#23507
Many Web pages, especially those created in authoring tools, have a tendency to treat URLs as impenetrable magic cookies. Users benefit when URLs are kept readable and understandable, and when the structure of a URL reflects the structure of the site. Even naive users may be helped by such a design. Here, Peter takes a look at why it's important to make URLs accessible, and offers some strategies for doing this effectively.
IBM (2001). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#28946
MarthaStewart.com: Making the Case for Customer-Centric Content Management
When you hear the term "customer centric content management", you might think we're talking about marketing content. We're not. We're talking about managing the delivery of all types of content, including marketing content. And, we're specifically talking about providing individuals -- people -- both existing and prospective customers, with only the content that is relevant and of interest to them. You may think you already do a good job at this task, but in most organizations, there is significant room for improvement. Most of the problems are caused by one very big mistake: failing to listen.
Rockley Bulletin (2006). Design>Web Design>Content Management>User Centered Design
#25078
Mobile Phone Games Designed for Girls
Unlike many game developers, one company creates games primarily targeted at young women and girls. MiniFizz is certainly not just a traditional boys’ game painted pink.
Allaeys, Sabine. Usability Interface (2004). Articles>User Centered Design>Wireless Web>Games
#25200
Modeling User Workflows for Rich Internet Applications
As Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) become more advanced, the tasks, problems, and processes they address become increasingly complex, making it more important than ever to accurately model user workflows. Early Internet applications were often narrowly focused in scope, and the steps were relatively simple and sequential, for example, purchasing items through simple e-commerce, reserving hotel rooms, or renting cars. But as productivity applications move toward a web-based distribution model, the tasks become more complicated.
Hogue, David. Adobe (2005). Design>User Centered Design>Web Design>Flash
#21340
Moving from Flatland to Hyperspace Part I
My entrée into the web world--Spaceland, or 'Hyperspace'--was not a smooth one; in fact, it was downright mind-bending. My personal journey from designing and writing for print media to becoming an information architect for websites conjures up images of Flatland, written by Edwin A. Abbott, an English clergyman, educator, and Shakespearean scholar (1884).
Cole, Meg. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#21341
Moving from Flatland to Hyperspace Part II
The intense focus on the user experience differentiates websites from printed products—and information architects from print designers and writers—more than anything else. Information architects must think like print designers and writers—and they must do what print designers and writers do—on a much bigger scale, in 'N dimensions.'
Cole, Meg. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#23847
The New R and D: Relevant and Desirable
Somewhere in the process of evangelizing user-centered design, user experience professionals seem to have forgotten the value of vision-driven design, which can be equally important in making sites and software relevant and desirable. We need to integrate both approaches.
Olsen, George. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#28413
One of the most fundamental factors in designing for screen-based media is: No-one likes looking at a computer screen.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Human Computer Interaction>User Centered Design
#25948
On-Screen Real Estate (Location, Location, Location!)
On a website, certain areas carry more value than the rest of the site, just by virtue of their location. To have an effective site, it's crucial to know where these areas are and what belongs in them.
Bennaco (2004). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#30865
Path Analysis: A Good Use of Time?
Is doing Path Analysis a good use of time? In my humble opinion the answer is a rather emphatic no, except for one exception (which I'll discuss below). Almost always Path Analysis tends to be a sub optimal use of our time, resources and any money that is expended on buying tools that do 'great' Path Analysis.
Kaushik, Avinash. Occam's Razor (2006). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Log Analysis
#21552
Strategies for building a custom 404 page that enhances usability and makes the most of an otherwise lost cause.
Lloyd, Ian. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#23281
Personas and the Customer Decision-Making Process
With this case study I want to show how our team used the concept of personas - fictional, representative user archetypes - and the customer decision-making process model in a project, in order to capture the nature of customers and their needs and concerns as they progress through the customer decision-making process.
Olsen, Henrik. GUUUI (2004). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#26521
Relentlessly simple solutions to complex design problems can be the difference between an average experience and a great one. D. Keith Robinson reminds web designers and developers that ease of use is more important than technological sophistication.
Robinson, D. Keith. List Apart, A (2005). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#19261
A Preliminary Report on Two Pilot Readability/Usability Studies 
Companies are beginning to conduct readability studies to determine how to provide customers with usable sites. Results have been inconclusive, conflicting, and often contradicting results of printed text studies. To discover how users use web sites, two pilot studies were designed to examine users, their purposes, and their reading processes. Many results parallel those of previous studies. In addition, new results indicate we need to examine several new variables, including amount of usage, site-specific knowledge, conventionalization, print bias, gender and age.
Boiarsky, Carolyn. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability
#23506
The Principle of Least Astonishment
When computers are at their most usable, we don't even notice them; when they are at their least, they astonish us. Here, Peter explores the Principle of Least Astonishment, and how it can help you develop better interfaces.
Seebach, Peter. IBM (2001). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#21311
Despite predictions to the contrary, it doesn't seem that the advent of networked information sharing has reduced human consumption of paper. In fact, given the amount of printouts modern offices and homes produce, one is inclined to say that even more paper is generated today than ever before.
Kalbach, James. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design
#31904
Reduce Bounce Rates: Fight for the Second Click
Different traffic sources imply different reasons for why visitors might immediately leave your site. Design to keep deep-link followers engaged through additional pageviews.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Design>Web Design>Usability>User Centered Design
#20850
Web users need structure to make sense of the many and varied information spaces they navigate. The fundamental nature of the Web does not support any structure beyond the individual page which is the only recognized unit of information. For information spaces that cannot easily be hierarchically structured, the subsite can be used as a helpful additional structuring mechanism. Subsites can also be used in hierarchical information spaces to give particular prominence to a certain level of the hierarchy which is used as the subsite designator.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1996). Design>Web Design>Usability>User Centered Design
#27679
RSS Will Replace E-mail for Marketing Purposes: What You Need to Build Right Now to be Ready
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication (depending on who you believe). If you don't know what it is, you had best grow a brain about it tout de suite.
Improving Customer Experience (2006). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>RSS
#26449
Most usability professionals don't have a driver's licence to servers and are not aware of the steps that can be taken to make them behave in a user-friendly way. In this article, we'll take a look at how to avoid that server technology becomes an obstacle to usability.
Olsen, Henrik. GUUUI (2004). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design
#31072
You load a new web service, eager to dive in and start engaging, and what's the first thing that greets you? A sign-up form. We can do better, says Luke Wroblewski, author of Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks. Via a technique of "gradual engagment," we can get people using and caring about our web services instead of frustrating them (or sending them to a competitor's site) by forcing them to fill out a sign-up form first.
Wroblewski, Luke. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>Forms>User Centered Design
#28213
Simplicity as a result of a creative process is 'the ultimate sophistication,' as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) said. Achieving simplicity is a difficult task not only in web-design but in every discipline (art, business, sports, science), yet simplicity for websites is a particular challenge as paper derived graphic design and usability on one side, marketing language and user expectations on the other side are in constant struggle with each-other.
Information Architects Japan (2006). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Minimalism
#28432
Site Personas and the Dialogue Process
Site Personas are analogous to User Personas. Whereas User Personas represent typical individuals in your target user base, together with goals and motivations, the Site Persona represents the site, embodying its brand and its goals. I often find it helpful to picture my web sites as information flowing both ways between the site and users. The Dialogue Process is a way to optimise your web site interactions by scripting them as conversations between your two types of persona.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2005). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Personas
#30028
Slashing subjective time on your site by 50% is a perfectly reasonable goal. Indolent worker George Costanza once reflected on the time in the shower you wait for the hair conditioner to work as, 'a really tough minute.' A minute waiting for hair conditioner to work while getting ready for a date can feel longer than the three subsequent hours you spend with that very special person. Reducing/eliminating boredom points can make the time spent on your website appear to really fly by.
Tognazzini, Bruce. Nielsen Norman Group (2007). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>User Experience
#27494
Luke has made some great slides about Social Web Application Design, saying some very sensible things very well. I particularly like the 'System' diagram that shows how, when thinking about a simple photo, how it can be connected to other entities and related, aggregated and re-presented.
Smith, Tom. Other Blog, The (2006). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>User Centered Design
