Universal usability refers to the design of information and communications products and services that are usable for every citizen. The concept of universal usability is closely related to the concepts of universal accessibility and universal design.
#10400
Examining the Relationship Between Quality Writing and Quality Reading 
This article introduces the ISTE approach as a way to measure the relationship between the design of a document and the way that users handle it. ISTE is an acronym for Information SubTypes and Effects. The article describes the classification of information into a general typology as well as into a specific one, to illustrate how the approach can be adapted to specific usability questions. ISTE also requires a typology for categorizing possible user reactions. This article first positions ISTE within the broader context of usability testing and then describes its basic approach and some recent applications. Unlike most formal research methods, ISTE does not require an inordinate amount of time and effort for analyzing high-fidelity data. Electronic versions such as the ERR instrument allow for the creation of a complete and detailed profile of the use of a document 10 minutes after task completion. These characteristics make ISTE a viable instrument for gathering usability metrics in industrial settings.
van der Meij, Hans. Technical Communication Online (2000). Articles>Usability>Testing>Assessment
#18287
Examining Tolerance for Online Delays
In this study, user tolerance for delays for three common WWW tasks, including information retrieval, purchasing, and downloading a text file was examined. These tasks were selected since the file sizes differ significantly among the three tasks, so it was expected that tolerance may be higher for those tasks with smaller file sizes. For example, tolerance for delays would be higher for downloading a text file than purchasing or information retrieval, since users may have an expectation that the task should take longer so they may be more willing to wait. End-users may be more tolerant of delays while purchasing online, since information must be exchanged to process the transaction, whereas information retrieval does not require information exchange.
Selvidge, Paula. Usability News (2003). Design>Web Design>Usability
#18280
Examining Web Design Conventions Across Site Types
This study examined the viability of a Category-Based Usability Theory, which indicates that usability of websites should be accounted for on the basis of the category the website is in. While Web design experts have provided general design guidelines, it is believed that with different site types, design guidelines may differ.
Patel, M.R. Usability News (2003). Design>Web Design>Usability
#14812
Examining World Wide Web Designs--Lessons from Pilot Studies
Since 1994, our faculty and graduate students have studied a variety of design issues critical to enhancing the effectiveness of World Wide Web (WWW) sites. Guided by earlier literature from such wide-ranging disciplines as information design, text legibility, hypertext, multimedia, interface design, human computer interaction, and communication science, we have completed five studies. Further, we developed a research protocol designed to enhance the effectiveness of WWW sites for education and information delivery. Our research protocol was guided by Berger and Chaffee's (1987) communication science orientation where communication science seeks to understand the production, processing, and effects of symbol and signal systems by developing testable theories, containing lawful generalizations, that explain phenomena associated with production, processing and effects.
Zimmerman, Donald E., Michel Muraski, Michael Palmquist, Emily Estes, Catherine McClintoch and Linda Bilsing. Microsoft (1996). Design>Web Design>Usability
#27484
Without innovative solutions that are imaginative and that promote the talents of the producer, the designer is left solving narrow, piecemeal issues that don't add up to much. Which is why Nielsen and Tahir reduce everything to the banal. They accept that the interface is the most critical aspect of the product, losing sight of the possibilities of the product itself.
Perks, Martyn. Spiked Online (2002). Articles>Usability>Web Design>CRM
#29646
Experience Equity and Universal Access: Designing Clinical Studies for Low Vision 
In this paper, I describe web page design for those interested in conducting clinical, low vision studies. Ideally, web pages should be accessible and usable for all readers; however, the web is a highly visual medium for communication and creates serious accessibility issues for specialized (diverse needs) those with vision needs. Therefore, I propose that researchers consider a paramount and concurrent user-centered design approach when creating stimulus materials for these specialized audiences. This paper introduces readers to this design approach for a low vision audience as described in the WebText Study.
Reece, Gloria A. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Usability>Testing>Visual
#23914
Experiences in Remote Usability Evaluations
Traditional usability testing occurs in a laboratory setting in which users are directly observed by test facilitators. However, the costs associated with accessing users for usability testing as well as the limited availability of many users make it necessary to consider new methods for gathering usability feedback for software products. Online, remote testing is a key to achieving a larger, more diverse pool of participants.
Cheatham, Deane and Velda Bartek. IBM (2004). Articles>Usability>Testing
#28471
Expert Usability Review vs. Usability Testing
Article outlining the difference between the two usability evaluation methods: The expert usability review and usability testing.
Halabi, Lisa. Webcredible (2007). Design>Web Design>Usability
#31905
Extreme Usability: How to Make an Already-Great Design Even Better
The 1% of websites that don't suck can be made even better by strengthening exceptional user performance, eliminating miscues, and targeting company-wide use and unmet needs.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability
#31092
What is the biggest problem I face almost every time a client hires me to do something about a web project going awry? They don't know a thing about their users. They don't have a clue, whatsoever. Unbelievable but true!
Lafreniere, Daniel. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>User Centered Design>Research>Usability
#31196
Eye Gaze Patterns while Searching vs. Browsing a Website
This article discusses users' visual scan paths of web pages containing text and/or pictures while conducting browsing and searching tasks. User performance on three usability tasks on an e-commerce website is described. Results show that users follow a fairly uniform scan path when browsing through pictures, and a more random path while specifically searching through them. Additionally, users appeared to follow Nielsen's 'F' pattern (2006) while both browsing and searching through text-based pages.
Shrestha, Sav and Kelsi Lenz. Usability News (2007). Articles>Usability>Testing>Eye Tracking
#28896
Eye Gaze Tracking Techniques for Interactive Applications 
This paper presents a review of eye gaze tracking technology and focuses on recent advancements that might facilitate its use in general computer applications. Early eye gaze tracking devices were appropriate for scientific exploration in controlled environments. Although it has been thought for long that they have the potential to become important computer input devices as well, the technology still lacks important usability requirements that hinders its applicability. We present a detailed description of the pupil/corneal reflection technique due to its claimed usability advantages, and show that this method is still not quite appropriate for general interactive applications. Finally, we present several recent techniques for remote eye gaze tracking with improved usability. These new solutions simplify or eliminate the calibration procedure and allow free head motion.
Morimoto, Carlos H. and Marcio R.M. Mimica. Computer Vision and Image Understanding (2005). Articles>Usability>Methods>Eye Tracking
#13738
An Eye on User Data: An Interview with Jared Spool, Founding Principal of User Interface Engineering
Our most striking finding is how bad web sites are in general. We have yet to find a site where, if you choose questions at random based on information the developers have placed on the site, users can find the answers more than 50% of the time. (The best we've found is 42% of the time.)
Spool, Jared M. WebWord (1999). Articles>Usability>Web Design
#28130
Eye tracking is a technique used in cognitive science, psychology (notably psycholinguistics), human-computer interaction (HCI), marketing research, medical research, and other areas. The most widely used current designs are video based eye trackers. A camera focuses on one or both eyes and records their movement as the viewer looks at some kind of stimulus. Most modern eye-trackers use contrast to locate the center of the pupil and use infrared and near-infrared non-collumnated light to create a corneal reflection (CR). The vector between these two features can be used to compute gaze intersection with a surface after a simple calibration for an individual.
#29354
Discusses the various opportunities for eye-movement studies in future HCI research, and details some of the challenges that need to be overcome to enable effective application of the technique in studying the complexities of advanced interactive-system use.
Poole, Alex and Linden J. Ball. Alex Poole (2004). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Usability>Eye Tracking
#28894
Eye Tracking in Usability Testing: Is It Worthwhile?
The bottom line is how to ensure the customer that eye tracking provides additional value for their money. If we do numerical analysis in addition to video analysis, the need for extra time is remarkable and the analysis will become more expensive. To reduce analysis time we need automated special software and therefore we are currently developing scan path visualization software in which we include a new fixation recognition algorithm.
Aaltonen, Antti. ACM SIGCHI (1999). Articles>Usability>Testing>Eye Tracking
#29277
Eye Tracking: Eye Candy vs. I Can Do
Eye tracking is definitely not a magic bullet or 'the closest thing to mind reading'. It does however serve as both a great piece of eye candy for senior executives with little time and is very powerful in helping come up with the most effective page design.
McElhaw, Mark. Webcredible (2007). Design>Usability>Methods>Eye Tracking
#27404
Eye-Tracking Studies: Usability Holy Grail?
The reality is that eye-tracking, while valuable, doesn't make usability testing any more powerful. It's what you do with the observations and the usability test data that counts.
Spillers, Frank. Demystifying Usability (2004). Articles>Usability>Methods>Eye Tracking
#27597
Eyetools, Enquiro, and Did-it uncover Search's Golden Triangle
The vast majority of eye tracking activity during a search happens in a triangle at the top of the search results page indicating that the areas of maximum interest create a 'golden triangle.'
Edwards, Greg. Eyetools (2005). Design>Web Design>Usability>Eye Tracking
#27167
F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content
Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Eye Tracking
#18938
Face to Face With Your Users: Running a Nondirected Interview
An interview is a funny situation. It's like a friendly conversation between strangers, but unlike the kind you may have on the bus. When chatting on the bus, people try very hard to agree with each other and to quickly communicate interesting information. Each person wants to be liked and adjusts the way they speak and what they say so as not to offend. This type of exchange is perfectly fine for maintaining civil society -- deeper exchanges can always happen as an acquaintance deepens -- but shallow banter isn't appropriate for an interview. You need to find out what someone is experiencing, what they're thinking, or what their real opinions are.
Kuniavsky, Mike. Adaptive Path (2003). Articles>User Centered Design>Interviewing>Usability
#23403
Despite the fantastic development of computers and software, the paperless society seems to be far from implementation. On the contrary, the consumption of paper for documents has increased over the recent years.
Rullgård, Åke. TC-FORUM (2000). Articles>Documentation>Usability
#23117
Facilitating Data Exploration with Query Previews: A Study of User Performance and Preference
Current networked and local data exploration systems that use command languages (e.g. SQL), menus, or form fillin interfaces do not give users an indication of the distribution of data in their databases. This often leads users to waste time, posing queries that have zero-hit or mega-hit results. Query previews are a novel visual approach for browsing and querying networked or local databases. Query previews supply users with data distribution information for selected attributes of a database, and give continuous feedback about the size of the result set as the query is being formed. Subsequent refinements might be necessary to narrow the search sufficiently. Because there is a risk that query previews are an additional step, leading to a more complex and slow search process, we ran a within subjects empirical study with 12 subjects who used interfaces with and without query previews and with no network delays. Even with this small number of subjects and minimized network delays we found statistically significant differences showing that query previews could speed up performance 1.6 to 2.1 times and lead to higher subjective satisfaction.
Tanin, Egemen, Amnon Lotem, Ihab Haddadin, Ben Shneiderman, Catherine Plaisant and Laura Slaughter. SHORE (1999). Design>User Interface>Usability>Search
#20367
Facts and Opinion About Fahrner Image Replacement
Fahrner Image Replacement and its analogues aim to combine the benefits of high design with the requirements of accessibility. But how well do these methods really work? Accessibility expert Joe Clark digs up much-needed empirical data on how FIR works (and doesn’t) in leading screen readers.
Clark, Joe. List Apart, A (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability
#29551
Fancy Formatting, Fancy Words = Looks Like a Promotion = Ignored
One site did most things right, but still had a miserable 14% success rate for its most important task. The reason? Users ignored a key area because it resembled a promotion.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2007). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability
