#18281
Cascading Versus Indexed Menu Design
If there is one basic truism about the Web it is that every designer has their own opinion concerning the best method for presenting menu items on a web page. Two common ways to present menus are to either hierarchically cascade the menu items upon mouse-over, or to simply place most, if not all, of the menu items in a categorical index. Cascading menus have the advantage of requiring little screen real estate. However, they have been much maligned for several reasons. First, it is sometimes difficult to use for the reason that users must precisely control their mouse movements in order to select the correct menu item. It becomes increasing difficult with the number of levels a user must navigate. Second, cascading menus hide menu information until the user positions the mouse over the menu level above it.
Bernard, Michael and Chris Hamblin. Usability News (2003). Design>Web Design>Usability
#13321
A Comparison of Popular Online Fonts: Which is Best and When?
A general survey of the Web finds that a majority of sites use 12-point fonts (size= 3) for much, if not all of their written content. With this in mind, we examined the most popular font types at this size for differences in effective reading speed (accuracy/reading time), as well the perception of font legibility.
Bernard, Michael, Melissa Mills, Michelle Peterson and Kelsey Storrer. Usability News (2001). Design>Typography>Online
#13344
Computer and World Wide Web Usage of WSU Undergraduates
At Wichita State University (WSU), computers and the Internet continue to be incorporated into the course curriculum. We have noticed At Wichita State University (WSU), computers and the Internet continue to be incorporated into the course curriculum. We have noticed there are a wide range of computer skills and web experience among the students enrolled in courses offered in the Dept. of Psychology. We were interested in surveying our undergraduate students at Wichita State to determine just how much computer and web experience they actually have. To do this, we conducted a survey to 488 undergraduates (32% male and 68% female) enrolled in our Introductory Psychology course in the Fall of 1999. Fifty-one percent of the participants were freshmen with a mean age of 21.7 (range 16 to 54 yrs). at Wichita State to determine just how much computer and web experience they actually have. To do this, we conducted a survey to 488 undergraduates (32% male and 68% female) enrolled in our Introductory Psychology course in the Fall of 1999.
Chaparro, Barbara S., Michael Bernard, P. Moseley and B. Bartelloni. Usability News (2000). Articles>Usability>Education
#13339
Constructing User-Centered Websites: Design Implications for Content Organization
The designer can construct and place the contents on the website with a good degree of confidence that it will reflect the mental model of the representative user. The placement of the content on the website, however, is critical to a site's eventual success. For this reason, this article is intended to address some of the more important human factors issues in the design of the content within a website.
Bernard, Michael. Usability News (2000). Design>Web Design>Usability
#13331
Determining the Best Online Font for Older Adults
Studies examining the legibility of fonts on computer screens have almost exclusively investigated young to middle aged adults. However, because of many age-related factors affecting reading, one should be fairly cautious in generalizing these findings to older adults. In light of this, this study sought to examine this population by studying the legibility, reading time, as well as the general font preference for two types of serif and sans serif fonts at 12- and 14-point sizes on computer screens.
Bernard, Michael, Corrina Liao and Melissa Mills. Usability News (2001). Design>Typography>Accessibility>Elderly
#13328
Developing Schemas for the Location of Common Web Objects
An essential ingredient in constructing the content of a website is knowing the typical users' mental model or 'schema' for the characteristic location of web objects on a website. Knowledge of this schema and constructing a site that reflects this should aid in the site's accessibility. This, in turn, should produce more accurate and faster information retrieval, as well as greater satisfaction with the site. However, little is known about the average users' schema for the location of web objects on a typical website.
Bernard, Michael. Usability News (2001). Articles>Usability>Web Design
#13346
Does Computer-Mediated Collaboration Really Improve Group Communication? Our General Findings 
As companies continue to expand world-wide, effective communication among project teams and employees becomes a serious challenge. This has not only made it a necessity for businesses to share information electronically, but has also made it essential for organizations to promote team learning and innovation through group collaboration. In fact, as we all know, it is common for business to interact and conduct group seminars in several countries, all at once, via the Internet. For example, several years ago Hewlett Packard conducted collaborative seminars in traditional classrooms. Now however they focus almost exclusively on instructions via an interactive electronic network. As Susan Burnett, of Hewlett Packard points out, 'we are constantly pushing to blur the lines between learning and doing the job' by using information technology (Perelman, 1994, p. 88).
Bernard, Michael, Ta-Tao Chuang and Shahid Ali. Usability News (2000). Articles>Usability>Collaboration
#13345
Finding Information on the Web: Does the Amount of Whitespace Really Matter?
It has been a long-held notion that the use of open space or 'whitespace' adds not only to the attractiveness of the design of a written publication, but adds to the functionality as well. For example, it has been stated that whitespace plays the crucial role of 'directing the viewers attention to the regions where important information is provided and allowing the global structure of the composition to assume a meaningful configuration' (Mullet & Sano, 1995, p. 126). It is contended that Whitespace 'gives the eye a place to restIt can help to organize the material on the page. It can tie successive pages together by repetition of identifiable areas' (White, 1974, p. 48). However, it has been asserted by Web usability researcher Jared Spool that these assumptions should not apply to Web design.
Bernard, Michael, Barbara S. Chaparro and R. Thomasson. Usability News (2000). Articles>Usability>Web Design
#13335
Is RSVP a Solution for Reading from Small Displays?
In the last five years, we have witnessed a virtual explosion in the number and variety of hand-held devices that use small-screen interfaces (SSIs). These devices, which may include everything from personal digital assistants (PDAs) to cellular telephones, offer the convenience of portable, or even wearable interfaces. This convenience, however, comes at a price; the amount of information that can be displayed on the screen at one time is very small. Moreover, manual scrolling, tabbing, and paging are required to present successive displays of information. This, of course, limits the usefulness of these devices, especially if the information that is viewed is more than just a small amount. These limitations serve as a critical usability concern as more and more consumers use hand-held devices for such things as reading e-mail, browsing the web, and reading documents.
Bernard, Michael, Barbara S. Chaparro and Mark Russell. Usability News (2000). Articles>Usability>Wireless Web
#13338
Male and Female Attitudes Toward Computer-Mediated Group Interactions
Without question, the impact of computer-mediated communication, such as e-mail, chat groups, and group support systems on the functioning of businesses and society-at-large has been considerable. This impact has led to many assertions, like the ability of computer media to level, in some respects, the business interaction process by bringing individuals from anywhere within the business hierarchy together. Moreover, it has been maintained that it may also produce more open and democratic interactions than face-to-face communication by masking the normal trappings of authority or status that are commonly found in face-to-face communication (Sproull & Keisler,1992). However, we still do not have a firm grasp of what effect this medium has upon both male and female attitudes stemming from task-related interactions.
Bernard, Michael, Melissa Mills and Cindy Friend. Usability News (2000). Articles>Usability
#13337
So, What Size and Type of Font Should I Use on My Website?
By far the two most common types of fonts currently used on the Web are the serif font, Times New Roman (TNR) and the sans serif font, Arial. The question is, which one is more legible and at which size? In the past, it has been determined that serif fonts, which have ornamental strokes at the tip and base of each letter, are easier to read on paper than sans serif fonts, which do not have serifs. This is because it is believed that serifs help distinguished each individual letter (Albers, 1963). However, this benefit may be reduced or even eliminated on computer screens because of their display particularities, like poorer screen resolution and aliasing or 'jaggies,' as it is commonly known.
Bernard, Michael and Melissa Mills. Usability News (2000). Articles>Usability>Web Design
#13322
What is the Best Layout for Multiple-Column Web Pages?
An important issue regarding the physical layout of a web page is the use of space or in this case, how the contents of a web page should be placed within the confines of a window. Web designers have dealt with this issue by using several different methods. The oldest method is to simply allow the contents of a web page fill the entire window. This method, which is known as a ‘fluid’ layout, has the flexibility to expand and contract along with the size of the window. It also is the simplest design to implement. However when reading its content, a fluid layout may have the drawback of forcing viewers to horizontally scan more than other types of layouts.
Bernard, Michael and Laurie Larsen. Usability News (2001). Articles>Usability
#13323
Where Should You Put the Links? A Comparison of Four Locations
Online newspapers and journals, as well as many other types of informational sites, are invariably confronted with the question of where to place links associated with the online document. Currently, many informational sites place associative links below (as seen with CNN.com) or on the side of the document (as seen with techreview.com), while a shrinking number of sites embed associative links within their documents.
Bernard, Michael. Usability News (2001). Articles>Usability>Web Design
#13330
Which Fonts Do Children Prefer to Read Online?
Children today are reading large amounts of text on computer screens, either in the classroom or for leisure. In fact, currently there is a drive to supplement or even replace some traditional pen and paper lectures and tests with computer-based ones. However, to date there has been no research specific to a younger population investigating preferences for different types and sizes of fonts for reading online. This study sought to address this need by examining four types of fonts at 12- and 14-point sizes in order to help determine the font combination that is perceived as most readable on computer screens and most preferred by children.
Bernard, Michael, Melissa Mills, Talissa Frank and Jan McKown. Usability News (2001). Design>Typography>Usability>Children
