Website Response Times
“Slow page rendering today is typically caused by server delays or overly fancy page widgets, not by big images. Users still hate slow sites and don’t hesitate telling us.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)
All posts about
Usability
Usability is in the details
“Although usability practitioners love to show examples of big usability issues with websites and applications, the vast majority of usability issues are typically in the details. By forcing your application users or website visitors to be constantly bothered with more detailed usability issues, you eventually wear down their patience and force them to decide whether to continue being annoyed, or to try a different application or website.” (W Craig Tomlin ~ Useful Usability)
Does SharePoint Destroy Intranet Design?
“As intranet projects benefit from powerful implementation platforms, teams should focus on optimizing the user experience for specific organizational needs, as 4 winning examples show.” (Jakob Nielsen ~ Alertbox)
UPA Conference 2010: Day 1&2
“(…) I have provided some insights and experiences from the presentations I attended on the first and second day of the UPA conference.” (Researching Usability)
Jakob Nielsen critiques the iPad’s usability failings
“There were really a lot of usability problems in this first-generation of iPad applications. It’s often quite difficult for people to discover what they have to do because the options are not very visible. I have to say of both the device itself and the content, it’s very attractive, which is good. But at the same time, overemphasising the attractiveness and hiding the functionality, that does cause problems.” (The Guardian) – courtesy of oliverreichenstein
Gestural Interfaces: A Step Backwards in Usability
“The usability crisis is upon us, once again. We suspect most of you thought it was over. After all, HCI certainly understands how to make things usable, so the emphasis has shifted to more engaging topics, such as exciting new applications, new technological developments, and the challenges of social networks and ubiquitous connection and communication. Well you are wrong.” (Donald A. Norman and Jakob Nielsen)
Combining Methods: Web Analytics and User Testing
“After presenting on combining methods at the EuroIA in 2009, Adam Cox and Martijn Klompenhouwer again showed the benefits of combining two separate sources. They delivered their presentation at the yearly Usability Professional Association conference in Munich (UPA2010). This time they focused on how to use Web Analytics in the preparation and execution of usability testing. Drawing from their experience of combining Web Analytics and User Research over the years, they illustrated several practical examples of how this combined approach works when it comes to user testing. After a short introduction of the individual methods, they demonstrated this approach by showcasing specific usability testing projects with a presentational style that was both visual and conversational.” (User Intelligence)
Podcast for the 2010 UPA International Conference
“From May 24th to May 28th, the 2010 UPA International Conference is being held in Munich, Germany. This event brings together more than 700 usability professionals from all over the world. To give you an impression of the diverse range of speakers and topics, the UPA provides an audio podcast accompanying the conference. Therein, you will find interviews with various conference attendants and organizers, some of them recorded during the event, others before and after it.” (Content Crew)
Usability Ain’t Everything: A Response to Jakob Nielsen’s iPad Usability Study
“The conclusion of the Nielsen Norman Group’s April 2010 study of iPad usability is that it has problems and more standards are the solution. Yes, the iPad is imperfect, but resorting to standards as the solution is an antiquated reaction that fails to consider how interactive systems have evolved. We’re not usability engineers anymore (not most of us, anyway); we’re user experience designers. Experience is more than just usability.” (Fred Beecher ~ Johnny Holland)
Involving Stakeholders in User Testing
“Besides usability specialists, all design team members should observe usability. It’s also good to invite executives. Although biased conclusions are possible, they’re far outweighed by the benefits of increased buy-in and empathy.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)
Interface Expert Knocks iPad Apps for Inconsistent Usability
“The iPad has been hailed as an interface triumph. But one usability expert has published an exhaustive critique of the iPad, taking it to task for the inconsistency and obscurity of its apps’ interfaces. The problem, at its core: A lack of interface standards means every app behaves in a different way.” (Wired) courtesy of apblog
iPad Usability: First Findings From User Testing
“iPad apps are inconsistent and have low feature discoverability, with frequent user errors due to accidental gestures. An overly strong print metaphor and weird interaction styles cause further usability problems.” (Jakob Nielsen ~ Alertbox)
Usability Do’s And Don’ts For Interactive Design
“We often talk about how to make our websites more usable, whether it’s tweaking the HTML structure of pages to benefit the user’s process or figuring out how best to display a message via CSS. But we never bring this thought process into our jQuery-based (and other JavaScript-based) elements. How can we enhance the user experience and usability of our jQuery events? Below, we’ll briefly discuss ways to look at the code and the result of our interactive designs and, thus, improve their usability.” (Smashing Magazine)
UK Election Email Newsletters Rated
“The main British parties’ email newsletters have higher usability scores than we found for US political newsletters in our last evaluation.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)
Touch Usability: News and research on touch interface usability
“This blog is a personal project and the opinions here are strictly my own.” (Kevin Arthur)
Horizontal Attention Leans Left
“Web users spend 69% of their time viewing the left half of the page and 30% viewing the right half. A conventional layout is thus more likely to make sites profitable.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)
Scrolling and Attention
“Web users spend 80% of their time looking at information above the page fold. Although users do scroll, they allocate only 20% of their attention below the fold.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)
Closeness of Actions and Objects in GUI Design
“Users overlook features if the GUI elements — such as buttons and checkboxes — are too far away from the objects they act on.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)
Do’s and Don’ts of Usability Testing
“Usability testing is one of the least glamorous, but most important aspects of user experience research. Over the years, it has also been one of the forms of user research we have performed most frequently. In doing so, we’ve learned quite a few best practices and encountered some potential pitfalls. We think it’s important that we share what we’ve learned with the many stakeholders, designers, and engineers who might find this information helpful.” (Demetrius Madrigal and Bryan McClain – UXmatters)
Ten unexpected online user behaviours to look out for
“Designing is hard enough as it is, taking into account your surprisingly erratic users makes it that much harder. Fortunately, taking unexpected user behaviour into account throughout the design process is a large part of the battle, it’s a significant step on the way to a good user experience.” (Alistair Gray – Webcredible)
