Transcript Document

turn your ideas into
reality
Christy Carpino
President, Multi-Option Systems, Inc.
infotec 2004
Web Site Usability for Business
Developers
Or
The Do’s and Don’ts of Web Design and
Planning
Agenda
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What is “usability”?
Planning and managing usability
The Ten Top Web Mistakes
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
Tips and Tricks
Questions
Some Initial
Observations
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Web is still in its infancy
Web will become much more than PC
browsers and database servers
Augmentation rather than replacement
will be the rule
Technology fundamentals and business
fundamentals drive innovations
What is Usability?
System acceptability
Social acceptability
Utility
Usefulness
Usability
Easy to learn
Efficient to use
Practical
acceptability
Cost
Compatibility
Reliability
Etc. (performance,
manageability…)
Easy to remember
Few errors
Subjectively pleasing
Usability Dimensions
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Learnability – useful on first site visit
Efficiency – enhance user productivity
Memorability – easy to remember
Errors – eliminate user errors
Satisfying – users “like” it
Fitness – to user profile and task load
What Usability is Not
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Usability is not a “beauty contest”
Satisfying – users “like” it
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Not annoying or distracting
At best, pleasing
Conforms to principles of good graphical design
(layout)
Layout is one aspect of usability
Don’t be misled by “artistic” focus while
developing sites
Usability Issues for
Web
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“Bug-free” interactions
Finding what the user is looking for
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Clear feedback on user interactions
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Navigation
Search
Response time differences
Web application session management
Usernames and passwords
Finding What I Need
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Who are users; what do they know
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What they are trying to “do”
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Web expertise, locale
Offline props (e.g., catalogs, etc.)
Browsing or “window-shopping”
Searching for specific information
Buying a particular product
Reflect how users organize information in the
site’s organization
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Promote organization to user
Clear Feedback
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Response time issues
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Build for slow speed connections
Scripting and “special” tools can subvert the
hourglass cues
Confirm, confirm, confirm
Handle jumping into the middle of a site
gracefully
Use “standard” cues
Avoid confusion
Usernames and
Passwords
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Need memorable, guaranteed unique names
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Use email address as user name
Passwords represent a unique security issue
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Do not rely on cookies
Marry policy and community sensibly
B2B and B2C sites will probably differ
Or avoid requirement to use names and
passwords
Personalization and
Privacy
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Personalization is extension of usability
principles
Personalization is not a substitute for usability
Requires knowledge of user
Take time to understand basic privacy issues
involved
Amazon’s approach to personalization is a
good example
?
Planning a Usable
Site
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Plan a useful site
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Scenario-based design
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Utility is crucial
What are you offering that is worth my time? (let
alone my money…)
“Who” will be doing “what”?
Focus on value to the user
Design from the outside in
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Don’t worry about internal system constraints
Compromise only after the initial vision
Planning a Usable
Site
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Do some simple prototypes
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Prototype flow as well as layout
Validate navigation and information architecture
with simple tests
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What do users select when asked to do a specific task?
Focus on those tasks you want users to
perform
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On most e-commerce sites, that means buy
something
No point in optimizing peripheral areas of site
Planning a Usable
Site
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Test and test again
Many books/literature available on usability
testing
Don’t fall into the “touchy-feely” trap
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Aesthetic preference is unarguable
Do users accomplish tasks? Make errors? Meet
objectives?
Is the experience frustrating or not?
Managing a Usable
Site
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Essential to have a feedback loop
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How do users perform?
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Can they do what they want?
Do they do what you want?
Best feedback is combination of
voluntary and involuntary
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Ask for feedback and make it easy to
provide
Track user behavior
Managing a Usable
Site
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Every change has the potential to introduce
usability problems
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Simply by changing the interface causes a
problem
User is always right (at least has a point)
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TV Guide search
Users also always have their own way of doing
things…
Top Ten Web Design
Mistakes (2003)
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Unclear Statement of Purpose
New URLs for Archived Content
Undated Content
Small Thumbnail Images of Big,
Detailed Photos
Overly detailed ALT Text
Top Ten Web Design
Mistakes (continued)
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No “What-If” Support
Long Lists that Cannot Be Winnowed by
Attributes
Products Sorted Only By Brand
Overly Restrictive Form Entry
Pages That Link to Themselves
Five Criteria for
Evaluating Web Sites
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Accuracy
Authority
Objectivity
Currency
Coverage
Web Sites That Work
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Rule
Rule
Rule
Rule
Rule
One: Bigger is Better
Two: Color Your World
Three: Faster beats Fancier
Four: Small bytes go down easier
Five: Have a purpose
Graphic Design
Tutorials
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Yale C/AIM Web Style Guide:
Graphic Design
100 http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/man
ual/pages/page_design.html
Creating Graphics for the
Web.designer http://www.widearea.c
o.uk/designer/index.html
Graphic Design
Tutorials
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Web Home Improvement by
Patrick
McElhaney http://www.htmltips.com/r
esources.html
Web Page Design for Designers by
Joe
Gillespiehttp://www.wpdfd.com/wpdh
ome.htm
Graphic Design
Tutorial
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Dimitry's Design Lab on
Webreference.com
http://www.webreference.com/dlab/
Graphic's Den
http://www.actden.com/grap_den/index
.htm
Summary
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Web requires good usability
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Principles of usability have not changed
Focus on users
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No leverage with users
What do they want?
How do they “work”?
Approach perfection by inches
Learn, refine, test and repeat
References
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Black, R. (1997) Web sites that work. Retrieved April
18, 2004, from
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/10/rogerblack/h
tml
Chisholm, W., Vanderheiden,G. and Jacobs,I eds.
1999. Web content accessibility guidelines 1.0.
http://www.w3c.org/tr/wai-webcontent/waipageauth.html (17 January 2001).
Nielsen, Jakob. (2003) Top ten web design mistakes
of 2003. Retrieved April 18,2004,from
http://www.useit.com/20031222.htm
Nielsen, Jakob. (1993) Usability engineering. San
Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann.