant content.
"The number one reason users leave a website is if they search for something and can't find something relevant," says study author Brent Coker, from the university's department of business and economics..."
- International Usability: Big Stuff the Same, Details Differ
- Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, June 6, 2011. Summary: User testing on 3 continents confirmed that the main usability guidelines hold worldwide, but many other considerations exist to better support international users.
- How To Practice Persuasion Architecture with Personas - Part 1B
- By Marijayne Bushey. FutureNow, May 26, 2011. "... Usually I like to have all the facts, and I spend lots of time weighing my options before I make my final decision. But at work I don’t have time for that, and I have to decide much more quickly. What persona am I?
Yes. You’re right: personas don't represent groups of people as much as they represent groups of behaviors. I know this is hard to digest, but it actually makes things easier. If you let go of the false assumption that each of us has a type, and fits into one of these groups, things start to make a lot more sense. That’s because even though each of us has a preferred way of acting, and a preferred information focus, certain situations can make us act differently. This is one reason we here at FutureNow prefer to think of the personas as describing a mode of behavior rather than describing a particular kind of person..."
This category last updated: 5 April 2012