How To Succeed With URLs

Dynamic websites are great. Dynamically-generated URLs stink. In Part One of a new series, Till Quack shows how to use PHP to convert machine-generated URLs into human-friendly ones.

Quack, Till. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Web Design>Usability

Human Error and the Design of Computer Systems

People err. That is a fact of life. People are not precision machinery designed for accuracy. In fact, we humans are a different kind of device entirely. Creativity, adaptability, and flexibility are our strengths. Continual alertness and precision in action or memory are our weaknesses. We are amazingly error tolerant, even when physically damaged. We are extremely flexible, robust, and creative, superb at finding explanations and meanings from partial and noisy evidence. The same properties that lead to such robustness and creativity also produce errors. The natural tendency to interpret partial information -- although often our prime virtue -- can cause operators to misinterpret system behavior in such a plausible way that the misinterpretation can be difficult to discover.

Norman, Donald A. JND.org (1999). Design>Human Computer Interaction>Usability

The Human Interface

The phrase 'human error' is taken to mean 'operator error', but more often than not the disaster is inherent in the design or installation of the human interface. Bad interfaces are slow or error prone to use. Bad interfaces cost money and cost lives.

Dix, Alan. uiGarden (2005). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Usability>User Centered Design

Human-Computer Interaction for Kids  

How is designing computer software and hardware for kids different from designing for adults? At the time of this writing, little formal research has been done on this topic. Most research done to date has focused on designing educational software, and evaluation is primarily of learning outcomes, not usability. However, usability is a prerequisite for learning.

Bruckman, Amy and Alisa Bandlow. Georgia Institute of Technology (2002). Design>Usability>Accessibility>Children

I Walk, I See, I Hear

For 40 years I had taken no notice of the locations of ramps in public buildings, the height or number of stairs, or if pay phones had instructions in Braille. My, how things have changed for me since January when I took on the challenge of writing the Special Needs SIG's Conference Guide for People with Special Needs for the Society's 50th International Conference in Dallas.

Shumway, Jodi. Usability Interface (2003). Design>Usability>Accessibility

IA and Usability: When to Start

Information design is supposed to be done from the very beginning, as it's not a cosmetic but a substantial discipline. You are much faster if you hire an information designer in the beginning.

Information Architects Japan (2006). Design>Information Design>Usability

The Iceberg Analogy of Usability

Developers sometimes ask which aspects of look and feel contribute most to the overall usability of an application or Web site. They are typically surprised when I answer that the 'look and feel' aspects aren't the major contributors at all. Look and feel have been popular discussion topics for many years, and some developers have proposed various schemes purporting to allow an easy swap of one look and feel for another. They were perhaps compelled to this thinking to compensate for an inadequate understanding of their users. Around 1990, I became alarmed by the popularity of design architectures advocating paradigms like the User Interface Management Systems (UIMS) that enable a pluggable look and feel. Many of my colleagues and I felt that look and feel represented only the tip of the iceberg. We felt that the set of concepts users must learn and understand to use a product or Web site effectively is actually the most important factor.

Berry, Dick. IBM (2001). Articles>Usability>User Experience>Web Design

Icon Analysis: Evaluating Low Spatial Frequency Compositions

Icons that are difficult to tell apart can lead to disastrous consequences. Queen shows us how studying the way the human visual system encodes information can lead to more effective icon design.

Queen, Matt. Boxes and Arrows (2006). Design>User Interface>Usability

Ideas for Improved Within-Page Navigation

WebTV is the first Web user interface for which I have discovered a serious need for navigational aids within the page.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1996). Design>Web Design>Usability>Web Browsers

IDEO's "Ten Faces"

Tom Kelly's latest book 'The 10 Faces of Innovation' internal personas are used to help illustrate traits critical in building an innovation culture.The Experience Archtect is included.

Armano, David. uiGarden (2007). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design>Personas

The Impact of Paging vs. Scrolling on Reading Online Text Passages

In this study, we examined the use of paging vs. scrolling in reading passages, including participants' reading comprehension in paging and scrolling conditions.

Baker, J. Ryan. Usability News (2003). Design>Web Design>Usability

The Importance of Content Management System Usability

The rollout of a content management system (CMS) has the potential to impact on more users than any other system since e-mail. More crucially, the success of a CMS depends entirely on how much it is used, whether it is authors creating content, or users accessing the published site. It is these two challenges that place usability as a central issue to be raised and addressed.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2003). Design>Content Management>Usability

The Importance of Document Design  

One definition of communication is 'the transfer of information from one location to another so that meaning is understood.' In other words, communication is what happens when one person connects to another to share information.

Quesenbery, Whitney. Intercom (2004). Articles>Document Design>Usability

The Importance of Simplicity

Web sites and software often compete with each other based on the features they provide. The popular assumption is that the more features a product has, the better it will be. The truth is that features improve a product only if they are actually used by the customer. In most cases the proliferation of features in products creates more complexity than value. Each feature gets an icon or a link on a Web site or toolbar, and is yet another item that the user needs to wade through before they can find the one that they need. Web sites are still young, but many Mac and Microsoft® Windows applications show the carnage of years of feature wars with competing products. Over the years I've learned a few things about how to keep interfaces simple, and simultaneously keep the power intact for more sophisticated users.

Berkun, Scott. UIWeb (1999). Design>Usability>User Centered Design

Improve the Readability of Your Web Pages

Learn how to make your web pages easier to read with easy-to-read article!

Churchill, Christine. Webcredible (2004). Design>Web Design>Usability

Improving Accessibility for Motor Impaired Users

The unique requirements for motor impaired web users can often be overlooked or poorly implemented. Motor impairments can be caused by a stroke, Parkinson's disease, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a physical disability or even a broken arm. This group of users essentially have limited or no ability to use a mouse.

Moss, Trenton. Webcredible (2007). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability

Improving Usability Guideline Compliance

Over the last 1.5 years, the average compliance with established usability guidelines increased by 4%. If we can sustain this level of improvement, we'll reach the ideal of 90% guideline compliance in 2017.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2002). Design>Usability

Improving Web Site Usability and Appeal

This document describes research findings that can provide designers and producers with ideas to increase the usability and appeal of Web sites. Although most of the tips will not surprise experienced designers or producers, this document should be helpful as a reference, checklist, reminder, or brainstorming tool. Each section gives a broad overview of an appeal concept, a site review checklist, and a list of concrete design tips. Some ideas may work as described, but designers will usually need to creatively adapt an idea to their particular site.

Keeker, Kevin. Microsoft (1997). Design>Web Design>Usability

Improving Your Reader's Content Forms  

For most organizations, Reader’s Comment Forms serve primarily as Reader’s Complaint Forms. Most of these forms typically ask readers to identify errors in the text, citing location of the error, describing the error, and suggesting a change. What a waste!

Carliner, Saul. Intercom (2003). Design>Web Design>Assessment>Usability

In Search of Salience: A Response-Time and Eye-Movement Analysis of Bookmark Recognition

Describes the effect of bookmark naming on bookmark recognition. The purpose is to provide empirically-determined guidelines for web producers on how to title pages in order to optimise the recognition of bookmarks by users, and increase the rate of revisitation to their websites.

Poole, Alex. Alex Poole (2005). Articles>Information Design>Usability>Web Browsers

In the Future, We'll All Be Harry Potter

The world of magic is a world where inanimate objects come alive; it's as if they had computational power, sensors, awareness, and connectivity.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2002). Design>Usability>Interactive

Incorporating Navigation Research into a Design Method  

A presentation about whether an underlying spatial metaphor aids information design usability.

Lombardi, Victor. Information Architecture Summit (2004). Presentations>Information Design>Usability

Increasing the Accessibility of the Web through Style Sheets, Scripts and 'Plug-ins'

The W3C WAI Page Authoring Guidelines (Vanderheiden, et al, 1998a) contains nineteen general concepts that Web page authors should follow to make their pages more accessible and usable, not only to people with disabilities, but for newer page viewing technologies (mobile and voice), for electronic agents such as indexing robots, and etc. In this paper/presentation, we will talk about and demonstrate how scripts and style sheets can be implemented today, and still work on systems that do not support scripts and style sheets ('Transform gracefully'). We also talk about and demonstrate how the data in a table can be presented and navigated both via scripting and by an accompanying application ('Context and navigation').

Chisholm, Wendy and Mark Novak. University of Wisconsin (2001). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Universal Usability

Index Versus Full-text Search: A Usability Study of User Preference and Performance    

This article reports on the results of testing two versions of an information product, Usability Testing and Research: one version, an Adobe Acrobat Reader e-book with an index with the locators hyperlinked to the page reference for each entry; the other version, the same e-book without an index, but with the full-text search capabilities provided by Acrobat Reader. We first summarize the current literature regarding human indexing and information retrieval by machine (search engines). We then describe the methodology for testing, the testing results, our conclusions, and implications for future research.

Barnum, Carol M., Earvin Henderson, Al Hood and Rodney Jordan. Technical Communication Online (2004). Design>Web Design>Usability>Search