#19412
Age Classifications: When Considering the Age of Users, How Old is 
When considering the age of users – how old is 'old'?
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Elderly
#14879
Is it better to have more items on a page and requiring fewer pages to be accessed (wide breadth), or to have fewer items per page and require more pages to be accessed (more depth)? Based primarily on studies reported three years ago by Larson and Czerwinski (1998) and Zaphiris and Mtei (1998), designers have been encouraged to construct broad, shallow sites.
Bailey, Robert. Human Factors International (2001). Design>Information Design>Web Design
#27145
Consider as Many Design Alternatives as Possible: The Value of Parallel Design
Several years ago I taught several 'hands-on' courses on Web user interface design. In one exercise, students were given user and system requirements, and used a prototyping tool to create a simple system. After the design solutions were completed, each individual in the class used everyone else's proposed systems to complete a task. Having experienced everyone else's ideas, the students then made changes to their original prototypes. The same process was repeated a second time. The results were amazing. By having students work independently to create unique ideas, and then effectively sharing these ideas, the final interfaces always were significantly better than the originals.
Bailey, Robert. Usability.gov (2006). Articles>Usability
#19431
Does the research suggest that there are differences in younger and older users? What can we do to enable older adults to interact with our Web sites at the same level as younger adults?
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2001). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Elderly
#14882
Do people learn more when they read material, only observe graphics, hear the material, or when they read, see graphics and read the material?
Bailey, Robert. Human Factors International (2002). Articles>Usability
#19407
Do's and Don'ts of Effective Web Design: A Summary of the UIU-2002 Research
Every year since 1983, I have reviewed and summarized much of the usability-related research literature that was published during the previous year. This has provided the basis for the popular, annual 3-day User Interface Update Course. My annual two-month 'read and outline' activity provides me with a number of research-based insights into 'what works' and 'what does not work' in usability. I have listed many of these insights in this article. What makes these 'Do's and Don'ts' unique is that they all have recent research to support them.
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2003). Design>Web Design>Usability
#19404
The Effects of Bold Text on Visual Search: The Downside of Highlighting
Everybody knows that by making a word bold that it will ‘standout,’ be perceived more readily and (obviously) processed faster. For example, which of the following formats will elicit the fastest performance by customer service representatives -- A or B?
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2003). Design>Typography>Web Design
#19433
It is the nature of most engineering activities that designers never have enough time to truly perfect their products. Engineers are continuously confronted with the real-world constraints of tight schedules and limited resources. Designing websites is no exception.
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2002). Design>Web Design
#27144
Getting the Complete Picture with Usability Testing
Good usability testing definitely provides an opportunity for clear-cut improvements in the usability of Web sites. In order to increase the chances of success with usability testing, it is important to measure effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction–they all measure different aspects of the usability of a Web site. If only one or two of these measures are used, it would provide an incomplete or partial picture of the possible human performance and user satisfaction results.
Bailey, Robert. Usability.gov (2006). Articles>Usability>Testing
#19432
The Growing Popularity of Usability
Why is computer system usability becoming so popular? Times have changed. With most new systems being Web sites, hiding poor interfaces is no longer possible.
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2002). Articles>Usability>History
#14881
Heuristic Evaluations vs. Usability Testing
How many of the usability problems identified in a heuristic evaluation are true usability problems? Several years ago, I published an article suggesting that many of the 'problems' identified by heuristic evaluators were not problems at all (Bailey, Allan and Raiello, 1992). Even so, many of us have continued to waste time and go to the expense of fixing many usability problems that were not problems. Recently, three research papers were published that provided some insights into the validity of heuristic evaluations (Catani and Biers, 1998; Rooden, et.al., 1999; Stanton and Stevenage, 1998). The articles discussed usability testing in three totally different domains with very similar results.
Bailey, Robert. Human Factors International (2002). Articles>Usability>Web Design
#19428
How Good are Designers at Predicting User Performance?
Having designers guess the best way of achieving optimal user performance is very difficult. Their design decisions can be improved by ensuring that designers are familiar with the research literature, and by effectively using performance-based usability testing.
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2001). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability
#19435
How Long Should Users Have to Wait?
In a well-designed website, how long should users have to wait for pages to download?
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2001). Design>Web Design>Usability
#19430
How Reliable is Usability Performance Testing?
Discussion of a comparative evaluation of usability tests by having four commercial usability labs carry out tests on the same commercially available calendar program. The purpose of the comparative evaluation was to observe the different ways in which independent laboratories conducted usability tests.
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2001). Articles>Usability>Assessment
#19423
If we have usability improvements with each iteration, is this evidence that 'usability testing' works? I believe the answer is 'Yes.' We have many studies showing that each iteration does help to improve the usability of a system—even if the improvements are only modest ones (which is usually the case).
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2002). Design>Web Design>Usability
#19406
Linking vs. Searching: Guidelines for Use
Sanjay Koyani at the National Cancer Institute and I did a quick survey of the available literature on linking and searching. We organized our findings into a series of observations and guidelines that may be helpful to designers dealing with similar issues.
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2003). Design>Web Design>Search
#14880
Are scrollbars located close enough to where users typically work with a Website or list box to encourage the fastest possible use?
Bailey, Robert. Human Factors International (2002). Design>Web Design>Usability
#19405
Major User Interface Issues in the Near Future
A discussion of new technologies from the November 2002 COMDEX.
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2003). Design>Web Design>Usability
#19410
Making Research-Based Design Decisions: Results of Research Poll
Usability information is being published in a variety of different locations. Most of it is still paper-based, and most current, full articles are not readily available on the Internet. This makes it very difficult for many (most) practitioners to use this information in a timely way.
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2002). Design>Web Design>Usability
#19411
There are about 1,000 usability-related articles published each year. My guess is that less than 5% ever have any practical, long-term value to most usability practitioners. In some cases, the topics being studied are of little interest to practitioners. In many cases the research results are simply too hard for practitioners to find.
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2002). Articles>Publishing>User Centered Design>Usability
#19425
No Web page fonts should be less than 10-points, Optimal reading speed for most adults will be elicited with 12-point fonts (size=3). There is probably no reliable difference in reading speed for most adults when viewing common font styles (Arial, Verdana, Georgia, Times New Roman). Most users tend to prefer sans serif fonts (Arial, Verdana). Older users will benefit from type sizes that are at least 14-points.
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2002). Design>Typography>Web Design>Usability
#19429
Faraday and Sutcliffe (1997) conducted a series of studies that tracked eye-movement patterns during multimedia presentations. The authors identified guidelines for improving the learning of information.
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2001). Articles>Multimedia>Usability
#27143
Web sites and Web applications require users to select from navigational options to access subsequent content pages. An important question relates to where the first navigational choices should be located on the page. Is the navigation better placed at the top of the page, on the left or right panels? If three clicks (i.e., three navigational level selections) are required to get to the desired content, should they be grouped together at the top, left, right, or split between different locations (e.g., select from the top, with the next selection[s] from the left, top or right)?
Bailey, Robert. Usability.gov (2006). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design
#19408
Optimal Line Length: Research Supporting How Line Length Affects Usability
What is the optimal line length when reading prose text from a monitor? Certain aspects of usability have been researched for over 120 years. One active area of investigation has been the influence of line length on the speed of reading prose text. Weber (1881) made the first research-based recommendations when he suggested that an ideal line length was 4 inches (100 millimeters). He stated further that the maximum never should exceed 6 inches (150 mm). The same year Javel (1881) reported that line lengths should be no longer than 3.6 inches (90 mm). Two years later, Cohn (1883) confirmed that 3.6 inches (90 mm) was the best length, and that 4 inches (102 mm) was the longest admissible line length.
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2002). Design>Typography>Web Design>Usability
#19413
Readability Formulas and Writing for the Web
There is a considerable amount of information published on the Web that is intended to be read by someone. There is evidence that much of the information may be too hard to read and understand for typical readers. Baker, Wilson and Kars (1997) reported that the readability scores of most articles in the 'Health Reference Center' ranged from 10th to 14th grade levels. Another study (Graber, Roller and Kaeble, 1999) included text-based information from commercial, academic and government sites. They found that the reading material averaged the 10th grade level. In a more recent study, a group of researchers (D'Alessandro, et.al., 2001) conducted readability analyses of pediatric patient education materials on the Web, and concluded that the information was not written at an appropriate reading level for typical users.
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2002). Articles>Writing>Assessment>Formulas
