“Like all of Rosenberg’s observant myths, the misguided belief that statements like these can be made (and more importantly believed!) is the great red herring of usability ROI research. Let’s rid ourselves of these top-down, macro-level assertions and get down to the real work of analyzing specific usability interventions at the project level. Only through rigorous and in-depth analysis can larger patterns emerge and applications be developed.” (Scott Hirsch – Net Now) – courtesy of ia slash

“Daniel Rosenberg began his talk by confessing that he doesn’t believe in usability Return on Investment (ROI). Having spent 30 years in the field of User Experience (UE), and never having been asked to justify usability by its ROI, Rosenberg raises a question: Why are we still discussing this topic?” (BayCHI) – courtesy of nick finck

“Yes, it is possible for white-collar workers to work smarter and become more productive. While intranet usability provides substantial initial gains, workflow usability can go much further and will save millions of jobs.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)

“(…) look at usability requirements for different aspects of the user experience. For each of the five dimensions of usability (the 5Es), we think about how it is reflected in requirements for each of the user groups.” (Whitney Quesenbery – WQusability) – courtesy of beth mazur

“Prove to the world that you understand what it takes to provide the world with good design. Prove that you understand that good design, especially as it pertains to the field of high-technology product design, is also about nuts and bolts, honest, straight-forward usability. Prove to the designers out there you understand the principles of good design by tackling your own little spot on the World Wide Web.” (Andrei Michael Herasimchuk – Design by Fire)

“Eyetrack is an effort to show how online news users process information on a Web page. We look through the eyes (literally) of a group of consumers as they view broadband-era news websites and multimedia editorial content.” (Poynter Online)

“There are some things, that have been and are done successfully throughout the years of the internet. The biggest one is the big C – content.” (Chris Heilmann – Evolt)

“Visceral design is what nature does. (…) Behavioural design is all about use. (…) Reflective design is about the meaning of things.” (Guardian Unlimited) – courtesy of lawrence lee

“The discerning usability analyst should employ a mix of both qualitative and quantitative methods when discovering usability problems. The risks of relying heavily on a qualitative approach can lead to a severe misdiagnosis especially when usability problems are difficult to detect. This article is a response to Nielsen’s ‘The Risk of Quantitative Studies’ and shows how the problems voters had with the ‘butterfly-ballot’ in the Florida 2000 election would not have been detected with popular discounted qualitative methods. The problems with relying on one-size-fits all usability guidelines such as ‘testing with only five users’ and the inherent bias of pay-for-hire guru’s are also discussed.” (Jeff Sauro – measuring usability)

“Number fetishism leads usability studies astray by focusing on statistical analyses that are often false, biased, misleading, or overly narrow. Better to emphasize insights and qualitative research.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)

“We’ve found having a focus works better than just a random tour without any focus. We get to see how users work with the site as they discuss it. Their commentary is easier to understand and more accurately represents true issues with the site.” (Jared Spool – UI Engineering)

“As Web design and development become wider in scope, individual topics within it become equally deeper. Usability has become its own depth area over the past few years, largely due to the influence of usability ‘Thought Leaders’ attempting to create better interactive Web sites for site visitors.” (Molly Holzschlag – informIT) – courtesy of andrew fernandez

“Most user studies in the past have focused on the use of static devices. What are the new challenges to us, as designers and evaluators, on how to approach the design and evaluation of multimodal mobile devices and applications? In other words, function, value and meaning are relational and not absolute, as the applications and services reside on the network and not on the device. From the point of view of design and evaluation this presents new challenges. But why should we be interested?”

“E-newsletters that are informative, convenient, and timely are often preferred over other media. However, a new study found that only 11% of newsletters were read thoroughly, so layout and content scannability is paramount.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)

“Don Norman used to be known as a critic of unusable things but now, he says, he has changed. He has transformed himself into an advocate for pleasurable, enjoyable products. Beauty is good, says Norman. Successful products should a pleasure to use, and convey a positive sense of self, of accomplishment, and pride of ownership. In this keynote address, Norman shares work from his latest book, Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things.” (IT Conversations) – courtesy of ben hyde

“ISO is developing a new standard for web usability. The new standard will be of interest to anyone who designs, evaluates or commissions web sites and it is likely to have a significant impact in improving the overall usability of the web.” (Userfocus) – courtesy of usability news

“(..) there are effective ways to utilize the entire height of the page, and to take advantage of the footer location to add value for the user. Innovative sites will surely extend these ideas and come up with new ways to keep users involved no matter what part of the page they are viewing.” (Jeff Lash – Digital Web Magazine)

“To ensure high response rates and avoid misleading survey results, keep your surveys short and ensure that your questions are well written and easy to answer.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)

“The average difference in measured usability between competing websites is 68%. This is smaller than expected, but makes sense given the dynamics of design within individual industries.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)

“Many intranets are under-used. Intranet managers lament the low use and discuss how to get staff to ‘use the intranet more’, resulting in marketing and promotions activities to increase use.” (Donna Maurer – Step Two Designs)