#19121
Making Web Advertisements Work
There are many reasons why advertisements don't work well on the Web, but it is most unsettling when an ad actually portrays something relevant to users and still fails. Why would this occur? Well, to start, we must consider why text ads work so well on search engines. Each user has a goal -- perhaps it is to learn about digital cameras, perhaps to purchase a book. In either case, users' attention is focused on whatever gets them to their goal; they ignore everything else. When users enter search queries, the targeted ads that the engine returns relate directly to what users are after. Hence, they look at and follow the ads. Indeed, such advertisements probably have an advantage over the plain search results because they show both that the advertiser is competent and has a direct interest in serving consumers.
Nielsen, Jakob and Donald A. Norman. Alertbox (2003). Design>Web Design>Marketing>Usability
#21138
The more time you spend at a site, the easier it is to use. Your investment in that site pays higher and higher dividends. Here's another metaphor. Your site and your users form a relationship.
Rhodes, John S. WebWord (1999). Design>Web Design>Usability
#20857
Some details less profound than disabled access, international usability, and site structure, but still important for Web usability.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1996). Design>Web Design>Usability
#23297
Users' expectations of a product depend on the maturity of its market. Markets for software products go through some predictable stages, each with a different emphasis. By identifying what stage your product is in now, you can anticipate some of the pitfalls that lie ahead.
Spool, Jared M. User Interface Engineering (1997). Design>User Centered Design>Usability
#21165
Más Allá de la Usabilidad: Interfaces 'Afectivas'
La creciente popularización de las nuevas tecnologías de la información obliga a que cualquier producto interactivo sea diseñado para una audiencia cada vez más heterogénea y menos tolerante con experiencias de uso frustrantes. Las técnicas, metodologías y prácticas propias de la Usabilidad y Accesibilidad, intentan hacer frente a este hecho, estudiando las necesidades, objetivos y comportamiento del usuario, y enfocando cualquier decisión sobre el diseño, así como la evaluación, en base a estos factores.
Hassan Montero, Yusef and Francisco Jesus Martin Fernandez. Nosolousabilidad.com (2003). (Spanish) Design>User Interface>Usability>User Centered Design
#19031
You ask the Web jockeys to pull the latest stats. Hits are growing. Page turns per visit are up. The search button has been getting lots of action too. But before you pass those numbers on to the CEO, think again: The search button's popularity could be a sign that customers can't tell where the site's navigation buttons will take them. Those hits and page turns could be a sign that customers are lost, testing link after link. You don't know because at your company, as at most companies, no one has ever asked customers whether your Web site is easy to use. And what you don't know can cost you.
Kalin, Sari. CIO Magazine (1999). Design>Web Design>Usability>Log Analysis
#19023
Measuring User Motivation from Server Log Files 
Estimating user interest and motivation by just counting page requests from a World Wide Web server log (or 'hits') provides a distorted metric of user activity. Some of the reasons why this metric is unreliable are that the path dependent nature of hyperlink usability treats index and navigational aid pages as equal to the goal, because differenes in web browsers can determine how effectively users can percieve content and navigational alternatives, and because the poorly designed structure and content of the documents themselves can inhibit users from finding what they are looking for. This paper proposes that measures of how much time users spend looking at a page are better estimates of user interest than page hits, providing simple human factors principles have been applied. An extended example of how this method might be used to collect and analyze data is also included. The types of decisions that can be made by authors and system administrators based on a time-based metric of user interest is summarized.
Fuller, Rodney and Johannes J. de Graaff. Microsoft (1996). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Log Analysis
#30551
Merging Usability Practices with Document Design and Development 
Examines the phases of document development and describes how to incorporate them with usability techniques to ensure that your information products remain continually useful and valuable.
Filippo, Elizabeth G. Intercom (2007). Articles>Document Design>Usability
#27808
Million Dollar Web Usability Tips
What has long been a struggle for UEX professionals can actually be a great tool to demonstrate the importance of your role. We have found a way, using tools that you may already have, to support the users' needs that can positively impact your company’s bottom line.
Remus, Jacqueline and Jessyca Frederick. Usability Interface (2006). Articles>Web Design>Usability>User Experience
#27864
Mobile and Handheld Usability Testing - Why It Matters
Mobile and handheld usability testing is crucial to your business - find out why and what you need to do for this unique medium.
Fidgeon, Tim. Webcredible (2006). Design>Web Design>Usability
#19305
Nokia are the world's leading maker of mobile phones. Their user-centred approach to developing products has been identified as one crucial factor behind this success. 'Nokia starts its planning from what the consumer actually wants while Ericsson and Motorola tend to be more engineering driven' commented Mark Davies Jones of Schroder Solomon Smith Barney. Anecdotal evidence and our own previous observations suggest that consumers find Nokia's mobile phones easier to use than many of their competitors and often take this into account - either consciously or sub-consciously - when making their purchasing decision. Frontend decided to evaluate the usability of a Nokia phone, the popular 3210, against a competitor, the older Siemens C25. We found that the Nokia is significantly easier to use in a number of areas.
Magennis, Mark. Frontend Infocentre (2001). Design>Usability>Wireless Web
#10262
Modeling Information for Three-Dimensional Space: Lessons Learned from Museum Exhibit Design 
Perhaps these concerns sound familiar: visitors complain that they cannot find information of interest. One observes, 'I know there's information about that type of robotics here, but darned if I can find it;' visitors enter the site but don't stay particularly long. Some might even express an interest in the subject; let's say it's modern art. But they leave almost as quickly as they enter without paying much attention to the artwork that the designers painstakingly displayed; other visitors spend hours at the site but never seem to notice particular sections. For example, a visitor might be thoroughly familiar with the content on radios but oblivious to the section on industrial hardware. These observations could describe visitors to Web sites. Actually, these observations describe museum visitors. The connections between the two are discussed in this article.
Carliner, Saul. Technical Communication Online (2001). Design>Information Design>Usability
#19425
No Web page fonts should be less than 10-points, Optimal reading speed for most adults will be elicited with 12-point fonts (size=3). There is probably no reliable difference in reading speed for most adults when viewing common font styles (Arial, Verdana, Georgia, Times New Roman). Most users tend to prefer sans serif fonts (Arial, Verdana). Older users will benefit from type sizes that are at least 14-points.
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2002). Design>Typography>Web Design>Usability
#27005
Users were having trouble learning about the Open University's special form of distance education on the existing site. To solve this problem, we wanted to make recommendations for the style and format of the information as part of our design.
Quesenbery, Whitney. UXmatters (2006). Articles>Web Design>Usability
#21046
Custom error pages are better than stock error pages, and there are even better practical solutions that may eliminate the need for custom error pages to begin with.
Baker, Adam and Keith Instone. Merges.net (2001). Articles>Web Design>Usability
#28812
Instead of becoming computer users, like the cheery protagonists of Star Trek, we've become the computer used, like the gloomy inhabitants of Dilbert.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Indus (2007). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design
#28952
The Myth of the Genius Designer
Having a good designer doesn't eliminate the need for a systematic usability process. Risk reduction and quality improvement both require user testing and other usability methods.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2007). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Testing
#29664
Name and Address Forms on the Web: Research into Usability
Internet forms can be found on all kinds of sites that enable visitors to interact with companies, such as order forms in online shops or application forms on job boards. These forms ask visitors to fill out their name and address, which in many cases results in user errors as a consequence of design failures. In this article we report on a research project using event logs to analyze user errors and optimize the design of name and address forms. Two factors are identified as crucial for usability: the sequence of elements in the name field and the spatial orientation in the address field.
Lentz, Leo and Menno D.T. de Jong. STC Proceedings (2005). Design>Web Design>Forms>Usability
#22373
Navbars: Why Drill-Down Menus are Harmful
Drill-down menus make interaction more difficult, destroy the user's overview, and poor wording make users give up using the site.
Bohmann, Kristoffer. Bohmann Usability (2001). Design>Web Design>Usability>DHTML
#18661
The artless Websites created during the Web's infancy were of necessity built only with simple HTML tags, and were forced to divide up their functionality and content into a maze (a web?) of separate pages. This made a navigation scheme an unavoidable component of any Website design, and of course, a clear, visually arresting navigation scheme was better than an obscure or hidden one. But many Web designers have incorrectly deduced from this that users want navigation schemes. Actually, they'd be happy if there were no navigation at all.
Cooper, Alan. Cooper Interaction Design (2001). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Usability
#19619
Navigation: An Often Neglected Component of Web Authorship
Web authors should follow web design conventions that account for the variety of ways users will try to navigate through their pages. While usability testing is the best way to ensure your site is really operating as you intend it to, this page offers a basic overview of basic navigation principles that most visitors will expect on most pages that they visit.
Jerz, Dennis G. Seton Hill University (2000). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Usability
#27143
Web sites and Web applications require users to select from navigational options to access subsequent content pages. An important question relates to where the first navigational choices should be located on the page. Is the navigation better placed at the top of the page, on the left or right panels? If three clicks (i.e., three navigational level selections) are required to get to the desired content, should they be grouped together at the top, left, right, or split between different locations (e.g., select from the top, with the next selection[s] from the left, top or right)?
Bailey, Robert. Usability.gov (2006). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design
#20865
Every Web usability study I have conducted since 1994 has shown the same thing: users beg us to speed up page downloads. In the beginning, my reaction was along the lines of 'let's just give them better design and they will behappy to wait for it.' I have since become a reformed sinner since even my skull is not thick enough to withstand consistent user pleas year after year.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1997). Design>Web Design>Usability>Bandwidth
#19033
In most organizations, data is piling up by the minute: e-mails, names, addresses, transactions, you name it. As a result, finding what you need when you need it is becoming increasingly complicated, which is why more companies are deploying enterprise search tools. According to a recent report by Boston-based Yankee Group, 75 percent of businesses with more than 100 employees have some sort of enterprise search technology in place. The study also found that the bigger the organization, the more likely it is to invest in search technologies, as 91 percent of companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue report having enterprise search capability. In 2001, a similar Yankee Group survey found that 63 percent of businesses employed search technology. In that year, enterprise search vendors generated $400 million in revenues.
Surmacz, Jon. CIO Magazine (2003). Design>Content Management>Usability
#14624
The author offers advice on choosing the most appropriate search engine, as well as a list of tips for using search engines.
Archee, Raymond K. Intercom (2000). Design>Web Design>Usability>Search
