Five-Second Tests: Measuring Your Site's Content Pages

On your site, the content page is the user's most frequent final destination. This page contains the information the user came to the site to find. Sites often have hundreds, if not thousands (and in some cases, millions) of these critical pages. How can design teams be confident their content pages are understandable to users? How does a team ensure they've designed content pages that communicate the essential information effectively?

Perfetti, Christine. User Interface Engineering (2005). Articles>Web Design>Usability>User Centered Design

Focus on the Student: How to Use Learning Objectives to Improve Learning

As information architects we all know how important it is to keep the user in mind. The same is true in teaching IA: we must keep the learner in mind. Learning objectives are one tool to help keep your classes focused on the student. They will also help you develop the syllabus, lesson plans, and assessment methods.

Cown, Wendy. Boxes and Arrows (2004). Articles>Information Design>Instructional Design>User Centered Design

Four Modes of Seeking Information and How to Design for Them

Information-seeking behavior varies from situation to situation. Donna Mauer explores different ways in which users look for information and offers tactics for accommodating them.

Maurer, Donna. Boxes and Arrows (2006). Articles>User Centered Design>Information Design

From Black Ink to Grey Matter  

This presentation addresses designers and documenters who develop technologies for human use. The content is based on an intensive 42-hour training package, developed by Communications and Training Inc. Course content and duration can be modified to meet individual requirements. One day interactive workshops are also available.

Hofer, Klaus C. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design

From GUI to E(motional) UI

How ironic that we think we can get more exact results from our computers by emulating human interaction, but when we want exact results from human interaction, we unintentionally emulate computers. Engineering, air traffic control, legal contracts--in all endeavors where precise communication is critical--our success has depended on washing out human emotion and natural language in favor of formal procedures and protocols, complete with a detailed domain-specific language.

Agro, Leandro. UXmatters (2006). Articles>User Centered Design>User Interface>Emotions

From Purchase to Productivity: Bridging the Documentation Gap  

This presentation will describe an area of documentation that is often overlooked--that which covers the process between the customer purchasing a computer system or upgraded software and the customer becoming productive using that system or software. This information includes all that needs to be planned and accomplished to get new software up, running, and integrated with existing software. Unisys Corporation fills this gap with what we call 'Release Documentation.' This presentation describes the who, what, where, when, and how of that process.

Alexander, Bruce, Avis French and Elaine Randolph. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design

Fun Systematically

This position paper looks at two examples where the study of fun is at very least systematic, and quite possibly scientific. In the first, Virtual Crackers, a systematic process of 'deconstructing experience'; identifies the individual aspects of an experience (pulling crackers), which are then used to reconstruct a new experience in a new medium (the web).

Dix, Alan. uiGarden (2004). Articles>User Centered Design>Human Computer Interaction

Getting from Research to Personas: Harnessing the Power of Data

The usefulness of personas in defining and designing interactive products has become more widely accepted in the last few years, but a lack of published information has, unfortunately, left room for a lot of misconceptions about how personas are created, and about what information actually comprises a persona. Although space does not permit a full treatment of persona creation in this article, I hope to highlight a few essential points.

Goodwin, Kim. Cooper Interaction Design (2002). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design>Personas

Getting to Expert

The gaps in your documentation aren’t there because you haven’t consider a particular level of user; the gaps in your documentation are there because you haven’t considered how one level of user becomes another. How DO you get from Beginner to Expert?

McLean, Gordon. One Man Writes (2008). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Technical Writing

Getting to Know Your Audience Through Customer Visits  

Getting to know your audience is not an easy task. Telephone interviews and written surveys are helpful, but the most effective way to really understand customer needs is through face-to-face contact. A successful program of customer visits requires thoughtful planning and organization. You need to identify clear objectives, develop a discussion guide, select the appropriate customers to visit, conduct the interviews, and determine how to analyze and communicate the results. You’ll also want to develop an action plan to follow-up on what you learn. We visited 12 customers in 6 weeks. Here is our story. . .

Kagan, Lisa. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>User Centered Design>Audience Analysis

Give Them Printed Documentation, Too!!!

The current trend among technical communicators is a twisted form of minimalism that says the documentation should contain procedural documentation but little or no reference documentation. I believe that this trend is a disservice to our customers and tends to increase technical support costs because customers subjected to this form of documentation have little or no access to the information they need. If it’s not there, they can't find it.

Starr, Mike. TC-FORUM (2002). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design

Global Market, Global Emotion, Global Design?

In the current discussion of where design is going and what matters, there is an emphasis on the user and his or her (emotional) experience. It is a hot topic in books, blogs and the minds of industrial designers and interaction designers, worldwide. The importance of a focus on (emotional) experiences in addition to a merely technological or functional focus is being stressed by professionals with many different cultural backgrounds.

van Hout, Marco. uiGarden. Articles>User Centered Design>User Experience>Emotions

Goal Oriented Requirements

Your requirements document needs to focus on the user’s goals. They should not be marketing’s list of features 'we’ve got to have' because the competition has these features. They should not be a list of things the programmers think ought to be included 'because we can add those things for very little cost.' Feature bloat does not benefit the user.

Ferlazzo, Ellen Lawson. Sprezzatura Systems (2002). Articles>User Centered Design>Specifications>Software

Going into the Field

Writers can increase the value of their documentation by visiting customers where the customers work and seeing what they are doing. It's easier to write targeted topics when you know what readers need. Ann Beebe, User Education manager for Visual Studio, gave me two examples of writers who went into the field and discovered how the customer's experience can be very different from the experience in the development team.

Miller, Harry. Microsoft (2006). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>User Centered Design

Good Products Don’t Make Up for Bad Service … But They Help

Jeffrey Kalmikoff is partner at skinnyCorp and chief creative officer at Threadless. In this article he relates what a trip to a sandwich shop can teach you about customer service.

Kalmikoff, Jeffrey. Vitamin (2008). Articles>User Experience>User Centered Design

Got Usability? Talking with Jakob Nielsen

Jakob Nielsen has brought usability to the attention of the general public, but within the user experience community he's been criticized by those who say he emphasizes a view that excludes other dimensions of user experience. So is he the defender of ease-of-use or the enemy of creativity?

Thornton, Chad. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design

Growing a Business Website: Fix the Basics First

Clear content, simple navigation, and answers to customer questions have the biggest impact on business value. Advanced technology matters much less.

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

Guidelines for Web Data Collection: Understanding and Interacting with Your Users    

The global growth of the World Wide Web challenges technical communicators to reconsider the methods we use to create designs that meet the goals and needs of our users. This article focuses on taking advantage of the Web's potential for interactivity between designers and users. It offers strategies for getting data from users of Web sites and using it for two main purposes: (1) analyzing audience and patterns of use to support continuous redesign, and (2) building a relationship or sense of community on a Web site.

Ramey, Judith A. Technical Communication Online (2000). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Log Analysis

How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Relinquish Control

How could there be a successful business model in actively sending people away from your site? Seven years and a $75 billion market capitalization later, that question has obviously been answered.

Merholz, Peter. Adaptive Path (2005). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design

How Little Do Users Read?

On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability>User Centered Design

How Many Items Should Go in a Menu?

A lot of people think 7 ± 2 (i.e., between 5 and 9, with a preference for 7). NO! It isn’t! And here I will explain why.

Salmoni, Alan James. Milui (2005). Articles>User Interface>User Centered Design

How to Create and Promote a Blog in Eight Easy Steps

A new buzzword you should know about is 'blog' or 'web log', meaning web log, digital journal, or online diary. Blogs are the Next Big Thing to hit the Internet, after conventional Web Sites.

Streight, Steven. Usability Interface (2005). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Blogging

How to Create User-Centered Documentation, Interview with Joe Sokohl

In this podcast, Joe Sokohl explains how to create user-centered documentation by contacting, observing, and interviewing users to gather information about what types of information they use and the help deliverables they actually want.

Sokohl, Joe and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2008). Articles>Interviews>Documentation>User Centered Design

How to Embed Usability and UCD Internally

Integrating usability into any organisation can be a difficult and isolating experience. Get the lowdown on how to achieve this within your organisation.

Ismail, Ismail. Webcredible (2007). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design

How to Stop Writing Documentation and Start Working for Your Users  

How do you stop writing documentation and instead give people the information they need to use a product? You start by understanding your users: their level of expertise, the tasks they need to accomplish, and the problems they are likely to run into. Then you can help them do their work by presenting the information from their point of view and focusing on real tasks, rather than product functions. With this background, you can develop information that is easy to understand, easy to find, and visually effective.

Bergen, Karen A. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design