GetSmart: Interface Design and Production Meet Editorial on a New CD-ROM Magazine

The technology of magazine production is well established. Editors have access to high-resolution print screens, and can use a wide variety of fonts, layout designs and graphics to create attractive and readable pages. Readers are used to seeing a lot of information on a single page - some in body text, some in sidebars or callouts. On screen, by contrast, the resolution is relatively low - 72 dpi as opposed to 2400 dpi. Readers are not yet accustomed to reading directly from the screen, and an overly cluttered screen or one with fonts which are too small can quickly become unreadable.

Quesenbery, Whitney. WQusability (1996). Design>Multimedia>CD ROM>Typography

Getting Started on an Online Project with Cognetics’ Design Methodology  

Many electronic documentation projects fail because usability and interface design are not included in the initial project definition and integrated into the process. The Cognetics Design Methodology is an approach to project planning that places the user at the center of the design. Whether you are just getting started on your first project or looking for ways to make your work better, the Cognetics Design Methodology can help you produce high quality work. This workshop will focus on the initial project definition steps, and is intended to give participants practical experience in the difficult task of getting a project off the ground.

Quesenbery, Whitney. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Project Management>Online

The Importance of Document Design  

One definition of communication is 'the transfer of information from one location to another so that meaning is understood.' In other words, communication is what happens when one person connects to another to share information.

Quesenbery, Whitney. Intercom (2004). Articles>Document Design>Usability

It's All Happening in China

I traveled to Beijing, China for User Friendly 2004 to meet a few of our usability colleagues there. What I found was a large and vibrant usability community.

Quesenbery, Whitney. Usability Professionals Association (2005). Articles>Usability>Regional>China

Language and Usability

Usability is an important part of good technical communication. Many writers incorporate usability techniques such as site visits, user task analysis and usability testing into their work.

Quesenbery, Whitney. WQusability (2006). Articles>Language>Usability

Language and Usability

If usability is part of technical communication, language – the building block of technical communication – is an important part of the usability of a web site or software application. The better a product communicates, the more helpful it is, the easier it is to use.

Quesenbery, Whitney. IEEE PCS (2005). Articles>Usability>Writing

Lessons from the Novartis InfoWeb: Creating a Successful Knowledge Management System  

Discussion of a global knowledge management system created in Lotus Notes for Novartis Consumer Health.

Quesenbery, Whitney. WQusability (1999). Articles>Knowledge Management>Usability

Let's Work Together

I’ve been working with a product development team for over a year and I think the world of them. Not only are they good at what they do, they are also concerned about creating a product which is both usable and technically robust. They are also serious about their process in which cross-functional teams work together on different parts of a large product. Recently when things got a little busy, we decided to invite another interface designer to help ease the workload. With a robust process and a good interface design, I didn’t think there would be much trouble to integrate a new designer. Imagine my surprise when one member of the group came to me in distress. It turned out that she had been walking the new person through all of the existing designs, showing her both the screen layouts and the analysis behind them. She said, 'As I showed her the prototypes, she kept asking questions. They were good questions, but I felt as though she had found every usability battle I had lost in the last six months.'

Quesenbery, Whitney. Usability Interface (2001). Articles>Usability

More Alike Than We Think

Users were having trouble learning about the Open University's special form of distance education on the existing site. To solve this problem, we wanted to make recommendations for the style and format of the information as part of our design.

Quesenbery, Whitney. UXmatters (2006). Articles>Web Design>Usability

New Life for Product Documentation

Here are some 'truths' we've all heard: 'Documentation is just a band-aid for poor design.' 'Real users don't read manuals.' 'Super users never read anything.' 'Help doesn't.' But are they really true? I've seen some signs of life in the use of documentation for digital products recently.

Quesenbery, Whitney. UXmatters (2006). Articles>Documentation>User Interface>User Centered Design

On Beyond Help: Interface Design Paradigms for Online Documents  

In the world of printed documentation, there are many different programs, with different ways of solving the problem of editing and layout, but they all produce the same product in the end--a printed page. The online world can be bewildering even to experienced authors, since not only the authoring approach but the end result can vary so widely. This session is a look at some of the different types of online systems and how they affect both interface and document design.

Quesenbery, Whitney. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Publishing>Online

On Beyond Help: Meeting User Needs for Useful Online Information    

It is well accepted that understanding the users and a thorough analysis of their goals and tasks is a prerequisite for usability. To produce a document, online information, or knowledge base that is truly usable, the designer and writer must also consider different user approaches to the information to create it in a form that meets those needs. The underlying technology must also be considered, as it affects the presentation of the information as well as the functionality available to users. To meet user needs for useful online information, all these elements must be factored into the design—and technical communicators must master the skills necessary to make the right choices.

Quesenbery, Whitney. Technical Communication Online (2001). Articles>Usability>Information Design

Overcoming Environmental Barriers

On May 3, 2008, something extraordinary happened: the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities went into effect. The goals of the Convention are lofty: it insists that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms and sets out eight guiding principles and obligations to meet them.

Quesenbery, Whitney. Usability Professionals Association (2008). Articles>Usability>Accessibility>International

A Profile of Technical Communicators in Usability

At the STC 1998 Annual Conference, attendees of usability related sessions participated in a survey investigating some of the issues involved in making the transition from technical writing to usability. We were interested in exploring what skills writers bring from their current job in technical writing, which they believe they are missing ,and how they are acquiring them. Most of the 67 participants in the survey (82%) are full time technical writers. The businesses represented range from finance to engineering; however, 45% are in the software industry. The companies themselves tend to be large: over half have 1000 or more employees, 25% are mid-sized with 100–1000, and 22% are smaller.

Quesenbery, Whitney and Helena Mentis. Usability Interface (2000). Articles>Usability

Prototyping Techniques for Interactive Design  

Almost all design methodologies call for a prototyping stage, but it can be difficult to decide where to put scarce time and resources for the most impact on the final project. To make a decision, it is important to understand the different types of prototypes and their strengths and weaknesses. Obviously, the larger and more complex a project, the more complete each prototype must be, but even with small projects the right prototype can help ensure that you and your clients have a chance to see and test the design before it is too late to make changes. If you do your work right, each step builds on the previous one, and there are no surprises at the end of the project.

Quesenbery, Whitney. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Usability>Interaction Design

Pulse of the Usability SIG: Signs of Spring?

The mood on the usability e-lists is somber. At the WinWriters conference in February, every hand in the audience went up when we were asked if we knew someone who was out of work. Successive rounds of budget cuts and layoffs mean that even those who are still employed are on tenterhooks, or working even harder to fill the gaps. On list recently, posts were predicting even harder times ahead and worrying about whether it was time for usability practitioners to look for alternate careers.

Quesenbery, Whitney. Usability Interface (2002). Careers>Usability

Stories are the Human Experience

Usability through storytelling, the theme for the UPA 2006 conference, was examined from many angles. Presenters looked at how stories fit into our work, throughout the entire user-centered design process.

Quesenbery, Whitney. uiGarden (2006). Articles>User Experience>Rhetoric

Storytelling: Using Narrative to Communicate Design Ideas  

What makes a story appropriate? Convincing?

Quesenbery, Whitney. WQusability (2001). Design>Collaboration>Rhetoric

Teaching Election Officials Usability Testing

The election calendar is very tight, with legally mandated deadlines and other constraints, all conducted in the public view. The UPA Voting and Usability Project wanted a way to fit usability testing into that schedule, and give election officials a way to do what they all want: run excellent elections.

Quesenbery, Whitney. Usability Professionals Association (2008). Articles>Usability>Government

Trust and Blame

I lost my address book recently. It was one of those near-death computer experiences where you see your data pass before your eyes and start searching through the trash, then the Web, hoping to find the information you need right now. The experience made me think about blame--and trust.

Quesenbery, Whitney. UXmatters (2006). Articles>User Experience>Technology

Usability Half-Way Round the World

Is usability the same in New York as in China? As I thought about it, this is really two questions: Is our professional practice the same? Are we working from the same basic assumptions about how to approach the job of making products and applications work for their users, and do we use the same techniques and methodologies? Do western usability principles apply to a Chinese audience? Can we apply what we have learned from usability tests in the US and Europe, or are cultural differences so great that we must rethink what usability 'means?'

Quesenbery, Whitney. uiGarden (2005). Articles>Usability>Regional>China

Usability Interface From the SIG Manager's Desk

Accessibility is often the last challenge taken up in designing the user interface. A color scheme is created and shown to the team for review. 'But what about people who are color blind?, ' someone will ask and a small groan goes around the table. Or the screen layout template for a web site is almost complete before anyone considers how it will work with a screen reader. The problem, of course, is that people with disabilities are not usually considered during the process of user segmentation. Their needs, which fall outside of the matrix, become an afterthought to the design.

Quesenbery, Whitney. STC Usability SIG (1999). Design>Usability>Management

Using a Style Guide to Build Consensus

Style guides are often requested as a way to promote a common look and feel but do little to address the real problems in the way user interfaces are developed. In many situations, a collection of rules for visual design and the use of controls can seem like a band-aid; promoting surface-level consistency rather than solving the real usability problems. Even when a good style guide is created, it is often ignored after release. Worse, the style guide can become a weapon where a user-centered design process is needed. In either case, the style guide has failed to produce the desired effect. What’s missing is a consensus on the scope, ownership, or content. Solving this problem requires a change in the way style guides are developed, distributed, and used. Three suggestions for teams developing style guides are to start early, to make the emerging style guide widely available, and to plan for long-term maintenance of the guidelines.

Quesenbery, Whitney. Usability Interface (2001). Articles>Style Guides

Using Personas: Bringing Users Alive

How do we communicate what we know about the people who use our products in an engaging, efficient way? How do we get beyond statistics to a portrait of users that helps us use this information to make decisions?

Quesenbery, Whitney. Usability Interface (2003). Articles>Usability>Methods>Personas

Using the 5Es to Understand Users

One of the exercises I find helpful is to look at usability requirements for different aspects of the user experience. For each of the five dimensions of usability (the 5Es), we think about how it is reflected in requirements for each of the user groups.

Quesenbery, Whitney. WQusability. Articles>Usability>Methods