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301. #18584 Some Web sites intended to help users actually hamper them. Here's how to design sites that keep your users happy. Shank, Patti. TrainingMag.com (2002). Design>Web Design>Usability 302. #21886 Explains that specific, measurable objectives and post-launch measurements are crucial for successfully achieving ROI (return on investment) goals. He also provides several examples aligning business and design initiatives, and prioritizing design projects relative to their ROI. Souza, Randy. Forrester Research (2001). Design>Information Design>Usability 303. #23977 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 304. #19315 Globalisation: The Challenges to Usability English is the official language of approximately eight percent of the worlds population - a significant number, but still a small minority. Yet the majority of online content is presented in English. Naturally, many organisations will want to reach as many prospective worldwide clients and suppliers as possible, but the reality is that a user will always prefer an application that suits their own language and cultural environment. Globalisation refers to everything an organisation should do to ensure that its web presence meets the requirements of users in different countries. Successful globalisation requires tackling a host of both technical and content issues. Back-end systems that interact with your web presence must be reengineered so they can identify and process any language. The web interface and its content must also be translated and culturally modified for a specific language or target environment (a locale). Its a huge topic - here we highlight only some of the key challenges presented to usability by going global. Gaine, Frank. Frontend Infocentre (2001). Design>Web Design>International>Usability 305. #11911 Goal Composition: Extending Task Analysis to Predict Things People May Want to Do One of the basic questions during the development of a computer system and its user interface is what the users will want to do with the system. Unfortunately, a task analysis of users' current activities is not sufficient to predict what they will do in the future. It is well known that people's use of computers change over time and that new and unexpected uses are found for most new systems. Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1994). Articles>Web Design>Usability 306. #19125 A Good Installation Guide Increases User Satisfaction and Reduces Support Costs In its first endeavor, the new Customer Documentation Group at SABRE Travel Information Network has shown that it adds value. Blackwell, C. Al. Technical Communication Online (1995). Design>Documentation>Usability 307. #19124 A Good User's Guide Means Fewer Support Calls and Lower Support Costs Good user documentation means fewer client support calls and lower support costs at GE Information Services in Rockville, Maryland. Spencer, Cathy J. and Diana Kilbourn Yates. Technical Communication Online (1995). Design>Documentation>Usability 308. #21087 People using Microsoft's Internet Explorer are now being redirected to Microsoft's MSN when they make certain kinds of mistakes. This means that Microsoft is taking control of another part of the user experience. This article discusses how Google might be able to help users and solve a few other problems others along the way. Rhodes, John S. WebWord (2001). Design>Web Design>Usability>Search 309. #21271 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 310. #27442 When the philosophy of the 'skin interface' is applied to other applications, it becomes problematic. There is nothing wrong with that concept as long as it is clear that it only works with highly specialized applications such as Winamp. It is even culturally expected in the Winamp community that skins will be created and made available. Spillers, Frank. Demystifying Usability (2004). Articles>Usability>Graphic Design 311. #22900 Great Service. Full Service. Self Service. Great customer service used to mean providing a memorable, high-touch, face-to-face experience for customers. Now, it's the opposite. Janisch, Troy. Icon Interactive. Design>Web Design>Usability 312. #25115 The Greatest Design of all Time After a while one of my dining companions asked me what I regarded as the greatest design of all time. Jordan, Pat. uiGarden (2005). Design>Usability>User Interface 313. #27942 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 314. #18444 A Guide for Website Developers About How to Accommodate Users with Low Education, Low Motivation Users with low education are users who have obtained limited level of education. These educationally disadvantaged people acquired and applied complex reasoning, but the lack of basic reading comprehension and communications skills hinder their success in education and skilled occupations. Low level of education effectively equals to functional illiteracy. Even though there is a significant increase in Internet use for individuals with elementary education (129%) from 1998 to 2000, only 9.1% of those with elementary education versus 75.5% with Bachelor's Degree or more uses the Internet [2]. More than one out of five adult Americans are functionally illiterate, and their ranks are swelling by about 2.3 million persons each year. Nearly 40 percent of minority youth and 30 percent of semiskilled and unskilled workers are illiterate [1]. It is hence necessary to address website accessibility issues pertaining to this group of users. Lim, Ser Nam. Universal Usability (2001). Design>Usability>Accessibility 315. #18610 A Guide to Making Documents Accessible to People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired This document contains a comprehensive discussion about how to make print and electronic information available to people with visual impairments in a variety of accessible formats. Consumers who have limited vision or are totally blind have unique access needs. These needs depend on the amount of vision each person has for reading. Some people have usable vision, allowing them to read large print. Others choose to read braille on paper, while a third group prefers to use a computer with synthetic speech, or refreshable braille display, to read electronic documents. Sutton, Jennifer. American Council of the Blind (2002). Design>Usability>Accessibility>Visual 316. #25403 Although the World Wide Web has great potential as an educational tool, and many educational practitioners have begun utilizing the Web in many ways (e.g., Dodge, 1995; Logan, 1996; Mounts, 1996; Weiler, 1996), as yet, there has not been much systematic, theory based, research aimed at examining these methods. The principal purpose of this experiment was to begin to address the issue of how best to structure an interface between learners and the vast jumble of resources at their disposal on the Web. The need for the development and investigation of such an interface is indicated by research, which has found that some degree of learner guidance is particularly important in effective web learning (Anderson & Joerg, 1996). Hall, Richard H. University of Missouri-Rolla (1997). Articles>Web Design>Education>Usability 317. #10410 Guidelines for Authoring Comprehensible Web Pages and Evaluating Their Success The guidelines presented in this article should enable authors to create Web pages that their readers can understand. They should also enable evaluators to judge the comprehensibility of Web pages. The guidelines are explained and supported by an examination of relevant research and usability studies. Spyridakis, Jan H. Technical Communication Online (2000). Design>Web Design>Writing>Usability 318. #23112 Guidelines for Visualizing Links Textual links should be colored and underlined to achieve the best perceived affordance of clickability, though there are a few exceptions to these guidelines. Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2004). Design>Web Design>Usability>Color 319. #22783 Guidelines for Visualizing Links Textual links should be colored and underlined to achieve the best perceived affordance of clickability, though there are a few exceptions to these guidelines. Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2004). Design>Web Design>Usability>Color 320. #19274 A collection of links to Turkish-language online resources in web design and web usability. Ersoy, Halil. Orta Dogu Teknik Üniversitesi. (Turkish) Resources>Web Design>Usability 321. #29651 Heading Frequency and Comprehension: Studies of Print Versus Online Media This paper describes a study that examined the effect of heading frequency on comprehension and perceptions of information presented in print versus online text. Results indicated that heading frequency did not differentially affect the comprehension of readers of print text while it did differentially affect the comprehension of readers of online texts who had considerably lower comprehension scores with text that had high frequency versus medium frequency headings. Spyridakis, Jan H., Laura D. Schultz and Alexandra L. Bartell. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Document Design>Writing>Usability 322. #13585 Helping Businesses Evaluate Their Internet Presence To ensure that their Web sites are conveying the intended image, a growing list of businesses, including Avis Rent A Car System, McDonald's, Staples and Holiday Inn, are turning to companies that test usability and brand opinion for help. These companies conduct surveys and focus groups and even use high-technology eye-tracking devices to uncover how customers use a Web site and how their experiences affect feelings about the parent company. Bannan, Karen. New York Times, The (2002). Design>Usability>Assessment>Eye Tracking 323. #25238 For this study, we recruited low-vision users with a variety of vision problems who need software to magnify computer text. Although we did not systematically recruit for specific vision problems, the fact that our users had different needs gave us one of the most critical insights in this study: The needs of low-vision users are too diverse for simple solutions to Web accessibility and usability. We show a few ways in which today’s Web sites are missing the needs of all low-vision users and provide guidelines for fixing those problems. However, the diversity of vision needs and the resulting adaptations that low-vision users require mean that there are no simple solutions to making Web sites work for everyone. In this article, therefore, you will not find many simple guidelines. Instead, we raise a critical issue and suggest a 'vision of the future' solution. Theofanos, Mary Frances and Janice C. 'Ginny' Redish. Technical Communication Online (2005). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Universal Usability 324. #21021 Helping Users Find Physical Locations When we asked users to find a nearby store, office, dealership, or other outlet based on information provided at a parent company's website, users succeeded only 63% of the time. On average, the 10 sites we studied complied with less than half of our 21 usability guidelines for locator design. Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2001). Design>Web Design>Usability 325. #14941 Helping Web Customers Sniff Out a Deal In Jared Spool's presentation, 'Scent of a Web Site' to the Washington DC Chapter of UPA (September 18, 2002), Spool used scent as an analogy to attract customers to the goods or services they desire online. A predator locates prey by following a scent trail. If the predator loses the scent trail, it returns to the location where the trail was strong, and tries again. Spool reports seeing a similar behavior with people looking for content on very large Web sites. Spool introduced two new vocabulary words that I plan to use. Gallery pages are used on very large Web sites to aggregate content pages. Store pages are used to aggregate gallery pages. The home page connects to stores; effective home pages also connect to galleries and content as well. These concepts aren't necessary for Web sites of one to twenty or so pages. They are essential for very large Web sites, such as Amazon or Microsoft Network, with pages numbering in the millions. Bine, Katharyn. Usability Interface (2002). Articles>Web Design>Usability
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