A Position Paper on Cross-Cultural Usability Issues of Bilingual Mobile Phones

Variety of information services like Short Message Service (SMS), e-mail, news, market reports, educational applications and other reading materials are now available on mobile phones. The size of mobile phone and its display is shrinking day-by-day, whereas the volume of information content and services are growing. More importantly, mobile phones introduced in the Indian market have now become bilingual; they support various services in English and Hindi languages. Mobile manufacturers have consciously or unconsciously resorted to English oriented approaches, and as a result of this, they have diluted the culture specific rules and the original form of Hindi language. We have studied the usability of Hindi in four bilingual (Hindi and English) mobile phones manufactured by different companies like Nokia / Reliance 3105 CDMA, LG RD5130, Motorola C118 and Samsung / Reliance C200.

Katre, Dinesh S. HCeye (2006). Articles>Usability>Localization

Post-Modern Usability    

"Don't people in your field actually know anything?" From what I read on the list-servs, blogs, and other places where usability professionals hang out, there are many people even in our field who would answer "No!" They tend to see usability as a craft and question whether anything can be known about human-system design in a way that can be codified, or at least codified in a useful way. I would disagree, but I do think our field is passing through an evolutionary stage, where we have been working toward satisfying the business requirements for improved productivity.

Lund, Arnold M. Journal of Usability Studies (2006). Articles>Usability

The Power of Storytelling

How Community Manager Karen Bachmann has learned about the power and importance of storytelling, and some of the many stories that have deeply affected her.

Bachmann, Karen L. Usability Interface (2007). Articles>Usability>Methods

Practical Use of Voice and Speech Recognition Software

Overall, I would say my experience with speech recognition software has its benefits–I had a goal to cut down my need to use the keyboard by 30 percent to 40 percent and that has certainly happened–along with a huge improvement in my hands, wrists, and shoulders. But I do suggest that at this stage of the technology, people interested in using speech recognition software have tremendous patience.

Mosher, Vannesa. Usability Interface (2000). Articles>Usability

Practice Human Factors for Document Design  

Writers of performance- and response-oriented documents, such as instructions, procedures, proposals, and grant applications, need to consider the interaction of human factors with conventional document design factors such as accessibility, readability, legibility, consistency, style, language, and suitability to audience. This session explores that relationship, based upon a summation and synthesis of previous Annual Conference presentations as modulated by this presenter's extensive technical communication experience. It will be of particular interest to newcomers to the profession who seek to broaden their grasp of its intricacies.

Peterson, Dart G., Jr. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Document Design>Usability

Practicing Persona Development: an In-House Case Study  

As Technical Communicators, many of us were initiated into this industry with the oft-cited cliche, 'know thy audience.' But what does this really mean? To what extent must we 'know' our audience in order to deliver effective information products? The critical questions are, 'what tools and means can I use to sufficiently understand the needs of my audience? Rather than relying on the directives of Engineering and Marketing, how can I discover the true needs of my audience and develop a user-centered design? And how do I hone my skills at gathering and applying this crucial data?' One of the emerging trends in Technical Communications is to develop user 'personas' as a design tool. This paper presents 'real-world' advice and 'best practices' on using the persona methodology to design information products.

Leritz-Higgins, Sarah E. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design>Personas

Practicing What We Preach? A Usability Evaluation of the HFES Proceedings CD-ROM

When it comes to conferences, traditional paper proceedings are quickly being replaced by their electronic counterparts. The annual conference of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society is no exception. Last year’s 2000 conference proceedings were available solely on the CD-ROM, “Ergonomics for the Millennium.” After working with the proceedings ourselves and hearing other conference attendees comment on the difficulties accessing information from the proceedings, we decided to conduct a quick usability test on the software.

Baker, J. Ryan. Usability News (2001). Articles>Usability

Practitioners as Students: What We Can Learn About Teaching Usability  

This paper presents the results of a study that contributes to our understanding of how to conduct and manage usability in the workplace. The study’s participants provided the dual perspective of practitioners working in industry and who are simultaneously enrolled in graduate studies. Recommendations for industry and academia are offered. The results have implications for helping technical communication professionals prepare for their expanding role in user-centered design.

Levine, Barbara J. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Education>Usability>Workplace

A Pragmatic Framework for Selecting Empirical or Inspection Methods to Evaluate Usability  

Within the literature of human-computer interaction there is a vigorous debate on the relative merits of two classes of evaluation methods; those that carry out an empirical study of users' task performance and those that employ experts to inspect a design. The central themes in this debate are effectiveness and cost-efficiency. While these concerns are important in commercial usability work, an analysis of project goals and constraints may be more useful in selecting and justifying methods.

Englefield, Paul. IBM (2004). Articles>Usability>Methods

Preference Does Not Equal Performance

People will swear up and down that they love a particular product. They will tell you that the colors are right, the size is perfect, and the information is exactly what they needed. However, until you watch and test users you will not see how well the product works. You will not find out if they really would continue using the product, in the right amount, at the right time, under the conditions you expected. People have a funny way of deciding when, where and how they will using something.

Rhodes, John S. WebWord (2000). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design

A Preliminary Report on Two Pilot Readability/Usability Studies  

Companies are beginning to conduct readability studies to determine how to provide customers with usable sites. Results have been inconclusive, conflicting, and often contradicting results of printed text studies. To discover how users use web sites, two pilot studies were designed to examine users, their purposes, and their reading processes. Many results parallel those of previous studies. In addition, new results indicate we need to examine several new variables, including amount of usage, site-specific knowledge, conventionalization, print bias, gender and age.

Boiarsky, Carolyn. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability

Preparing for User Research Interviews: Seven Things to Remember

Interviewing is an artful skill that is at the core of a wide variety of research methods in user-centered design, including stakeholder interviews, contextual inquiry, usability testing, and focus groups. Consequently, a researcher’s skill in conducting interviews has a direct impact on the quality and accuracy of research findings and subsequent decisions about design. Skilled interviewers can conduct interviews that uncover the most important elements of a participant’s perspective on a task or a product in a manner that does not introduce interviewer bias. Companies hire user researchers and user-centered designers because they possess this very ability.

Hawley, Michael. UXmatters (2008). Articles>Interviewing>Usability>User Centered Design

Prescriptive Audience Analysis: Moving Beyond the Purely Descriptive

Editing and writing both require an understanding of our audience, because without that knowledge, we can't shape our words to help them easily grasp difficult concepts. To understand our audience, we do what all writers and editors do, whether consciously or unconsciously: We create an image of our audience that guides our choice of words, images, and metaphors. This image is variously known as a 'stereotype' (e.g., Schriver 1997) or a 'persona' (e.g., Graham 2001). Keeping that image in mind as we work helps us satisfy the reader's needs, but if we're not careful, it can also cause us to waste valuable time collecting information that doesn't really help us communicate.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (2005). Articles>Usability>Audience Analysis>Tropes

A Primer on Using Focus Groups in Technical Communication  

In technical communication, focus groups are a relatively new method for analyzing audience needs and for evaluating technical documents. As an outgrowth of usability testing, focus groups have been used primarily as a means of revising texts. Their application to technical communication projects is much broader, however, as they can be used at any stage of a project and for a multitude of purposes. As technical communicators place more emphasis on satisfying their clients, we can expect focus groups to become increasingly popular. This primer explains what they are, when and why to use them, and how to plan them.

Abbott, Christine and Philip Eubanks. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Usability>Methods>Focus Groups

Prioritize: Good Content Bubbles to the Top

If everything is equally prominent, then nothing is prominent. It is the job of the designer to advise the user and guide them to the most important or most promising choices (while ensuring their freedom to go anywhere they please). On today's Web, the most common mistake is to make everything too prominent: over-use of colors, animation, blinking, and graphics. Every element of the page screams 'look at me' (while all the other design elements scream 'no, look at me'). When everything is emphasized, nothing is emphasized.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1999). Articles>Usability>Information Design

Probing and its Effects on the Validity and Reliability of Verbal Reports

Eliciting verbal reports from participants in usability studies is a commonly used method used to collect performance and preference data. By asking users to 'think-aloud,' usability practitioners can observe users interact with an interface and listen to their concurrent thoughts at the same time. Verbal data is helpful because it allows observers to know how users think—what they look for, how they expect to accomplish tasks, and what elements of the interface they find confusing or helpful.

Abolrous, Sally. University of Washington-Seattle (2001). Articles>Usability>Methods

The Problem with Usability Change Recommendations

Contemporary user testing methods have proven highly effective at identifying problems in computer interfaces. By directly measuring users’ ability to complete key tasks, practitioners can expediently uncover what are often colossal failures of usability that are otherwise difficult to perceive. User testing, then, affords a strong empirical basis for recommending that designers make changes to resolve the problems found.

Ferrara, John. Usability Professionals Association (2005). Articles>Usability>Methods

Product, Process, and Profit: The Politics of Usability in a Software Venture    

In research and in practice,usability specialists commonly target the technology user-interfaces and help as the main arena for bringing about usability improvements. However, usability improvements depend on more than innovative and user-centered technical designs and implementations. Equally important for creating useful and usable software are the social and political forces that shape the development context. These forces give rise to leadership conflicts, factional disputes, renegade efforts, alliances and betrayals, all of which profoundly influence whether usability improvements will be supported and sustained within and across projects. This essay presents and analyzes a case history of a software start-up company in which usability achieved a Pyrrhic victory, triumphing only in the short run because of social and political forces.

Mirel, Barbara E. Journal of Computer Documentation (2000). Articles>Usability>Programming

Product's Usability Testing in China

The usual reference to a product's usability is to its efficiency of use，learnability and satisfaction. With the current development of economy and technology, usability testing has been developed recently in China.

Lin, Qin. uiGarden (2005). Articles>Usability>Regional>China

Productivity and Screen Size

A study of the benefits of big monitors fails on two accounts: it didn't test realistic tasks, and it didn't test realistic use. Productivity is a key argument for workplace usability, but you must measure it carefully.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>User Interface>Usability

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

Progressive Disclosure

Progressive disclosure defers advanced or rarely used features to a secondary screen, making applications easier to learn and less error-prone.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design

Promoting Usability at Lucent Technologies

We sponsored an award to raise awareness of the importance of usability. Instead of focusing on what projects had done wrong with regard to usability, we decided to reward a project for doing things right!

Coyle, Cheryl L. and Karen L. Ziech. Usability Interface (2006). Articles>Usability>Case Studies

A Proposal for Evaluating Usability Testing Methods: The Practical Review System (PRS)

The purpose of this article is to explain the Practical Review System (PRS). The PRS is an outline of 28 characteristics that can be used to understand any usability method, thereby allowing any individual to decide between methods. This solves many of the problems associated with understanding and explaining usability methods.

Rhodes, John S. WebWord (2003). Articles>Usability>Methods