Web usability

Draft

Introduction

“Al Badre's book is about an everlasting truth--a truth that many people, many companies, many organizations have learned the hard way. That is, when designing technological systems for people to use, one must take into account the characteristics of the users, and the nature of the task, and the knowledge, experience, biases, strengths, and weaknesses that the users bring to the task. In the case at hand, the task is using the World Wide Web.”, James D. Foley, cited by informIT, retrieved 16:51, 18 November 2010 (CET))

The essence of a web usability structure, is according to Badre (2002:chapter 2):

• Where and under what conditions will the Web site be used?
• For what purpose will the site be used?
• Who will use the site (the target audience)?
• How will the site be used?

See also: usability (more general) web accessibility, HCI (human-computer interaction the most important academic displine dealing with usability).

Questionnaires for assessing website usability

There exist several published survey instruments. One of the most popular ones is the SUS which is short and does seem to yield reliable results acreoss sample sizes (Tullis and Stetson, 2004).

The System Usability Scale (SUS) includes 10 items using a five-point response items (strongly disagree -- strongly agreee): 1. I think that I would like to use this system frequently 2. I found the system unnecessarily complex 3. I thought the system was easy to use 4. I think that I would need the support of a technical person to be able to use this system 5. I found the various functions in this system were well integrated 6. I thought there was too much inconsistency in this system 7. I would imagine that most people would learn to use this system very quickly 8. I found the system very cumbersome to use 9. I felt very confident using the system 10. I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with this system

Links

Introductions

• Sample chapters from Krug, Steve (2000). Don't Make Me Think!, First Edition,
  • Usability testing on 10 cents a day (PDF)
  • Usability testing: The movie (PDF)
  • On not throwing the baby out with the dishes (PDF)
• Sample chapter from Steve Krug, Don't Make Me Think!, Second Edition.
  • How we really use the Web

Web sites

See also usability and User interaction and user interface design

Topics

• The 5 Second Rule: Critiquing the Best Websites of 2009 – Part 1 by Oli Gardner

Online tools

• fivesecondtest.com. Landing page optimization for your mocks and wireframes. (commercial, but you can do tests to earn tests).

Bibliography

• Badre, Al (2002) Shaping Web usability—interaction design in context, Addison Wesley Professional, ISBN 0201729938.
  • book preview by Jean Scholtz, Interactions Magazine, Volume 9 Issue 3, May 2002
  • Safari online version

• Garret, Jesse James (2002), The Elements of USer Experience, User-Centered Design for the Web, New Riders Publishing. The book homepage, includes a free central diagram plus free chapter two.

• Horton, Sarah (2002). Access by Design, New Riders, ISBN 0-321-31140-X.

• Horton, Sarah (2005). Acces by Design online at Universal Usability: A universal design approach to web usability.

• Lynch, Patrick J. and Sarah Horton (2009), Web Style Guide, Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites, 3rd Edition, Yale University Press. ISBN 0300137370. (see also the free version)

• Lynch, Patrick J. and Sarah Horton (2009), Web Style Guide Online (Free).

Other

• Brooke, John, 1996. SUS: A "quick and dirty" usability scale. In P. W. Jordan, B. Thomas, B. A. Weerdmeester, & I. L. McClelland (Eds.), Usability evaluation in industry (pp. 189–194). London: Taylor & Francis. DOC format