#25364
When you make a web page easy to grasp, in the very first 10 seconds after a visitor arrives, you can both increase its credibility and improve its search engines ranking. Rachel shares precise methods for composing effective text for Web sites.
McAlpine, Rachel. Wise-Women (2004). Design>Web Design>Writing>Usability
#21100
Poor password usability can ruin your web registration process. While passwords are a painful fact of life, there are ways to minimize the problems that users face. This article contains suggestions on how to best collect passwords during the registration process, and it will help you determine if you should allow users to save their passwords.
Ledwell, Joshua. WebWord (2001). Design>Web Design>Usability>Security
#30191
Das kennt man: ein ahnungsloser Klick und plötzlich öffnet sich eine mega-lange PDF-Datei. Seitengestalter sind deshalb angehalten Links auf PDF-Dateien zu kennzeichnen. Selbstverständlich macht das inzwischen auch (fast) jeder.
Lennartz, Sven. Dr. Web (2007). (German) Articles>Usability>Information Design>Adobe Acrobat
#30190
PDF Usability: Debate and Reality
This article examines the claims of those PDF critics and argues that usability complaints about PDF documents are misdirected, and further, highlights some of the key reasons why PDF is the preferred electronic document format.
Johnson, Duff. Adobe (2006). Articles>Usability>Information Design>Adobe Acrobat
#28261
PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption
Users get lost inside PDF files, which are typically big, linear text blobs that are optimized for print and unpleasant to read and navigate online. PDF is good for printing, but that's it. Don't use it for online presentation.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Adobe Acrobat
#19757
PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption
Users get lost inside PDF files, which are typically big, linear text blobs that are optimized for print and unpleasant to read and navigate online. PDF is good for printing, but that's it. Don't use it for online presentation.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Articles>Usability>Web Design>Adobe Acrobat
#31996
People Finder: Searching Without Logic? Improving the People Finder Application
One of the most frequent tasks on many intranets is finding people within the company. Providing an effective way to search people is thus a key goal in designing intranets. This goal becomes even more important for an organization like Emirates, a leading international airline, which has over 35,000 employees with over 140 nationalities and where more people are likely to use this feature more frequently.
Deshmukh, Vivek. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability>User Interface
#14206
People Search Once, Maybe Twice
Lately, we've been focused on the effectiveness of Search. When looking for content, users often end up using the search engine. In a recent study, we observed that users only found their target content 34% of the time with Search (less than with categories). We wanted to know why.
User Interface Engineering (2002). Design>Web Design>Usability>Search
#23996
It's easy to assemble a set of user characteristics and call it a persona, but it's not so easy to create personas that are truly effective design and communication tools. If you have begun to create your own personas, here are some tips to help you perfect them.
Goodwin, Kim. Cooper Interaction Design (2001). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design>Personas
#19335
Web personalization is much over-rated and mainly used as a poor excuse for not designing a navigable website. The real way to get individualized interaction between a user and a website is to present the user with a variety of options and let the user choose what is of interest to that individual at that specific time. If the information space is designed well, then this choice is easy, and the user achieves optimal information through the use of natural intelligence rather than artificial intelligence. In other words, I am the one entity on the world to know exactly what I need right now. Thus, I can tailor the information I see and the information I skip so that it suits my needs perfectly.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2001). Design>Web Design>Personalization>Usability
#24672
Personas, Participatory Design and Product Development: An Infrastructure for Engagement 
The design of commercial products that are intended to serve millions of people has been a challenge for collaborative approaches. The creation and use of fictional users, concrete representations commonly referred to as 'personas', is a relatively new interaction design technique. It is not without problems and can be used inappropriately, but based on experience and analysis it has extraordinary potential. Not only can it be a powerful tool for true participation in design, it also forces designers to consider social and political aspects of design that otherwise often go unexamined.
Grudin, Jonathan and John Pruitt. Microsoft (2002). Articles>User Centered Design>Usability>Personas
#14210
Personas: Matching a Design to the Users' Goals
We hear all the time from designers that they're faced with the huge challenge of designing products and web sites for a large number of different users. Many designers tackle this problem by making the functionality of the web site or product as extensive as possible. To do this, they outline all of the goals of each user, identify any commonalities between these goals, and add all of the functionality needed to satisfy these common goals.
Perfetti, Christine. User Interface Engineering (2001). Articles>Information Design>Usability
#22458
Pervasive Usability - Planning For an Uncertain Future
Usability is a phenomenon that has dramatically changed the way the products, including Websites, are designed and manufactured.
Kheterpal, Suneet. SitePoint (2003). Design>Web Design>Usability
#31128
What bugs me is not the results of the major search engines, but the results of internal web site searches.
Rockley Group, The (2008). Design>Web Design>Search>Usability
#28643
Users take photos to highlight important aspects of their lives and context. The photos are assembled into collages and studied to highlight opportunities for new technologies and barriers to their acceptance.
. Usability Body of Knowledge (2007). Design>Usability>Photography>Methods
#23363
A collection of pithy quotations related to usability, communication and design. They were collected by colleagues on a usability discussion list and are loosely grouped by topics.
#22715
Planning a Usable Website: A Three-Step Guide
Learn how to involve usability from the start of the web design process.
Moss, Trenton. Webcredible (2004). Design>Web Design>Usability
#21050
Users need feedback from websites. Buttons, links, and other interactive elements should respond to elementary user input. All web designers probably try to account for user feedback, especially in controls like buttons and links, but a lot of websites have strange ways of letting the user know what he can or can't do. There are some de facto standards from the software visual interface world that apply to web design, as well as a few guidelines that make pliant response more effective.
Baker, Adam. Merges.net (2001). Design>Web Design>Usability
#18727
Para la mayoría de las personas resulta confuso que, al hacer click en un link o botón, la página responda lanzando una nueva ventana del navegador. Añade otra dimensión a la complejidad de la navegación. Sin embargo, muchas veces nuestro cliente necesita un pop-up, o nosotros mismos decidimos que el visitante de la página podrá manejarlo. Más allá de las discusiones acerca de usar o no un pop-up, hay un problema que los corrompe sistemáticamente, que los hace perversos, que agrede a usuarios avanzados y principiantes en su navegación, confunde a los buscadores, y genera ruido en el código. Este problema es que, existiendo varias formas de lanzar un pop-up con código Javascript, las más usadas son las incorrectas.
Razzari, Manuel. Nosolousabilidad.com (2003). (Spanish) Design>Web Design>Usability>DHTML
#18399
The Post Disciplinary Revolution: Industrial Design and Human Factors—Heal Yourselves
The fault lies with the separation of powers. There are four legs to product development. Four equal legs are required for good product design, all sitting on the foundation of the business case.
Norman, Donald A. JND.org (2000). Design>Human Computer Interaction>Usability
#26633
Search engine users click the results listings' top entry much more often than can be explained by relevancy ratings. Once again, people tend to stick to the defaults.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Design>Web Design>Usability>Search
#18685
The Power of the Usability Lab
You cannot build a useful product or Web site without usability testing. If you have never watched someone use your designs in a usability lab, you are taking shots in the dark. You can't possibly know whether your hard work is making things better or worse. The features you are focusing on may be things that no one really needs, or could never figure out. Without regular sessions in the usability lab during the development cycle, projects are guaranteed to head in directions that do not benefit the users of the product. As a developer, you should have deep interest as to whether your hard work is making the product better. It's in your interest to make sure your work gets examined in the labs, so that you can make adjustments and ensure that you are making the best possible product for your users.
Berkun, Scott. UIWeb (1999). Design>Usability>Methods
#21033
Practical Tips for Improving Web Site and Intranet Usability 
There's a large body of theory available to guide Web and intranet design, but concentrating too much on theory sometimes leads designers to overlook basic things they can do to improve the usability of sites. This article presents, in no particular order, seven simple ways to make your Web site or intranet more usable.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2003). Design>Web Design>Intranets>Usability
#30541
Practice Human Factors for Document Design
Writers of performance- and response-oriented documents, such as instructions, procedures, proposals, and grant applications, need to consider the interaction of human factors with conventional document design factors such as accessibility, readability, legibility, consistency, style, language, and suitability to audience. This session explores that relationship, based upon a summation and synthesis of previous Annual Conference presentations as modulated by this presenter's extensive technical communication experience. It will be of particular interest to newcomers to the profession who seek to broaden their grasp of its intricacies.
Peterson, Dart G., Jr. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Document Design>Usability
#29874
Practicing Persona Development: an In-House Case Study
As Technical Communicators, many of us were initiated into this industry with the oft-cited cliche, 'know thy audience.' But what does this really mean? To what extent must we 'know' our audience in order to deliver effective information products? The critical questions are, 'what tools and means can I use to sufficiently understand the needs of my audience? Rather than relying on the directives of Engineering and Marketing, how can I discover the true needs of my audience and develop a user-centered design? And how do I hone my skills at gathering and applying this crucial data?' One of the emerging trends in Technical Communications is to develop user 'personas' as a design tool. This paper presents 'real-world' advice and 'best practices' on using the persona methodology to design information products.
Leritz-Higgins, Sarah E. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design>Personas
