#25101
Reflections on Site Usability and the State of Flow
Although the general performance of commercial sites is poor at the moment, increasing awareness of Web-user behaviour and the importance of site usability will improve this situation.
Hudson, Roger. Usability.com.au (1998). Articles>Web Design>Usability
#20823
Report From a 1994 Web Usability Study
This reports summarizes results of a usability study of several Web sites I conducted in the beginning of December 1994. Users were observed as they browsed the Web sites of Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and Time Warner. The report has only been very lightly edited and thus represents my thinking about Web usability in 1994. In fact, the report was originally written for distribution to the rest of the Web team on paper since we were not heavy intranet users in 1994, despite having designed SunWeb a few months before this study.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1994). Articles>Web Design>Usability
#27810
A report on a presentation by Ginny Redish where she discussed how research from linguistics, as well as cognitive psychology, reading studies, writing studies, and other disciplines could contribute to useful and usable Web sites.
McDaniel, Scott M. Usability Interface (2006). Articles>Web Design>Usability
#31910
Right-Justified Navigation Menus Impede Scannability
Users scan lists by moving their eyes rapidly down the left edge. Menu items that are right-aligned make scanning more difficult.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Typography
#26641
Despite posing well-known risks, websites continue to feature poorly designed scrollbars. Among the ongoing problems that result are frustrated users, accessibility challenges, and missed content.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Articles>Web Design>Human Computer Interaction>Usability
#14192
The Search For Seducible Moments
If you offer something that is unique to your organization, (and chances are that you do - that's why you're in business) then how do you make the users aware of these benefits? Jared Spool discusses how to identify these 'seducible moments'.
Spool, Jared M. User Interface Engineering (2002). Articles>Web Design>Usability
#11859
Search is the user's lifeline for mastering complex websites. The best designs offer a simple search box on the home page and play down advanced search and scoping.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2001). Articles>Web Design>Usability
#11868
A big lie of computer security is that security improves as password complexity increases. In reality, users simply write down difficult passwords, leaving the system vulnerable. Security is better increased by designing for how people actually behave.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2000). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Security
#19025
Server log files are records of Web server activity (or server activity for any digital medium). They provide details about file requests to a server and the server response to those requests. Collecting and analyzing these files can provide: information about who is coming to your Web site; what information they're requesting; their navigation and behavior. What types of data you collect on your server depends on how it has been set up and defined by the technical staff.
Usability.gov (1998). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Log Analysis
#13353
One of the oldest hypertext usability principles is to visualize the structure of the information space to help users understand where they can go. On today's Web, site maps are a common approach to facilitating navigation. Unfortunately, they are often not very successful at it. We conducted a usability study of site maps on 10 websites, and our main conclusion is that users are reluctant to use site maps and sometimes have problems even finding them. Considering that site maps could be particularly useful to people who are lost, it is not good news that they are often hard to find.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2002). Articles>Usability>Web Design>Sitemaps
#26636
The Slow Tail: Time Lag Between Visiting and Buying
Users often convert to buyers long after their initial visit to a website. A full 5% of orders occur more than four weeks after users click on search engine ads.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Articles>Web Design>E Commerce>Usability
#13337
So, What Size and Type of Font Should I Use on My Website?
By far the two most common types of fonts currently used on the Web are the serif font, Times New Roman (TNR) and the sans serif font, Arial. The question is, which one is more legible and at which size? In the past, it has been determined that serif fonts, which have ornamental strokes at the tip and base of each letter, are easier to read on paper than sans serif fonts, which do not have serifs. This is because it is believed that serifs help distinguished each individual letter (Albers, 1963). However, this benefit may be reduced or even eliminated on computer screens because of their display particularities, like poorer screen resolution and aliasing or 'jaggies,' as it is commonly known.
Bernard, Michael and Melissa Mills. Usability News (2000). Articles>Usability>Web Design
#21118
Statistically Analyzing Success Rates in Web Usability Testing: The Cochran's Q Test
The Cochran's Q Test can be used to statistically analyze success rate data. It can be used even when only a small number of users are tested. This provides some indication that a vast amount of usability data can, and should be statistically analyzed
Griffith, Jamie. WebWord (2001). Articles>Web Design>Statistics>Usability
#29156
In this article, we present a usability experiment in which participants were asked to make intensive use of information on an intranet in order to execute job-related tasks. Participants had to work with one of two versions of an intranet: one with an organization-based hyperlink structure, and one with a task-based hyperlink structure. Efficiency and effectiveness were measured in terms of execution time and task accuracy, respectively. After the task execution, participants were asked to evaluate the task as well as the intranet. The results show that participants perform more efficiently with the organization-based structure, which is probably due to their familiarity with this structure. A post hoc analysis revealed, however, a learning effect in the task condition, which suggests that once users are acquainted with it, a task structure is at least as efficient.
Cozijn, Reinier, Alfons Maes, Didie Schackman and Nicole Ummelen. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Usability
#10582
Surprises on the Web: Results from Usability Testing
We were surprised by how hard it was to compare simple facts on the web. We asked users to compare facts (Which vehicle has the better rebate: the Geo Tracker or the Isuzu Rodeo?) on sites that had all the necessary information. Users found these tasks frustrating; our randomly- chosen test sites were not designed to facilitate comparisons.
User Interface Engineering (1996). Articles>Usability>Web Design
#20869
Tech-Support Tales: Internet Hard to Use for Novice Users
The Internet is still much too difficult to use for novice users. Specialized information appliances like WebTV reduce complexity but still involve considerable risk of user error.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1997). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability
#11902
Ten Guidelines for User-Centered Web Design
In UCD, your development cycle includes stages for both usability design and testing. Be sure to get user feedback throughout development and don’t settle on a final direction or design too soon. Usability testing is the only way you can know if your particular site meets these users’ needs.
Truchard, Aimee and Raissa Katz-Haas. Usability Interface (1998). Articles>Usability>Web Design
#28697
Ten High-Profit Redesign Priorities
Several usability findings lead directly to higher sales and increased customer loyalty. These design tactics should be your first priority when updating your website.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2007). Articles>Web Design>Usability
#20623
The Ten Most Violated Homepage Design Guidelines
There are ten usability mistakes that about two-thirds of corporate websites make. The prevalence of these errors alone warrants attention, especially since they appear on sites with significant investment in usable design.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Articles>Web Design>Usability
#13742
Test your site on actual users. Testing is the heart and soul of usability research. If you want your tests to be accurate, find test subjects who are part of your intended audience--not coworkers, others who have worked on the design, or anyone with a vested interest. Observe them as they use your site. Take notes. Keep your mouth shut. That big blue button may be an obvious link to you but if they don't click it, don't ask them why, at least not until the test is over.
Nielsen, Jakob. Builder.com (2001). Articles>Usability>Web Design
#10569
Testing Web Sites with Eye-Tracking
Thanks to some recent usability studies we conducted using an eye-tracking system, we now have real evidence of where users actually look when they view a web page. It’s clear that users quickly learn to look where they expect to find content. They also quickly learn to avoid areas where they don’t see—or expect—what they’re looking for, including banner ads and parts of the page outside the central area.
Schroeder, Will. User Interface Engineering (1998). Articles>Usability>Web Design>Eye Tracking
#11860
The Three C's of Critical Web Use: Collect, Compare, Choose
Traditionally, critical incident analysis has been a great tool for collecting user feedback about existing user interfaces. To do it, you basically ask the user to recall a prominent case where the interface was uncommonly helpful or particularly disappointing. I usually ask users for both positive and negative examples, and the responses always help me understand how they're using the system and how I can improve it by making certain aspects more or less prominent.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2001). Articles>Web Design>Usability
#26632
Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005
The oldies continue to be goodies -- or rather, baddies -- in the list of design stupidities that irked users the most in 2005.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Articles>Web Design>Usability
#19024
When analyzing numbers related to the growth of a website, I normally recommend looking at them on a logarithmic scale. The reason is that the Web and the Internet both experience exponential growth. Therefore, Web statistics are better analyzed in terms of growth rates than in terms of linear growth.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1998). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Log Analysis
#13743
If you were to draw a picture of Dave Kleinberg's professional life, it might come out looking like a tree. Hierarchies have long played a key role in his thinking. 'At least 80 percent of all the information we encounter every day can be organized into hierarchies,' Kleinberg says. A hierarchy is a tree-like structure that begins with a single point, or node, which describes the most general aspect of a topic. This node, often referred to as the root, is then divided into branches that contain increasingly specific information.
Kleinberg, David. Builder.com (2001). Articles>Usability>Web Design
