“Adding confidence intervals to completion rates in usability tests will temper both excessive skepticism and overstated usability findings. Confidence intervals make testing more efficient by quickly revealing unusable tasks with very small samples. Examples are detailed and downloadable calculators are available.” (Jeff Sauro – Measuring Usability)

“This is a large field, and there is a lot of material to read. If you are just learning about voting, it can e a bit overwhelming. To help out, we’ve assembled a short list of the most critical readings on voting and usability.” (UPA)

“Redesigning an intranet for usability often more than doubled the use of these award-winning designs from ten public-sector organizations.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)

“When done right, usability testing will improve your Web site and your development process, but the current culture surrounding Web site usability testing is such that it rarely benefits the design. Worse, this misapplication can undermine the acceptance of this important technique throughout an organization.” (Lane Becker – Adaptive Path)

“Test your knowledge of basic Web usability principles.” (Human Factors International)

“Cognitive ergonomics is especially important in the design of complex, high-tech, or automated systems. A poorly designed cellular phone user-interface may not cause an accident, but it may well cause great frustration on the part of the consumer and result in a marketplace driven business failure. A poor interface design on industrial automated equipment, though, may result in decreased production and quality, or even a life threatening accident.” (Ergonomics Today) – courtesy of lucdesk

“Designers and user researchers need to communicate effectively, with mutual appreciation, in order to achieve an optimal outcome. In my opinion, as expressed earlier, user researchers need to have an understanding of fundamental design principles such as typography, emphasis, style, layout, composition, color, perspective, space, placement and size.” (Didier P. Hilhorst – Digital Web Magazine)

“The six remote controls required for a simple home theater illustrate the problems caused by complexity and inconsistency in user interfaces.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)

The rule on staying alive as a forcaster is to give ’em a number or give ’em a date, but never give ’em both at once. — Jane Bryant Quinn Poker Party http://www.party-poker-x.com

“If you write usability reports, how much do you understand about whom you are designing usability reports for? Have you ever applied user centered design principles to usability reports themselves? Why or why not? My guess is that you haven’t, and if you did, the results would surprise you. What you’re providing is probably not quite what your team (aka your second set of users) needs from you. What they are looking for is probably at odds with what you want them to look for, and the usability report becomes some kind of philosophical battleground. Generally, the authors of the reports lose.” (Scott Berkun) – courtesy of columntwo

“Site visitors are more likely to finish Web tasks successfully, but site searches are still troublesome, according to a recent survey.” (Dennis O’Reilly – PC World) – courtesy of lawrence lee

“Textual links should be colored and underlined to achieve the best perceived affordance of clickability, though there are a few exceptions to these guidelines.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)

“I’ve been doing usability testing for almost 20 years. Although I haven’t been exposed to that many other facilitators, the ones I had seen facilitated very much like I did, which also seemed to be very much ‘by the book’. Here, was someone with a very different approach.” (Clifford Anderson – STC Usability SIG Newsletter)

“People get lost and move in circles when websites use the same link color for visited and new destinations. To reduce navigational confusion, select different colors for the two types of links.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)

“B2B websites must support a more complex buying process than B2C sites. Three key goals are to make a buyer’s shortlist, offer a downloadable advocacy kit, and build a reputation for great service.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)

“These guidelines include most factors to consider during a usability evaluation of a web site. Not all factors apply to every site.” (MIT Information Services and Technology) – courtesy of lucdesk

“Remote Contextual Inquiry gives us an opportunity to view our end users’ desktops to observe how they are using their current products in a cost and time-efficient manner. It is a marriage between the remote usability lab test and contextual inquiry, allowing us to transcend geographical boundaries without actually having to travel to distant locations. We gain contextual insights such as personalized settings, hidden fields, and added functionality that are typically not obtained during a usability test. It is truly a flexible method that provides a wealth of knowledge about the use of customized enterprise software” (Jeff English and Lynn Rampoldi-Hnilo – Boxes and Arrows)

“Bystanders rated mobile-phone conversations as dramatically more noticeable, intrusive, and annoying than conversations conducted face-to-face. While volume was an issue, hearing only half a discussion also seemed to up the irritation factor.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)

“People who make things happen do so through the credibility they earn over time. It can take months or years to develop the relationships needed to make great things happen, so be patient. Be smart. Be helpful. Listen to ideas from other people and show them that you appreciate their help, and consider what they say.” (Scott Berkun – UIWeb)

“Anytime somebody does something new with technology, something nobody else has ever done before, that technology goes through a talking horse stage. It’s extremely common and, more importantly, it’s critical for the design team to recognize that they are in this stage.” (Jared Spool – UI Engineering)