How to Write a Report Without Getting Lynched

You put forth your best effort to explain to the stupid sods exactly how and where they screwed up, then they have the temerity to not appreciate your fine efforts. Here's how to write a report that will cause change, instead of uproar.

Tognazzini, Bruce. Nielsen Norman Group (2001). Articles>Usability>Reports>Technical Writing

How Usability and Audit Contribute to Product Design

It is almost impossible to do business without using information technology (IT) systems, whether or not they are developed in-house. Evaluating the quality of these systems is critical to an organization’s ability to do business using resources in an optimal way.

Manhaeve, Rik. Usability Interface (2004). Articles>Usability>Technology

How Usability Information Can Improve Clinical Information Systems  

This paper describes a usability engineering program of integrated laboratory and ethnographic studies for collecting user data about a clinical information system. The authors evaluated MIRACLE (Medical Information Retrieval Application for Clinical Enhancement), developed by Philips Medical Systems; physicians and allied health personnel can access MIRACLE from their offices to obtain data about their patients who use hospital services. After an initial heuristic evaluation, we conducted two usability tests and weekly ethnographic interviews with physicians and hospital staff during the software alpha test. Our experience resulted in guidelines for conducting usability programs with medical professionals.

Rosenbaum, Stephanie L., Deborah Hinderer and Phillip Scarborough. Tec-Ed, Inc. (1999). Articles>Usability>Biomedical

How Usable Software Can Liberate Users from the Routine of Boy Scout Administration

When I was asked to share my experiences with the software program TroopMaster2000, I wasn’t sure I was the right person for the job. I am not a software designer or developer and my computer experience is best described as average—primarily e-mail, web-browsing, and word processing experience with the occasional need for presentations and database management. Hopefully my experiences with TroopMaster2000 as a user—both good and bad—will help future software designers.

Mullins, Mike. Usability Interface (2002). Articles>Usability

The Human Impact of Software

Software is not just an abstraction that exists in isolation. When I write code, it's not just about me, the code, the operating system, and the database. The impact of what I do when I develop software reaches far beyond those things and into people's lives.

Read, Daniel. developer.star (2001). Articles>Usability>Software

The Human Interface

The phrase 'human error' is taken to mean 'operator error', but more often than not the disaster is inherent in the design or installation of the human interface. Bad interfaces are slow or error prone to use. Bad interfaces cost money and cost lives.

Dix, Alan. uiGarden (2005). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Usability>User Centered Design

Human-Computer Interface at Google

Why does a web site that rarely changes need HCI people? Learn about the experiences of a new employee, Josh Mittleman, which he shared with the UsabilityNJ meeting in October.

Hoffer, Eric. Usability Interface (2007). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Usability

The Hunt for Usability: Tracking Eye Movements    

Usability testing methods have not changed significantly since the origins of the practice. Usability studies typically address human performance at a readily observable task-level, including measures like time to complete a task, percentage of participants succeeding, type and number of errors, and subjective ratings of ease of use. Certain types of questions are difficult to answer efficiently with these techniques.

Karn, Keith S., Steve Ellis and Cornell Juliano. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (1999). Articles>Usability>Methods>Eye Tracking

Hurricane Katrina's Impact on UPA Members

Hurricane Katrina illuminated UPA's sense of community this past month when the UPA Board of Directors acted quickly to attempt to contact our members who are/were located in the significantly affected regions of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. We received responses from several.

Mitropoulos-Rundus, Dave. Usability Professionals Association (2005). Articles>Usability>Risk Communication>Southern US

I Can Exist Now. The NYT Said So.

I have mixed feelings about this article in the New York Times about Usability Professionals: Technology's Untanglers: They Make It Really Work. I've read mixed feelings about this article as well. Had it been written 5 years ago, I'd be really pleased about it. But it isn't a very well written article and has some mis-information as well.

Oliphant, Matthew. Usabilityworks.org (2007). Articles>Usability>Journalism>Blogging

I Want Tools, Give Me Tools!!

The author wants to know more about ideation frameworks, immersive spaces, and aspirational models.

Daniel, Lucas. Usability Professionals Association (2003). Articles>Usability>Methods

The Iceberg Analogy of Usability

Developers sometimes ask which aspects of look and feel contribute most to the overall usability of an application or Web site. They are typically surprised when I answer that the 'look and feel' aspects aren't the major contributors at all. Look and feel have been popular discussion topics for many years, and some developers have proposed various schemes purporting to allow an easy swap of one look and feel for another. They were perhaps compelled to this thinking to compensate for an inadequate understanding of their users. Around 1990, I became alarmed by the popularity of design architectures advocating paradigms like the User Interface Management Systems (UIMS) that enable a pluggable look and feel. Many of my colleagues and I felt that look and feel represented only the tip of the iceberg. We felt that the set of concepts users must learn and understand to use a product or Web site effectively is actually the most important factor.

Berry, Dick. IBM (2001). Articles>Usability>User Experience>Web Design

Identifying Web Site Requirements  

The authors emphasize the importance of conducting thorough research on business goals, branding goals, user needs, and technical resources before Web designers undertake a redesign. The article also offers suggestions about how to define, develop, and communicate a client's brand.

Summers, Kathryn and Michael Summers. Intercom (2001). Articles>Usability>Specifications

IDEO's "Ten Faces"

Tom Kelly's latest book 'The 10 Faces of Innovation' internal personas are used to help illustrate traits critical in building an innovation culture.The Experience Archtect is included.

Armano, David. uiGarden (2007). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design>Personas

If They Don't Test, Don't Hire Them

The single best indicator as to the overall competence of an interaction design team is their plan for user testing. If you are presented with no plan or a sort of vague 'and we'll eventually do some user testing,' you may want to back off and look at other resources. If, on the other hand, you are given a proposal outlining repeated design and test cycles, you are dealing with people who know exactly what they are doing.

Tognazzini, Bruce. Nielsen Norman Group (2000). Articles>Project Management>Usability

If We Build It, Will They Come? A Usability Test of Two Browser-based Embedded Help Systems    

The big problem with database-searching applications is that the user receives little feedback. Consider, for example, novice users starting to use Microsoft Word. The users want to right-justify a paragraph of text. Their efforts, either successful or unsuccessful, will be immediately apparent on the screen: The paragraph is either correctly justified or it isn't. However, a good-quality or a poor-quality search query used over a large database may retrieve 5,000 records, whether good or poor. How is the chemist to know whether the search query was effective and efficient? That is, how does the chemist know that the search query retrieved all and only the relevant records?

Grayling, Trevor. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Usability>Programming

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

Improving Information Quality Through Iterative Usability Testing  

Testing documents at each step of their development is one way to ensure that the final document is of high quality. It is not necessary to wait until a document is complete before we start testing; we can incorporate iterative testing into the information-development process so that we can build in quality each step of the way.

Grice, Roger A. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Usability>Testing

Improving User Documentation and Customer Care

In recent years, the Customer Care Survey of Service and Support Practices in the Software Industry has consistently reported that only about half of software publishers put their documentation through a formal test. We thought that these numbers were low, so we checked them at the Software Testing, Analysis & Review (STAR) conference (Orlando, May 16, 1996). During a plenary session, Kaner asked attendees (software testers) whether their groups tested their companies’ user manuals. Confirming the Customer Care data, at least half the room stood up to signify that their companies did not. This means that reputable companies are not testing their manuals – companies who don’t care about quality don’t spend money to send testers to STAR.

Kaner, Cem and David Pels. Usability Interface (2000). Articles>Usability>Software

In Defense of Print

The reduced reading speed on computers can be compensated by good hypertext design that allows the user to read less information and to find it faster. A typical example is online help and documentation: because the information is right there on the computer, there is no need to spend time finding the hardcopy manual, and because of good search tools and hypertext links between related information, users can go directly to the one or two sections that contain the answer to their problem. After all, Nielsen's first law of computer documentation is that users don't read it. The second law is that if they read it anyway, it's because they are in deep trouble and need the answer to a specific problem. Thus, somebody reading a manual won't really read it cover-to-cover, so online presentation makes perfect sense.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1996). Articles>Documentation>Online>Usability

In Praise of Usability Testing

Documentation usability testing has been with us at least since 1983. But, to all intents and purposes, it seems that there is still very little testing being done. Of all the documentation quality assurance activities that we can carry out, usability testing represents one of the best values in the process chain. Without devaluing any of the other quality assurance functions, it is safe to say that money spent on usability testing is extremely well spent.

Hosier, William J. Boston Broadside (1991). Articles>Usability>Testing

In Search of Salience: A Response-Time and Eye-Movement Analysis of Bookmark Recognition

Describes the effect of bookmark naming on bookmark recognition. The purpose is to provide empirically-determined guidelines for web producers on how to title pages in order to optimise the recognition of bookmarks by users, and increase the rate of revisitation to their websites.

Poole, Alex. Alex Poole (2005). Articles>Information Design>Usability>Web Browsers

Incorporating Usability into Content Management

This article describes the importance of incorporating usability into all stages of implementing content management, including assessing your needs, assessing your users (of both the content and the content management system), and assessing your content. It questions the emphasis of technology in many of the current discussions about content management, and instead, advocates looking to the field of usability to form the basis of a content management implementation.

Rockley, Ann. Rockley Bulletin (2004). Articles>Content Management>Usability

Incorporating Usability Testing into the Documentation Process    

Describes how one company approaches usability testing of documentation and incorporates usability testing into its writing process through a Documentation Usability Team.

Postava-Davignon, Christi-Anne, Candice Kamachi, Cory Clarke, Gregory Kushmerek, Mary Beth Rettger, Pete Monchamp and Rich Ellis. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Usability>Methods>Documentation

Indexing Standards and Usability Tests  

This paper provides reference information and complements the demonstration: 'Using Indexing Standards and Usability Tests' by Deborah Swain and Rebecca Oliver. Information covered in the paper includes historical background on indexing and on the ANSI Z39.4 standard for indexes. Questions about the effectiveness of standards are discussed. In addition, the paper describes one way to conduct a usability test on a back-of-the-book index: random analysis. (Three testing methods will be explained in the demonstration.)

Swain, Deborah E. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Editing>Indexing>Usability