Million Dollar Web Usability Tips

What has long been a struggle for UEX professionals can actually be a great tool to demonstrate the importance of your role. We have found a way, using tools that you may already have, to support the users' needs that can positively impact your company’s bottom line.

Remus, Jacqueline and Jessyca Frederick. Usability Interface (2006). Articles>Web Design>Usability>User Experience

Muddling Through

Web site designers should think hard about how to keep users from muddling around on their sites. 'Users muddle when it isn’t clear what they are supposed to do in any given situation.'

alt tags (2004). Design>Web Design>User Experience

On a Scale of 1 to 5: Understanding Risk Improves Rating and Reputation Systems

Where would we be without rating and reputation systems these days? Take them away, and we wouldn’t know who to trust on eBay, what movies to pick on Netflix, or what books to buy on Amazon. Reputation systems (essentially a rating system for people) also help guide us through the labyrinth of individuals who make up our social web. Is he or she worthwhile to spend my time on? For pity’s sake, please don’t check out our reputation points before deciding whether to read this article.

Kirtland, Alex. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Web Design>User Experience>Social Networking

Opening PDFs in a New Window with JavaScript

Using JavaScript can be particularly useful when a website is content managed. Rather than having to rely on site editors to remember to open a link to a PDF in a new window the process is handled by a simple JavaScript function.

McCarthy, Paul. Webcredible (2007). Design>Web Design>User Experience>Adobe Acrobat

Quickness and Usability Keys to Successful Web Sites

Three clicks and that's it. Most Web site users allow only three clicks to be impressed with your product. Most people don't surf the Web; they have an agenda. In specialized fields such as banking, users will stay with sites that give them information quickly and pleasantly. The challenge is to produce a positive Web site experience the first time around. It boils down to one word: usability. Is your Web site user friendly? With 80% of current Web sites falling by the wayside, your home page must be easily accessible as well as eye-catching and informative. The imperatives are point, click and find the right department.

Schaffer, Eric M. TechWeb (2001). Design>Web Design>User Experience>Usability

Ruining the User Experience

There's a lot we, as designers of the web experience, can learn from something as simple as a water glass.

Gustafson, Aaron. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>User Experience

Scalable Design

Your seemingly elegant design begins to bloat with features, tear under the pressure of localization, and nearly keel over under the weight of new content that pushes it to its breaking point. Before long you give up. It's time to redesign--again. Could you have avoided this all too common cycle? Was there anything you might have done to anticipate these changes? One potential answer lies in scalable design considerations. Screen frameworks, user interface structures, and components that enable your product design to gracefully accommodate new features, new markets, and dynamic content--that can shrink or grow--are the cornerstones of a scalable design.

Wroblewski, Luke. UXmatters (2007). Design>Web Design>User Experience

The Science and Art of User Experience at Google

Takes you through the art and science behind Google's design process and shares examples of how design, usability and engineering are combined by Google's development teams.

Fitzpatrick, Jen. Google (2006). Design>Web Design>User Experience>Methods

Slashing Subjective Time

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

User Experience Design

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

We Tried To Warn You, Part 2

Some failure allows complex organizations to learn and grow; others can be catastrophic. In Part 2 of his series, Peter Jones explores the factors of user experience role, the timing dynamics of large projects, and several alternatives to the framing of UX roles and organizations today.

Jones, Peter. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Design>Web Design>User Experience

The Web Now: Social  

A presentation about online community and experience design in modern web design.

Wroblewski, Luke. LukeW Interface Designs (2005). Presentations>Web Design>User Experience

WebFYI

News and articles about web development, design, and marketing for higher education. Plus, occasionally, anything else that strikes our fancy.

WebFYI. Resources>Web Design>User Experience>Blogs

When Web Pages Don't Work

Puzzled why your site is not living up to your expectations? The problem may not lie with your content or products, but rather in your site's user experience. Find out what common pitfalls to avoid by following a few simple guidelines to improve the user experience and transform surfers into customers.

Paul, Chris. IBM (2000). Design>Web Design>User Experience>Usability

Where Are You Now? Design for the Location Revolution

Experience designers need to transition from designing for a single, static space--the desktop--to imagining the broad possibilities of the geospatial Web. For digital products and services, the next dimension of user experience we should consider during design is location.

Follett, Jonathan. UXmatters (2007). Design>User Experience>Wireless Web

Who Are You? Get a Personality  

Our most memorable experiences are those we can not only see and hear, but also feel. Building such experiences on the Web requires an understanding of how the design of your Web site creates a personality that interacts with and speaks to your audience. A Web site needs to be both effective and affective: not only usable but likable as well. Therefore, designing an appropriate and engaging personality for your site is not the icing on the cake (as visual design is sometimes called): It is the recipe that determines your final result and whether or not it will appeal to your audience.

LukeW Interface Designs (2006). Design>Web Design>User Experience

User Experience Design: The Evolution of a Multi-Disciplinary Approach  

Easy task completion (traditional usability) is not enough in the Web world. Appealing visual site design is not enough. A site visitor needs to not only be attracted to a site and able to figure out how to buy (or register, sign up, etc.)-they need in addition to be able to tell quickly that a site will meet their needs, and they need to want to buy from this site, as opposed to a competitor's site. This is a key aspect of overall Web site success.

Mayhew, Deborah J. Journal of Usability Studies (2008). Articles>Web Design>User Experience>Usability

Online Travel Booking: What Influences Consumers?

An overview of what influences consumers when booking a holiday and what travel companies can do to offer the best user experience.

Alexander Baxevanis. Webcredible (2008). Articles>Web Design>User Experience>E Commerce

Designing User Experience

A blog about user experience, usability, design, navigation and interfaces.

Designing User Experience. Articles>Web Design>User Experience>Blogs

UX Designers Focus on Your Users

UX designers often have a library of different interface patterns - navigation types, methods to help people find their way in software - and a deep understanding of how people actually DO find their way or navigate. They’re good communicators, and good at quickly plugging symptoms to design pattern. General doctors can prescribe medications, whereas UX designers can often actually bring the design patterns to life using CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax, and Dojo, or .Net, Java, JSP, and so forth. They may not be coding geniuses, but they have to be aware of what’s out there and what it can do, just like your general doctor needs to know about surgical options and prescriptions, even if they don’t actually spend their day in surgery or the lab.

Designing User Experience (2008). Articles>Web Design>User Experience

Companies Just Don’t Get It

People often don’t know exactly how they want software to allow them to complete a task. They recognize how the existing software makes them work around what they want, and they understand vague ideas like “make it easy to use”, but they may not be able to translate that into interface design. And why should they?

Designing User Experience (2008). Articles>Web Design>User Experience

Review: Web Design Evolves

I have recently noticed a new breed of web design books that focus on strategy and users rather than specific programming languages or applications.

Designing User Experience (2008). Articles>Reviews>Web Design>User Experience

Web Traffic Analytics and User Experience

As a specialist in the user, you gain knowledge through observation and direct questioning of individual users. Now, you can add to that insights gained from data pulled during their actions on the site. By looking at this information, you will get a fuller picture of user behavior, not in a lab, but in the true user environment.

Diamond, Fran. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Web Design>User Experience>Log Analysis

Making the Customer CEO

The key revolution of the Web is customer empowerment and engagement. The Web empowers the customer more than it empowers the organization. The implications are enormous.

McGovern, Gerry. New Thinking (2006). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>User Experience

Results of a Study about Online Experience

Users’ “enjoyment” of a site is tied closely to how easily they can find the information they want and stay oriented at the same time. I think this is a given for technical communicators; we know that users want to get answers as fast as possible, and documentation must be navigable.

Gryphon Mountain (2008). Articles>Web Design>User Experience>User Centered Design