COAP:COAP-2100/Web design
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Introduction
Topics presented and discussed in class ...
- General question one could ask about a web site (see homework 3)
- 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?
- Usability
The general principles are: efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction.
These principles can be detailed as:
- easy to learn (task time)
- efficient to use (task time)
- effective to use (errors and task completion)
- provides quick recovery from errors (errors and task completion)
- easy to remember (task time)
- enjoyable to use (subjective user satisfaction)
- visually pleasing (subjective user satisfaction)
Usability.gov presents a similar list:
- Ease of learning - How fast can a user who has never seen the user interface before learn it sufficiently well to accomplish basic tasks?
- Efficiency of use - Once an experienced user has learned to use the system, how fast can he or she accomplish tasks?
- Memorability - If a user has used the system before, can he or she remember enough to use it effectively the next time or does the user have to start over again learning everything?
- Error frequency and severity - How often do users make errors while using the system, how serious are these errors, and how do users recover from these errors?
- Subjective satisfaction - How much does the user like using the system?
Summary:
- Basically, usability testing means giving people tasks to do and observing them
- Only user experience (satisfaction and related) is measured with questionnaires
We will look at the Short (informal) usability test report template (DOC - 216KB) template from usability.gov:
- Landing page optimization
The five second test according to Oli Gardner
- What is it about?: How obvious is the core brand message?
- Do I care?: Am I interested? Does it speak to me?
- Is it trustworthy?: Does the design make me feel comfortable? Do they appear professional?
- How do I participate?: What am I supposed to do first? Is the primary call to action presented in a clear manner?
- Is it newsworthy?: Given today’s social web economy, how likely am I to want to share my experience? Is this facilitated in any way?
This test doesn't cover all usability issues, see the next item.
- Contents of the landing page
- Web site layout navigation principles
- No dead-end pages
- Direct access
- Simplicity and consistency
- Design integrity and stability
- Feedback and dialog
- Bandwidth and interaction
- Interface design conventions (picture)
- Authenticity (real and perceived)
- Sign and date contents. (on a blog create an "about" page)
- ... is also influenced by user experience (even choice of fonts)
- Wireframing - a first stage in proto-typing
- Drawing a sketch for a "multi-boxed" web page (e.g. a portal). Demo of Mockingbird and Mockflow
- Using a drawing tool such as Inkscape or a general-purpose on-line drawing tool. Demo of Inkscape (free drawing tool), Gliffy and Creatly.
- Templating (very short introduction, this is more a self-study object for those who are able to dig into technical documentation and maybe some XML)
Reading
Read each of these texts. Total reading should be less than an hour. I am not requiring recall of details, but you ought to be able to locate information in these texts ....
- Top Ten Guidelines for Homepage Usability (Jakob Nielsen)
- The Elements of User Experience (the complicated picture) by Jess James Garet
- Interface Design (part of Lynch and Norton's Web Style Guide)
- Usability testing on 10 cents a day by Steve Krug
- Top 10 best designed web sites by Scratch (this is just one of many such lists, look at 1-2 examples)
- The 5 Second Rule: Critiquing the Best Websites of 2009 – Part 1 (demonstrates a method to judge initial user experience/usability)
Prototyping and wire framing (also tested in exam !)
- Paper Prototyping by Shwan Medero, A List Apart, 2007.
- Website wireframe (Wikipedia)