Stop Password Masking

Usability suffers when users type in passwords and the only feedback they get is a row of bullets. Typically, masking passwords doesn't even increase security, but it does cost you business due to login failures.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Security>Usability

パスワードを隠すのをやめよう

ユーザがパスワードを打ち込んでも、黒い点の列でしかフィードバックが返ってこないとき、ユーザビリティは損なわれている。パスワードを隠したからといって、セキュリティは強化されないことが多く、逆に、ログインの失敗によって、あなたのビジネスに悪影響を及ぼす。

Nielsen, Jakob. Usability.gr.jp (2009). (Japanese) Articles>Web Design>Security>Usability

デザインアドバイスの根拠としての、推測　vs.　データ

ごくごく小規模な経験的な事実（例えば、観察対象のユーザが2人）からでも、そこから得られる事実はUIデザインに対して、正しい判断ができる確率を大きく高めてくれる。

Nielsen, Jakob. Usability.gr.jp (2009). (Japanese) Articles>Web Design>Usability>Research

企業サイト上の投資家向け情報（IR）

個人投資家はあまりにも複雑なIRサイトに怖気づき、財務データのシンプルなサマリーを欲しがっている。個人投資家も投資専門家も、共に必要としているのは、企業自体のstoryとその投資ビジョンである。

Nielsen, Jakob. Usability.gr.jp (2009). (Japanese) Articles>Web Design>Business Communication>Usability

最初の2語：　流し読みのためのシグナル

リンクの最初の11文字がどれだけ理解されるかをテストすれば、そのサイトがユーザのために書かれたかものかどうかがわかる。ユーザというのはリストの項目を全部読む、というよりは、流し読みをするものだからだ。

Nielsen, Jakob. Usability.gr.jp (2009). (Japanese) Articles>Web Design>Writing>Usability

寄付のユーザビリティ：非営利団体および慈善団体へのオンライン寄付が増加

ユーザー調査の結果、非営利団体のウェブサイトはコンテンツが著しく不足しており、寄付に踏み切るための判断材料に欠けていることがよくあることがわかった。

Nielsen, Jakob. Usability.gr.jp (2009). (Japanese) Articles>Web Design>Usability>Case Studies

メガドロップダウン式のナビゲーションメニューは効果あり

大きな二次元のドロップダウンパネルは、ナビゲーションの選択肢をグループ化することでスクロールの必要性を無くし、タイポグラフィやアイコン、ツールチップを使うことで、ユーザの選択できる内容をわかりやすく提示してくれる。

Nielsen, Jakob. Usability.gr.jp (2009). (Japanese) Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Usability

Usability Matters: Software Development and the Balancing Act Between Design and Usability

Marketing departments – especially in IT – like to speak in the modern lingo about a product’s innovative “Look and Feel”. While “Look“ refers to the design of the solution, “Feel” means usability, the quality of use. Developers of Content Management Systems and other enterprise IT solutions have to walk a fine line to meet the exacting demands of users in both areas. But in recent years a clear trend has become apparent: There is a drive towards the modern, “cool” product design where at a minimum usability takes a back seat, often to its detriment.

Bodemann, Jörn. Content Wrangler, The (2009). Articles>Web Design>User Experience>Usability

Best Practices for Designing Faceted Search Filtersn

Recently, Office Depot redesigned their search user interface, adding attribute-based filtering and creating a more dynamic, interactive user experience. Unfortunately, Office Depot’s interaction design misses some key points, making their new search user interface less usable and, therefore, less effective. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the Office Depot site presents us with an excellent case study for demonstrating some of the important best practices for designing filters for faceted search results.

Nudelman, Greg. UXmatters (2009). Articles>Web Design>Search>Usability

Twitter Postings: Iterative Design

We made a timeline message more punchy, credible, and viral through 5 rounds of redesign.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Social Networking

Customization of UIs and Products

Websites that let users customize the UI have the same measured usability as regular sites. Sites for customizing products, however, score substantially worse due to complex workflow.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Personalization

Internal Site Search Analysis: Simple, Effective, Life Altering!

Now when people show up at a website, many of them ignore our lovingly crafted navigational elements and jump to the site search box. The increased use of site search as a core navigation method makes it very important to understand the data that site search generates.

Kaushik, Avinash. List Apart, A (2009). Articles>Web Design>Search>Usability

The Inclusion Principle

Affordance allows us to look at something and intuitively understand how to interact with it. For example, when we see a small button next to a door, we know we should push it with a finger. Convention tells us it will make a sound, notifying the homeowner that someone is at the door. This concept transfers to the virtual environment: when we see a 3D-shaped button on a web page, we understand that we are supposed to “push” it with a mouse-click.

Link-Rodrigue, Margit. List Apart, A (2009). Articles>Web Design>User Interface>Usability

Ten Useful Usability Findings and Guidelines

Everyone would agree that usability is an important aspect of Web design. Whether you’re working on a portfolio website, online store or Web app, making your pages easy and enjoyable for your visitors to use is key. Many studies have been done over the years on various aspects of Web and interface design, and the findings are valuable in helping us improve our work. Here are 10 useful usability findings and guidelines that may help you improve the user experience on your websites.

Fadeyev, Dmitry. Smashing (2009). Articles>Web Design>Usability

Fresh vs. Familiar: How Aggressively to Redesign

Users hate change, so it's usually best to stay with a familiar design and evolve it gradually. In the long run, however, incrementalism eventually destroys cohesiveness, calling for a new UI architecture.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Redesign>Usability

Streams, Walls, and Feeds: Distributing Content Through Social Networks and RSS

Users like the simplicity of messages that pass into oblivion over time, but were frequently frustrated by unscannable writing, overly frequent postings, and their inability to locate companies on social networks.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Social Networking>Usability

The Seven Deadly Sins of Blogging: Sin #4, Being Unreadable

Although there are other ways to increase your blog's readability, these are the most important elements to consider: font size, line height, line length, typeface, background, subheadings, paragraphs, white space, graphics, and invisibility.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Web Design>Typography>Usability

(Almost) Never Add a Reset Button to a Form

Next time you consider adding a reset button to a form, think it through very carefully first. Does the user really benefit from being able to reset the form? Is being able to reset the form to its initial state so valuable that it is worth the risk of the user losing the data they have entered? Probably not.

456 Berea Street (2009). Articles>Web Design>Forms>Usability

Increasing Online Sales: Simple Usability Problems To Avoid

When designing an online store, you have to consider many different types of customers: repeat customers, first-timers, people in a rush, etc. One thing that would help all of them is optimum usability. You can achieve this in a variety of ways, starting with eliminating the most common usability problems from your website. Fixing any one of the following eight common usability problems will get you started on the path to usability and user-experience heaven and, ultimately, more sales.

Holesh, Kevin. Smashing (2009). Articles>Web Design>Usability>E Commerce

Treating User Myopia

Fortunately, you don't see dialogs in web apps much, but this sort of modal dialog lunacy is, sadly, becoming more popular in today's AJAX-y world of web 2.5. Those who can't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, I guess.

Atwood, Jeff. Coding Horror (2009). Articles>Web Design>User Interface>Usability

Six Things Video Games Can Teach Us About Web Usability

Those who think video games are not educational, this post is for you. Not only can video games be an enjoyable experience, they can teach us many things. Websites and video games often use similar concepts about usability in order to achieve an amazing end-product. I’ve come up with 6 essential concepts that video games can teach web designers about usability.

Riggan, Mark. Atlantic BT (2009). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Games