#25452
The clean-n-simple site map gets a nice haircut and and a shoe-shine as Kim Siever shows us how to hook custom bullet styles to troublesome nested lists.
Siever, Kim. List Apart, A (2005). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Sitemaps
#30864
Standard Metrics Revisited: Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is a beautiful way to measure the quality of traffic coming to your website. It is almost instantly accessible in any web analytics tool. It is easy to understand, hard to misunderstand and can be applied to any of your efforts.
Kaushik, Avinash. Occam's Razor (2007). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Log Analysis
#30867
Stop Obsessing About Conversion Rate
Perhaps there is no other single metric that is abused as much as conversion rate, none that is perhaps more detrimental to solving for a holistic customer experience on the website because of the company behavior it drives.
Kaushik, Avinash. Occam's Razor (2006). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Log Analysis
#23282
Supporting Customers' Decision-Making Process
When people buy things, they engage in a decision-making process. Research shows that one of the major problems with commerce sites is that they fail in supporting the customers in this process. By understanding their needs and concerns as they progress through the decision-making cycle, we can build better and more successful commerce sites.
Olsen, Henrik. GUUUI (2003). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>E Commerce
#13732
In order to gain a better understanding of the designer’s intentions with the Arthritis Source, we conducted an interview with the designer, Rick Matsen, on November 15, 1999. Further, we wanted to gather more information that would generate potential research questions for the PETTT team as well as re-design ideas for the D3 team. Below is a summary of Rick’s interview compiled from observations of four researchers, followed by the implications for re-design and research questions.
Fondiller, Julianne, Jennifer Turns, Jake Burghardt, Brett Shelton and Scott Macklin. PETTT (2000). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design
#24771
Tacit Knowledge, Knowledge Management, and Active User Participation in Web Site Navigation 
One of the reasons that people who seek out information on web sites often feel powerless is that when they do not find what they are looking for, their own tacit sense of what they know is not validated. If tacit knowledge is not calculated for in the design of a web site, it puts the people navigating the site in the position of passive observers. The primary reason for this can be found in the rigid organization schemes in place on many sites. Even the most sophisticated manuals that offer methods for designing web site architectures fail to suggest how they can replicate what is known in knowledge management circles as an “enabling environment.”
Applen, J.D. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication (2002). Articles>User Centered Design>Knowledge Management>Web Design
#28051
Talking-Head Video Is Boring Online
Eyetracking data show that users are easily distracted when watching video on websites, especially when the video shows a talking head and is optimized for broadcast rather than online viewing.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Video
#20869
Tech-Support Tales: Internet Hard to Use for Novice Users
The Internet is still much too difficult to use for novice users. Specialized information appliances like WebTV reduce complexity but still involve considerable risk of user error.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1997). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability
#24111
Being sensitive to the fact that the user is in control, many sites simply present as many options as possible on their home pages. The thinking apparently being that the more choices you show on page one, the more likely you are to present something that connects with as many visitors as possible.
Usborne, Nick. ClickZ (2003). Design>Web Design>Usability>User Centered Design
#21767
Ten Steps for Cleaning Up Information Pollution
Better prioritization, fewer interruptions, and concentrated information that's easy to find and manage helps people become more productive and stop wasting their colleagues' time.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2004). Design>Web Design>Usability>User Centered Design
#27682
The most monotonous entities in the known universe, forms, are a staple of every web programmer's balanced diet. Whether we like them or not, forms are the gatekeepers to our site’s goodies and often their design alone determines whether a user will try what you’re selling or simply walk away. Without pomp or circumstance, here are ten tips to transform your plain vanilla into double chocolate chunk with marshmallows.
Campbell, Chris. Particletree (2005). Design>Web Design>Forms>User Centered Design
#26369
Text Alternatives to Inaccessible Web Pages
This document details an XML-based method of providing end-user control over the format of an online document, Web page or entire Web site. This functionality is useful in situations where users, due to preference or physical ability, require a way to personalize their view of the content. Content managers, editors, and developers are also able to work with one set of documents, eliminating the need for multiple files that contain the same information with different formatting, therefore reducing redundancy, version inconsistencies, and workload.
Bridge, Karl. Microsoft (2005). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>XML
#20871
Website text should be clear, links should stand out, and all text should scale according to user preferences.
Baker, Adam. Merges.net (2001). Design>Web Design>User Interface>User Centered Design
#24136
Three Ways To Find Out What Your Customers Want
The Web is interactive, whether you like it or not. And your customers are live participants in the marketing process, whether you like it or not. And as participants, they want something that most companies find hard to deliver. Your customers want you to listen. They want you to tune in and hear what is on their minds.
Usborne, Nick. ClickZ (2001). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability
#18930
Top Ten Mistakes of Web Management
Web design and development involves three levels: web management; interaction design (navigation support, homepage layout, templates, search, etc.); content design (the actual writing on the pages, as well as the design of any other media types used to communicate content as opposed to site interaction). Just as in a hamburger, the middle layer is the most tasty and attracts the most attention, including much of my own work on Web usability. I have come to realize that the outer two layers are more important in many ways: users only care about content (in other words, no, the medium is not the message; the message is the message) and the usability of a website is more a function of how it is managed than of how good its designers are. Content will be the topic of many other columns; here I address some classic mistakes in managing the design of a website.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1997). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Interaction Design
#30878
Trinity: A Mindset and Strategic Approach
The goal of the Trinity mindset is to power the generation of actionable insights. Its goal is not to do reporting. Its goal is not to figure out how to spam decision makers with data. Actionable Insights and Metrics are the uber-goal simply because they drive strategic differentiation and a sustainable competitive advantage.
Kaushik, Avinash. Occam's Razor (2006). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Log Analysis
#13795
Two Tracks to a User-Centered Design Solution
One commonly held objection to developing a superior user experience, is that it takes too long. The argument goes that, if you wait to get it right then you'll be late to market and the opportunity will be lost. The objective isn't to say 'Ready! Aim! Aim! Aim! Aim! Aim!, Fire', but 'Ready! Fire! Now adjust your aim for effect...' In this short white paper, we present an approach which allows you to do both in a controlled and reasoned fashion - move quickly to respond to market demands, whilst developing a superior user experience.
UIdesign (2001). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#13731
We conducted a phone interview study of users of the Arthritis Source in order to accomplish two related goals: (a) to gain insight into the effectiveness of the arthritis source and (b) to learn about patient conceptions of arthritis. To do this, we focused on two arthritis conditions -- Rheumatoid Arthritis and OsteoArthritis, identified ten Arthritis Source users with each condition, and completed a structured interview over the phone. The transcriptions of these interviews constitute our data. The analysis of the data focuses on (1) an initial characterization of conceptions, (2) an evaluation of the success of our questions, and (3) an evaluation of whether we are sufficiently educated about arthritis and the two conditions for us to conduct the interviews.
Liu, Kristina, Jennifer Turns and Tracey S. Wagner. PETTT (2001). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#26499
With a small budget to create a website, many small businesses bypass usability testing. While it is not always possible to do a full-blown usability test on a small website, there are steps that website developers can take to help make sure users are not ignored during the process.
Weise Moeller, Elizabeth A. IEEE PCS (2005). Design>Web Design>Usability>User Centered Design
#28215
Since I've started developing websites I've been looking for the ideal layout. Today I got another hint on the direction to take. Jacob Nielsen calls it the 'F-Pattern.'
Information Architects Japan (2006). Design>Web Design>Usability>User Centered Design
#23279
Use Cases and Interaction Design
Use cases are widely used in large projects to capture the functional requirements of software systems. In the hands of interaction designers, use cases can serve as a powerful tool for brainstorming workflows and bridging the gaps between design and development.
GUUUI (2004). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Interaction Design
#21983
Useful "Page Not Found" Error Pages
Ever encountered a "404 error" message on a site? Also known as a "page not found" error, it can really annoy visitors. Some of these folks may never return to your site. If you don't handle these people with care, you could drive important traffic away from your site.
Menon, Madhu. evolt (2000). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#29558
Is it more important for your web site to be desirable or accessible? How about usable or credible? The truth is, it depends on your unique balance of context, content and users, and the required tradeoffs are better made explicitly than unconsciously.
Morville, Peter. Semantic Studios (2004). Design>Web Design>User Experience>User Centered Design
#19475
User Experience Design for Working Web Sites and Applications
As Technical Communicators, we’re often added as members of software and web site development teams merely as an afterthought. Executives, managers, programmers, and other team members frequently view the results of our work—manuals, online help systems, tutorials, and other documents—as 'nice-to-have' additions to products. This pervasive attitude is certainly not healthy for the profession of technical communication... but it’s not good for the applications our organizations and clients produce either. When Technical Communicators working in an e-business unit as user advocates are given more responsibility and more authority over the 'user experience' of a web-based application, for instance, they affect the bottom-line. They increase hits, product buzz, and completed transactions. By moving beyond manuals, beyond help, and into the new role of User Experience Designer, we increase the value we add to services and products and increase our professional status within organizations.
Sisler, Paul and Catherine M. Titta. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability
#30827
User Skills Improving, But Only Slightly
Users now do basic operations with confidence and perform with skill on sites they use often. But when users try new sites, well-known usability problems still cause failures.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability>User Centered Design
