#31071
Findability, Orphan of the Web Design Industry
Findability is to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as 'web standards' is to 'table layouts.' In a web whose vastness exceeds comprehension, sites with findable content win. The good news is that everyone on your team can help make your site findable.
Walter, Aarron. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability
#13345
Finding Information on the Web: Does the Amount of Whitespace Really Matter?
It has been a long-held notion that the use of open space or 'whitespace' adds not only to the attractiveness of the design of a written publication, but adds to the functionality as well. For example, it has been stated that whitespace plays the crucial role of 'directing the viewers attention to the regions where important information is provided and allowing the global structure of the composition to assume a meaningful configuration' (Mullet & Sano, 1995, p. 126). It is contended that Whitespace 'gives the eye a place to restIt can help to organize the material on the page. It can tie successive pages together by repetition of identifiable areas' (White, 1974, p. 48). However, it has been asserted by Web usability researcher Jared Spool that these assumptions should not apply to Web design.
Bernard, Michael, Barbara S. Chaparro and R. Thomasson. Usability News (2000). Articles>Usability>Web Design
#18572
Five Steps to Unlocking a Web Site's Potential 
A systematic approach to the application of human factors principles to ensure customer satisfaction.
Israelski, Ed. Human Factors International (2000). Design>Web Design>Usability
#22559
Five Usability Principles for Web Design
Guidelines to keep in mind when designing a site.
Benun, Ilise. Publish (2004). Design>Web Design>Usability
#22083
Five Ways to Identify Intranet Usability Issues
Many intranets are under-used. Intranet managers lament the low use and discuss how to get staff to 'use the intranet more', resulting in marketing and promotions activities to increase use.
Maurer, Donna. Step Two (2004). Design>Web Design>Intranets>Usability
#31802
Five Ways to Improve Online Cross- & Up-selling
Find out how to increase cross-selling and up-selling on your website. Doing so will help you sell more items and keep customers coming back to your site again and again.
Wong, Cyprian. Webcredible (2008). Design>Web Design>Usability
#27678
Five Ways To Make Sure That Users Abandon Your Forms
Completing a form is rarely (if ever) the goal in and of itself. The goal is to entice the user into a deeper relationship (of some sort) with your web site. Notice that I didn't say that the goal was to complete a transaction or make a sale.
Improving Customer Experience (2006). Design>Web Design>Forms>Usability
#29810
Five-Second Tests: Measuring Your Site's Content Pages
On your site, the content page is the user's most frequent final destination. This page contains the information the user came to the site to find. Sites often have hundreds, if not thousands (and in some cases, millions) of these critical pages. How can design teams be confident their content pages are understandable to users? How does a team ensure they've designed content pages that communicate the essential information effectively?
Perfetti, Christine. User Interface Engineering (2005). Articles>Web Design>Usability>User Centered Design
#26049
Fixing the Back Button and Enabling Bookmarking for AJAX Apps
With AJAX-based applications still in their infancy there has been a tendency to disgard basic web behaviour in favour of slick functionality. In this article I am trying to rescue two of those ‘lost’ behaviours – bookmarking and the back button, using Javascript.
Stenhouse, Mike. Content With Style (2005). Design>Web Design>Usability>Ajax
#29994
Flash animations have become popular on the Web. But popularity is not often a good measure of useability or effectiveness. So what are the pros and cons of using Flash on a Web site?
HyperWrite (2003). Design>Web Design>Usability>Flash
#27105
Focus groups are fundamental as an input into any web design decisions - find out how to plan and successfully run them.
Fidgeon, Tim. Webcredible (2006). Design>Web Design>Usability
#21152
What do you really want your users to do once you get them to your site? What information do you want to get to them? How do you want to them to use your site? What responses do you want from your users?
Rhodes, John S. WebWord (1999). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability
#26634
Once an online form goes beyond two screenfulls, it's often a sign that the underlying functionality is better supported by an application, which offers a more interactive user experience.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Articles>Web Design>Forms>Usability
#31912
Bad content, bad links, bad navigation, bad category pages... which is worst for business? In these examples, bad content takes the prize for costing the company the most money.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Design>Web Design>Usability>User Centered Design
#21107
The Four Horsemen of Usability
As of June 2001, four web properties control more than 50% of all the time spent online by U.S. surfers. This means that you can throw away your usability guidelines and follow these companies. They spend millions on usability testing and they are driving standards by sheer market force. You have no choice but to follow their lead.
Rhodes, John S. WebWord (2001). Design>Web Design>Usability
#21155
Everyone loves free stuff. Capitalize on this and you can make your site more user-centered. It can also drive up sales, profits, and user satisfaction.
Rhodes, John S. WebWord (1999). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability
#29816
The Freedom of Fast Iterations: How Netflix Designs a Winning Web Site
The designers of Netflix.com have a smashing success on their hands, but we didn't find them resting on their laurels. They want to get even better, and for them that means iterate, iterate, iterate. Netflix isn't the only company using a fast iterative design approach. Google has also gained attention for their unorthodox design methods, with many people complaining that they have a huge stable of products, but only a few they've designed well.
Porter, Joshua. User Interface Engineering (2006). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Workflow
#14866
As e-business grows rapidly, interests in design principles for e-business web sites are increasing. A few studies have suggested design principles with concrete design features, but failed to link the features to the performance of an e-business site, such as attitudes of its customers or financial performance of the e-business company. This paper proposes a comprehensive framework that covers from concrete design features to financial performance for online stock trading, which is one of the most important domains of e-business. The proposed model for online stock trading sites consists of three design principles: functional convenience, representational delight, and structural firmness. Through empirical studies, this research found that the convenience, delight and firmness principles were closely related to the level of customer satisfaction, and, consequently, to the level of customer loyalty to the sites. We also identified important design features such as presentation of stock quotes in the homepage for each of the three design principles. Finally, the study results showed that customer loyalty would affect the financial performance of online stock trading companies. This paper concludes with the implications and limitations of the results.
Lee, Youngsu and Jinwoo Kim. Yonsei University (2002). Design>Web Design>Usability
#29814
Galleries: The Hardest Working Page on Your Site
Galleries -- the list of links to content -- are your site's hardest working pages. They are the final page that separates those users who find the content they are seeking from the users who won't. A well-designed gallery page will drive users to success every time. A poorly-designed site will only serve to drive users away.
Spool, Jared M. User Interface Engineering (2005). Design>Web Design>Usability
#19756
Gateway Pages Prevent PDF Shock
Spare your users the misery of being dumped into PDF files without warning. Create special gateway pages that summarize the contents of big documents and guide users gently into the PDF morass.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Design>Web Design>Usability>Adobe Acrobat
#25512
Every page on your website needs a call-to-action, a what can I do next. Learn how you can do this simply by listening to infomercials.
Claiborne, Scottie. Webcredible (2005). Design>Web Design>Usability
#18584
Some Web sites intended to help users actually hamper them. Here's how to design sites that keep your users happy.
Shank, Patti. TrainingMag.com (2002). Design>Web Design>Usability
#19315
Globalisation: The Challenges to Usability 
English is the official language of approximately eight percent of the worlds population - a significant number, but still a small minority. Yet the majority of online content is presented in English. Naturally, many organisations will want to reach as many prospective worldwide clients and suppliers as possible, but the reality is that a user will always prefer an application that suits their own language and cultural environment. Globalisation refers to everything an organisation should do to ensure that its web presence meets the requirements of users in different countries. Successful globalisation requires tackling a host of both technical and content issues. Back-end systems that interact with your web presence must be reengineered so they can identify and process any language. The web interface and its content must also be translated and culturally modified for a specific language or target environment (a locale). Its a huge topic - here we highlight only some of the key challenges presented to usability by going global.
Gaine, Frank. Frontend Infocentre (2001). Design>Web Design>International>Usability
#11911
Goal Composition: Extending Task Analysis to Predict Things People May Want to Do
One of the basic questions during the development of a computer system and its user interface is what the users will want to do with the system. Unfortunately, a task analysis of users' current activities is not sufficient to predict what they will do in the future. It is well known that people's use of computers change over time and that new and unexpected uses are found for most new systems.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1994). Articles>Web Design>Usability
#21087
People using Microsoft's Internet Explorer are now being redirected to Microsoft's MSN when they make certain kinds of mistakes. This means that Microsoft is taking control of another part of the user experience. This article discusses how Google might be able to help users and solve a few other problems others along the way.
Rhodes, John S. WebWord (2001). Design>Web Design>Usability>Search
