http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Design/Web-Design/Information-Design/Usability A listing of the most recently indexed works about Design and Web Design and Information Design and Usability in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Design/Web-Design/Information-Design/Usability http://tc.eserver.org/34908.html http://tc.eserver.org/34908.html 大きな二次元のドロップダウンパネルは、ナビゲーションの選択肢をグループ化することでスクロールの必要性を無くし、タイポグラフィやアイコン、ツールチップを使うことで、ユーザの選択できる内容をわかりやすく提示してくれる。 http://tc.eserver.org/34293.html http://tc.eserver.org/34293.html Given that regular drop-down menus are rife with usability problems, it takes a lot for me to recommend a new form of drop-down. But, as our testing videos show, mega drop-downs overcome the downsides of regular drop-downs. Thus, I can recommend one while warning against the other. http://tc.eserver.org/33417.html http://tc.eserver.org/33417.html This post is part of a series on usability and maintainability. At first, meeting the needs of content consumers through usability can seem at odds with meeting needs of technical communicators through maintainability. My purpose in these posts is to discuss how technical communication best practices can satisfy both needs. I’ll use Gurak and Lannon’s usability criteria of users being able to “find what they need, understand the language, follow the instructions, and read the graphics.” http://tc.eserver.org/33199.html http://tc.eserver.org/33199.html The words 'click here for...' and 'click here to...' serve no purpose within links. Unfortunately, many news sites still use them. According to Google, 'click here' is on about 8,970 pages at sptimes.com alone. http://tc.eserver.org/33200.html http://tc.eserver.org/33200.html These checklists pull together best practice in the disciplines of information design, usability and accessibility, into an easy to apply format. If you are already familiar with those topics, the checklists serve as a handy reminder that is easy to refer to and apply when planning navigation. If unfamiliar it's also a fast-track lesson - providing you with a head-start in getting it right and enables you to make better informed choices / compromises. http://tc.eserver.org/33202.html http://tc.eserver.org/33202.html An average person can deal with only 7-10 choices on a web page, according to Google research. That's why it's so hard to get a link on the Google home page. http://tc.eserver.org/29355.html http://tc.eserver.org/29355.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/29357.html http://tc.eserver.org/29357.html Describes the effect of bookmark naming on bookmark recognition. The purpose was to provide empirically-determined guidelines for web producers on how to title pages in order to optimise the recognition of bookmarks by users, and to increase the rate of revisitation as a result. http://tc.eserver.org/23985.html http://tc.eserver.org/23985.html The term mapping describes the relationship between a control, the thing it affects, and the intended result. Poor mapping is evident when a control does not relate visually or symbolically with the object it affects, requiring the user to stop and think, 'what's going to happen when I turn this knob?' http://tc.eserver.org/23301.html http://tc.eserver.org/23301.html Recent studies have shown that while the use of breadcrumb trails to navigate a website can be helpful, few users choose to utilize this method of navigation. This study investigates the effects of 'mere exposure' and training on breadcrumb usage. Findings indicate that brief training on the benefits of breadcrumb usage resulted in more efficient search behavior. http://tc.eserver.org/23261.html http://tc.eserver.org/23261.html The authors describe an experiment to see if large breadth and decreased depth is preferable, both subjectively and via performance data, while attempting to design for optimal scent throughout different structures of a web site. This work is testing the theories of Miller in his classic 'The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two.' http://tc.eserver.org/20870.html http://tc.eserver.org/20870.html Although users tend to navigate websites by search mechanisms or by links embedded in actual content, website navigation serves useful purposes. http://tc.eserver.org/19619.html http://tc.eserver.org/19619.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/19339.html http://tc.eserver.org/19339.html This paper summarizes a workshop at CHI98 that focused on navigational problems caused by differences in navigational models between the desktop and the Web. The goal of this workshop was to identify usability problems encountered when users move from the 'traditional' desktop to the Web and to identify ways to minimize transfer-learning problems between the two platforms.Workshop papers will soon be available online. http://tc.eserver.org/18661.html http://tc.eserver.org/18661.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/13357.html http://tc.eserver.org/13357.html Search engine ads are one type of Web advertising that can actually work. To create the best ads, do quick experiments and redesign ads based on usability principles for online writing. Doing so helped us increase ad click-through by 55 to 310 percent.