#19255
Web Page Layout: A Comparison Between Left- and Right-Justified Site Navigation Menus 
The usability of two Web page layouts was directly compared: one with the main site navigation menu on the left of the page, and one with the main site navigation menu on the right. Sixty-four participants were divided equally into two groups and assigned to either the left- or the right-hand navigation test condition. Using a stopwatch, the time to complete each of five tasks was measured. The hypothesis that the left-hand navigation would perform significantly faster than the right-hand navigation was not supported. Instead, there was no significant difference in completion times between the two test conditions. This research questions the current leading Web design thought that the main navigation menu should be left justified.
Kalbach, James and Tim Bosenick. Journal of Digital Information (2003). Design>Web Design>Usability
#20339
Web Pages, Interactive Interfaces and Worm Holes: The Next Generation of User Interface Designers 
Working in teams has its challenges. What would you do if you were part of a team that included software engineers, usability professionals, managers, teachers and elementary school students? What would you do if the team had to learn about web technology and user interface design in a few short weeks and then apply that skill to creating a web page ? Well, we had fun, and we achieved our goal. Join our panel discussion to hear more about an exciting project between members of IBM’s S/390 team and local elementary schools from Hyde Park, New York.
Bahruth, Carol, Kirsten Brunner, David Hans, Vikki Hanast and Cheryl Loughlin. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Collaboration>Web Design>Usability
#13072
Web Research: Believe the Data
We know a good deal about users' behavior on the Web. For example, they demand fast download and are extremely impatient and want immediate support for their own goals. Even so, most websites are slow, internally-driven, and do not focus on solving the users' problems. Do not ignore research: it can improve your site by several hundred percent.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1999). Articles>Usability>Web Design
#18596
Web Shops Add Services to Rival Traditional Agencies
There's room for speciality design agencies, Web developers and full-service interactive agencies. A former director of media resources and research at Bates Worldwide, New York, Mr. Gugel said he thought it was only natural that an interactive agency offer everything a traditional agency does--but modified for the Web: account management, media planning, strategic planning and research capabilities.
Riedman, Patricia. AdAge.com (1998). Careers>Web Design>Usability
#18681
The Web Shouldn't Be a Comedy of Errors
Nothing says more about what you think of your users than error messages. The moment things go wrong is the moment users need you most. Software products, including some Microsoft® products, have developed bad reputations for cryptic error messages that are hard to understand or resolve. What's alarming is that Web site user interfaces are just as bad, or worse, in their handling of problem situations. We've taken a step backward in the baseline for acceptable treatment of our customers. Here's a short guide for handling errors well, on the Web or in Windows.
Berkun, Scott. UIWeb (2000). Design>Web Design>Usability
#15061
Web Shui: Automatic for the People
Potential clients of mine regularly complain that user-centric design costs too much to build. Usability testing in particular is said to be too expensive. To meet cost-conscious demands, a few enterprising dot-commers have produced tools that they claim will monitor your site, then tell you how to increase its usability. But a boxed solution seems too good to be true when it comes to usability...
Deaton, Mary M. Builder.com (2003). Articles>Usability>Web Design
#15062
You have design ideas for your Web site: you've researched your competitors' strategies, and you've read books and Web style guides to learn about the conventions for usable Web sites. But you're still not sure if your visitors will find the site easy to use. What now?
Deaton, Mary M. CNET Builder.com (2003). Articles>Usability>Web Design
#21077
The first purpose of this article is to explain the true causes of linkrot. The second purpose is to outline a new way to solve the linkrot problem.
Rhodes, John S. WebWord (2002). Design>Web Design>Usability
#23729
Resources relating to Web usability.
Technical Communicators Resource Site (2004). Resources>Directories>Web Design>Usability
#19597
A directory of online resources in web usability.
#19402
Evidence-based information, training and tools for optimizing the usability of computer systems.
#19270
Web Usability - Η ποιο απλά, κατασκευάζοντας τις
Η ποιο απλά, κατασκευάζοντας τις σελίδες μας έχοντας ως επίκεντρο τον επισκέπτη.
Freestuff.gr (2003). (Greek) Design>Web Design>Usability
#10675
Usability implies purpose and audience. Part of the difficulty of defining 'Web Usability' is the diversity of purposes and audiences within the Internet community. The original audiences were heavily weighted in favor of academics with high levels of computer savvy. Early users were fault tolerant of unsophisticated interface design, satisfied with an absence of pictures, and happy in a world of keystrokes that could flow between the Internet and simple text editors.
Murphy, Arthur R. Computer-Mediated Communication (1999). Articles>Usability>Web Design
#21110
Web developers, web designers, web producers: Wake up. Hear me roar. I am the common user. I am the person that pays your bills. I am the reason you exist. I am your traffic. Heed my words. I am sick and tired of being abused. I am not smiling or winking. I'm not happy. I am a good person, but you have treaded on me for too long now. I am going to tell you what I want. I am going to tell you what I need from you today so that my experience is better. Listen to me. This is no manifesto, this is my life.
Rhodes, John S. and Sean Lindsay. WebWord (2001). Design>Web Design>Usability
#29533
Web Usability for the Rest of Us
Web developers, designers and community managers have a more challenging role than ever before. They are designing for and facilitating important online activities like communication, collaboration, sharing and socializing. However, it's hard to know how users are really interacting with websites. They can't easily observe users in their natural environments interacting with these systems. How many web developers actually get a focus group of target users in a room and watch them navigate their websites? We're obsessed with helping developers build better user experiences on the web, and we knew there had to be a better, cheaper and faster way than traditional usability testing.
Charland, Andre. SlideShare (2007). Presentations>Web Design>Usability
#22070
Learn all about web usability with this crash course!
Moss, Trenton. Webcredible (2004). Design>Web Design>Usability
#20157
Tips from Sun, based on usability studies, to improve the design of Web pages. Topics cover writing style (less is more), navigation, and testing techniques.
Ede, Meghan R., Martin Hardee and Laurie A. Roshak. STC Proceedings (1997). Design>Web Design>Usability
#14345
Web-Based Prototyping for User Sessions: Medium-Fidelity Prototyping
Paper (low-fidelity) prototyping is a popular and useful method for gathering input on the usefulness of a user interface while the sofnvare product is in the early stages of development. Coded user intetiace (high-fidelity) prototypes givepotential users a better idea of the$nished product, but can be time consuming to create and diflcult to change. Using HTML (medium-fidelity) prototupes, we can quickly code polished user interface prototypes to use in customer sessions. These web-basedprototypes, which combine the strengths of both low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototvpes, can also be easily modtBed during the customer session, allowing customers to see and interact with their proposed changes.
Leone, Paul, Dana L. Gillihan and Thyra L. Rauch. STC Proceedings (1997). Presentations>Web Design>Usability
#23299
Web-User Satisfaction on the Upswing
Site visitors are more likely to finish Web tasks successfully, but site searches are still troublesome, according to a recent survey.
O'Reilly, Dennis. PC World (2004). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability
#26630
Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes
Weblogs are often too internally focused and ignore key usability issues, making it hard for new readers to understand the site and trust the author.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Blogging
#19434
How consistent do web pages need to be in order to not degrade the performance of experienced users?
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2002). Design>Web Design>Usability
#25794
Writing for the web is totally different to writing for printed matter - find out how to write content for this medium with these eight guidelines.
Moss, Trenton. Webcredible (2005). Design>Web Design>Usability
#29388
You have just 5 seconds to persuade new visitors to stay on your website. Find out how to use website design aesthetics to keep users on your site.
Townes, Frederick. Webcredible (2007). Design>Web Design>Usability
#20870
Although users tend to navigate websites by search mechanisms or by links embedded in actual content, website navigation serves useful purposes.
Baker, Adam. Merges.net (2001). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Usability
#20862
WebTV achieves a very high level of usability given its design constraints. Unfortunately, the constraints are so severe that even this great design ultimately fails to provide an optimal Web user experience. WebTV's usability engineers have done a good job at making it very easy to install and as easy as possible to use, and WebTV's imaging engineers have done an incredible job at high-quality character rendering in an NTSC video signal. In fact, the screenshots in this column do not look as good as WebTV does when displayed on a good television set: you have to see it to believe that it's possible to achieve WebTV's level of text readability on a television screen.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1996). Design>Web Design>Usability>Web Browsers
