#21012
Avoiding Bias from the Survivor Effect
Only a few of the survey sites we analyzed in 2000 are still around. We can safely assume that the surviving sites are not a random sample of the original group, but rather that significant differences exist between the sites that made it and those that died. Survival might be due partly to luck, but it is mainly a result of good management and an understanding of Internet fundamentals. Thus, the surviving sites are likely to be disproportionately clued-in about what it takes to run an online business.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2002). Articles>Usability>Methods>Web Design
#20928
Being User-Centered When Implementing a UCD Process
For those who are interested in usability – whether long-time advocates or newly introduced – this is a good time to introduce a user-centered design process.
Quesenbery, Whitney. WQusability (2001). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Usability
#28671
Though many business strategies and publications continue to trumpet the power of simplicity in the design of digital products, for lots of companies and product teams, simplicity doesn't come easy.
Wroblewski, Luke. UXmatters (2006). Design>Usability>Methods>Minimalism
#20297
Designing an Effective User Study 
When it comes to learning about your users, a plethora of methods await you. But which one is best for your situation? The answer depends on many factors, including the kind of information you hope to discover, the time and budget you have available, and your access to users.
Hammar, Molly and Dawn Stevens. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Usability>Methods>User Centered Design
#19919
While there are many instruments that measure the capacity for establishing peer-level communication skills, few exist that evaluate the effectiveness of knowledge transfer in the writer-reader relationship. The Learning Style Inventory (LSI), the User Empowerment Inventory (UEI), and thinkaloud protocols help assess how people acquire new knowledge and process information. The results of such measurements/ observations help determine user requirements. This paper presents a case history of how the LSI, the UEI, and think-aloud protocols helped improve both user and training documentation to a technology-averse audience in a reactive project environment.
LeVie, Donald S., Jr. STC Proceedings (1996). Design>Documentation>Methods>Usability
#19116
Developing Heuristics for Web Communication 
The quicklists presented here are derived from five sets of heuristics that were published in the August 2000 special issue of Technical Communication, 'Heuristics for Web Communication.' They are intended to help Web designers and developers consider crucial communicative aspects of Web site design.
van der Geest, Thea and Jan H. Spyridakis. Technical Communication Online (2000). Design>Web Design>Methods>Usability
#19006
I denne artikel ses der på dynamisk hukommelse i relation til usability. Usability har I realiteten altid handlet om metoder (eller heuristikker jf. Nielsen) som skal sikre, at brugeren kan forstå det indhold, som bliver tilbudt på et givent site. Dette er naturligvis vigtigt og relevant, men det er alt sammen underlagt brugerens kontekst, og denne kontekst er igen underlagt brugssituationen.
Quark, The (2002). (Danish) Design>Usability>Methods>Web Design
#23509
Ethnographic Methods: What Anthropology Teaches Us About Effective Usability Research 
When it comes to usability testing, the field of anthropology is offering new insight into effective research methodologies. Ethnography is a form of research that anthropologists developed to observe how people behave in their own environments — and it's catching on in product development.
Rosenbaum, Stephanie L. IBM (2001). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Usability
#28554
Evaluation of an Informational Web Site: Three Variants of the Think-aloud Method Compared
To evaluate Web sites, usability experts often use methods that were originally employed for the evaluation of software applications. In doing so, they assume that these methods will work exactly the same for both types of test objects. However, there is a major difference between transactional software applications and informational Web sites, a difference that could have an effect on the workings of various usability methods. As such, we felt that it was valuable to repeat one of our previous studies in which we compared concurrent think-aloud protocols, retrospective think-aloud protocols, and constructive interaction to evaluate a Web application, this time using a Web site. The results of our study showed that in some respects, the methods did work differently depending on the test object they were applied to. However, we conclude that the three methods are largely interchangeable and that the decision to choose one variant of the think-aloud method over the other should be based on practical considerations.
van den Haak, Maaike J., Menno de Jong, D.T. and Peter JanSchellens. Technical Communication Online (2007). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Methods
#29277
Eye Tracking: Eye Candy vs. I Can Do
Eye tracking is definitely not a magic bullet or 'the closest thing to mind reading'. It does however serve as both a great piece of eye candy for senior executives with little time and is very powerful in helping come up with the most effective page design.
McElhaw, Mark. Webcredible (2007). Design>Usability>Methods>Eye Tracking
#19748
Field Studies: The Best Tool to Discover User Needs
The most valuable asset of a successful design team is the information they have about their users. When teams have the right information, the job of designing a powerful, intuitive, easy-to-use interface becomes tremendously easier. When they don't, every little design decision becomes a struggle. While techniques, such as focus groups, usability tests, and surveys, can lead to valuable insights, the most powerful tool in the toolbox is the 'field study'. Field studies get the team immersed in the environment of their users and allow them to observe critical details for which there is no other way of discovering.
Spool, Jared M. User Interface Engineering. Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Usability
#29813
Five Survival Techniques for Creating Usable Products
When we ask designers what stage they spend the bulk of their time in when launching a product, the majority of designers answer, the Implementation Stage. However, our research shows that the teams launching the most usable products on schedule and on budget spend the bulk of their time in the Measure and Learn stage.
Perfetti, Christine. User Interface Engineering (2007). Design>Usability>User Interface>Methods
#31267
This site is designed to provide information about instructional design principles and how they relate to teaching and learning. Instructional design, also know as instructional systems design, is the is the analysis of learning needs and systematic development of instruction. Instructional designers often use instructional technology or educational technology as tools for developing instruction
InstructionalDesign.org. Articles>Usability>Instructional Design>Methods
#19183
Observing Users Who Listen to Web Sites
In this article we focus on the first of these goals and give you some of the fascinating findings about how vision-impaired users work with web sites.
Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny' and Mary Frances Theofanos. Usability Interface (2003). Design>Usability>Methods
#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
#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
#19990
Prototyping Your Process, Team and Tools Improving the Usability of Work
This paper explores prototyping the process, team, and tools comprising the work environment within which technical communicators operate when creating documentation. If you create a prototype of your documentation through a prototype of your work environment, you can uncover numerous flaws in your process, team, and tools. Iterative prototyping encourages adjusting the work environment to meet constantly changing requirements. If we consider how programmatic much of our work has become, especially with online help systems or the World Wide Web, prototyping our process, team, and tools can be invaluable toward improving the usability of our working lifestyle.
Mobley, Karen L. and Judith R. Fisher. STC Proceedings (1999). Design>Usability>Methods
#31266
The idea of rapid prototyping as it applies to instructional design, is to develop learning experiences in a continual design-evaluation cycle that continues throughout the life of the project. This cycle, known as the spiral cycle or layered approach, is considered to be iterative, meaning that products are continually improved as they cycle continues.
InstructionalDesign.org. Articles>Usability>Instructional Design>Methods
#20069
Reading to Decide: Designing for Usability with a Needs, Users, and Learnings (NUL) Analysis
Information products that help users make decisions are a challenge to design, develop, and test for usability. We can begin to formulate a strategy for producing such documents effectively by doing a comprehensive preassessment of the specific project and by adapting testing methodologies from studies of creative thinking processes and expert system design.
Knodel, Elinor L. STC Proceedings (1995). Design>Usability>Methods>Testing
#19193
The Role of Online Surveys in the Usability Assessment Process
I have attended several conferences at which I witnessed a growing debate over the role of survey work in the field of usability. Some practitioners are of the opinion that 'usability is usability' and 'surveys are surveys', and only rarely do the two meet in a harmonious exchange. The more I have considered this viewpoint, the more convinced I am that it is probably valid, unless the usability specialist takes the lead in assimilating survey output into the process of evaluating the overall effectiveness of Web sites and online applications.
MacElroy, William. Usability Interface (2003). Design>Usability>Methods>Surveys
#20821
Severity Ratings for Usability Problems
Severity ratings can be used to allocate the most resources to fix the most serious problems and can also provide a rough estimate of the need for additional usability efforts. If the severity ratings indicate that several disastrous usability problems remain in an interface, it will probably be unadvisable to release it. But one might decide to go ahead with the release of a system with several usability problems if they are all judged as being cosmetic in nature.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1994). Design>Usability>Methods
#21029
Stalking the User: Practical Field Research
Describes how technical communicators can use field research--observing people in their workplaces, homes, and schools--to gain a better understanding of user behavior.
Rosenbaum, Stephanie L. Intercom (2003). Articles>Usability>Methods>User Centered Design
#24570
Toward Integrating Our Research Scope: A Sociocultural Field Methodology
Technical communicators have recently become interested in user-centered design (UCD) for designing and evaluating technical genres. Yet, a critical examination of the field methods of UCD suggests that they suffer from unintegrated scope: an undesirably limiting focus on a particular level of scope (either the macroscopic level of human activity or the mesoscopic level of goal-directed action) in their theoretical underpinnings and data collection and analysis. This focus is often paired with the assumption that this particular level of scope causally affects what happens at the other levels. Both the focus and the assumption are at odds with sociocultural theories of human activity. This article lays out the problem of unintegrated scope and examines it through critical analyses of two field methods used in UCD research. It concludes by proposing an integrated-scope research methodology for UCD research, with roots in both sociocultural theory and the central issues of technical communication.
Spinuzzi, Clay. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2001). Articles>Usability>Methods>User Centered Design
#28910
These guidelines include most factors to consider during a usability evaluation of a web site. Not all factors apply to every site.
#28817
Every page on the Web should ensure that users can understand its purpose. Even users not in the target audience should be able to figure out enough about the site to know whether it has content they are interested in or not.
Marshall, Samuel. Leaf Digital (2001). Design>Web Design>Usability>Methods
