PRIORITIZING WEB USABILITY

Introduction  How the Book Study Was Conducted  Tested 69 users ages Broad range of job backgrounds and web experience  Used a Windows machine with Internet Explorer  “Thinking Aloud” Method  Site-Specific Testing  Study Scavenger Hunt Web-wide tasks  Purpose: To asses how well sites support the most typical goals users have when visiting them

The Web-User Experience  How well do people use the web?  Majority have a 66% success rate  How people use sites  Search engine dominance 88% go to search engines first when looking for solutions  Spend 30 seconds on home page  Spend seconds deep link pages  Scrolling  Users are “Information Foragers”  Your Website is their snack “You have less than two minutes to communicate the first time a prospective customer visits your Web site. This is the basic fact about the Web experience: As far as users are concerned, every page must justify its claim on their time. If a page doesn’t do that immediately and clearly, they go elsewhere. Most don’t even bother scrolling to see what’s further down the page.”

Revisiting Early Web Usability Findings 8 Problems That Haven’t Changed Dense content and un- scannable text Links don’t change color Breaking the back button Opening new browser windows Vaporous content and empty hype Violating Web-wide conventions Design elements that look like ads Pop-up windows

The Art of “Searching”  Internal Search Engines are good!  Search Interface  Needs to be easy to find on Web site  Search Engine Results Page  Search Engine Optimization

Navigation and Information Architecture  Match structure of site to user expectations  Be consistent  Reduce clutter and avoid redundancy  Be specific with links and label names  Dropdown menus  Direct links on homepage  Clickability Cues “You’ve come to our website like most for information, but unlike other websites we’ve filled it with surprises. So have fun, go find the surprises!”

Typography: Readability and Legibility  Use the 10-point rule  Choosing fonts  Veranda is most readable  Moving Text  Users associate this with ads, don’t do it!  Be smart when mixing fonts and colors  Text images  Only for snippets of text  Customize for your target users

Writing for the Web  What turns users away?  Confusing content  Understand how web users read  Have strong visual cues  Write for your reader  Use simple language  Don’t go overboard on promotional lingo  Format text for readability  Highlight key words

Providing Good Product Information  Display price and extra fees clearly  Support comparison shopping  Tables  Customization  Win customer confidence  Describe product  Provide pictures  Layer product pages  Display bona fides

Presenting Page Elements  “Three-Click” Rule  Common layout mistakes  Interactions too complex  Too many elements  Should you design for scrolling?  Guide users step by step  Keep similar items in the same area  Use white space correctly

Balancing Technology With People’s Needs  Use multimedia when it benefits your audience  Accommodate low-tech users  Underestimate users technical knowledge  Detect users bandwidth  Stick to familiar interface conventions  Practice simplicity “Keep your users at the center of your design project. Be humble. Listen to them. They’ll make you successful.”