All posts about
Usability

Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. (source: Wikipedia)

Remote Research: Real Users, Real Time, Real Research (Chapter 1)

Added on 19 May 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Remote user research describes any research method that allows you to observe, interview, or get feedback from users while they’re at a distance, in their “native environment” (at their desk, in their home or office) doing their own tasks. Remote studies allow you to recruit quickly, cheaply, and immediately, and give you the opportunity to observe users as they behave naturally in their own environment, on their own time. Our book will teach you how to design and conduct remote research studies, top-to-bottom, with little more than a phone and a laptop.” – (Tony Tulathimutte – Rosenfeld Media)

25 Incredibly Useful Usability Cheat Sheets & Checklists

Added on 15 May 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Is your Web site primed for any viewer? How do you know? The nicest thing about a usable Web site is that it’s just a good thing to do for others so they can easily read your online information. The other side to usability is that it can increase your search engine standings so more people can find your Web site. The following list of cheat sheets and checklists are fairly recent; however, some older usability checklists are useful for older sites that haven’t been upgraded.” – (Best Web Design Schools) courtesy of jjursa

Usability testing ≠ a good user experience

Added on 22 April 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Strategic user experience planning yields a unified and consistent user experience. And strategic design leads to great user experiences, ones that are characterized by delight, loyalty and stickiness. So how do you attain these? By designing the user experience for now, for next year… and for the year after that. And by designing the entire experience, not just your web site’s user interface, or your email campaign’s HTML.” – (Paul Sherman – Apogee)

Usable Accessibility: Making Web Sites Work Well for People with Disabilities

Added on 24 February 2009 Peter Bogaards
“When people talk about both usability and accessibility, it is often to point out how they differ. Accessibility often gets pigeon-holed as simply making sure there are no barriers to access for screen readers or other assistive technology, without regard to usability, while usability usually targets everyone who uses a site or product, without considering people who have disabilities. In fact, the concept of usability often seems to exclude people with disabilities, as though just access is all they are entitled to. What about creating a good user experience for people with disabilities—going beyond making a Web site merely accessible to make it truly usable for them?” – (Whitney Quesenbery – UXmatters)