2. Usability Techniques for Web-based Services Diversity and Technology

3. Introduction A thought experiment: What is special about sites that you return often to? What gets you coming back?

4. Why do people return to a site? zGood content (75%) zUsability (66%) zSpeed of downloading (58%) zFrequently updated (54%) z(the rest is noise: 14% and lower)

5. This tutorial About ‘diversity and technology’: zrecognising that people are different zrecognising that cultures are different zidentifying the technology and techniques to support such differences

6. Today z17:15 Universal accessibility Individualisation Internationalisation z18:30 Break z19:00 Web-design Technology to support usability Specification techniques

7. About the speakers Members of a team: UWISH Usability of Web-based Information Services for Hypermedia

8. Universal Accessibility Design for All

9. General Principles Vanderheiden (1997) zUse: equitable, flexible, simple and intuitive. zPerceptible information and error tolerance. zLow physical effort and appropriate size and space for approach.

10. Guidelines for Elderly Czaja (1997) zContrast, screen glare, object size zMinimal info, consistent location, group zHighlight, color discrimination, key label zClear icons, practice zMinimal demands on memory zConsistency, simplicity (e.g. online help)

11. Web Content Guidelines (W3C) http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT zAuditory/visual alternatives/not color alone zMarkup and style sheets zNatural language, tables, pages zUser control, access of embedded UIs zDevice independence, interim solutions zW3C technologies, context information zClear navigation and simple documents

12. Conclusions zGuidelines are available zA coherent, complete, well-founded and practical set is lacking zTechniques for application of the guidelines are scarce  Cognitive engineering framework

13. empirical summative analysis design empirical formative analytical formative Assessment Specification implemen- tation flow of spec/assesstask/processflow of iteration Cognitive Engineering (1)

14. practical theory effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction objectives Web-service users, goals, info/ support needs and use context specification assessment data/ info task or process Cognitive Engineering (2)

15. Practical Cognitive Theory Factors that affect Web-navigation: zSpatial ability for mental modeling zMemory capacity for task-set switching zSituation awareness during interaction

16. Theoretical and Empirical Based User Requirements for Elderly

17. Web-Navigation Performance

18. Spatial Ability Mental rotation task  spatial representation

19. Memory Capacity  scheduler and goal creation memory task

20. News Products Introduction FacilitiesDepartments PeopleProjects Request for information Situation Awareness  multi-media, context and goal refinement categorise task

21. Transform User Requirements into Navigation Support for Elderly

22. Analysis zMap user requirements on current support functions zPrioritize according to “Web-service objectives” zEstimate implementation costs  synthesize support concepts

23. Design and Implementation Three support functions: zcategorizing landmarks zhistory map znavigation assistant

24. Evaluation Three usability measures: zeffectiveness zefficiency zsatisfaction

25. Example Satisfaction Results

26. Conclusions zIndividualization of Web-interfaces is needed to realize “Universal Accessibility” zDesign for all results in adaptive interfaces (no “boring uniformity”) zElderly users need more navigation support

27. Internationalisation The Culture is in the Detail

28. Internationalisation zOften referred to as I18N zCould just as well be D16N: Deparochialisation

29. Culture zWe all walk, eat, sleep, talk zCulture is the difference zCultures are everywhere: national, gender, regional, technical...

30. The World Wide Web zThe Web: a European invention (An Englishman and a Dutch-speaking Belgian working on the border between Switzerland and France) zFor the first time Europeans can write their names in a platform-independent way

31. Email and News zEmail and news on the other hand were American inventions zGreeks (and many others) have to use an agreed mapping to communicate with each other

32. User Interfaces User interfaces have three aims zEfficiency zEffectiveness zSatisfaction Transparency Games

33. So why internationalisation? zMake people feel at home zTrust zEven spelling in your own language area zWhy did Toys R Us fail in the Netherlands? zPacking books

34. Are there ‘Cultural’ UI’s? zAaron Marcus 1993 (This is for a European Male)

35. Cultural Interfaces (White American Women)

36. Perhaps there are... zMaybe worth a design competition… Currently: culture is exposed in the details

37. What is American here?

38. Folders

39. Whose computer?

40. Pay attention to the detail For instance: zAddresses zDates zBeeps zLanguages zCurrency zIcons

41. Addresses (stupid stupid) zDon’t require fields that not everyone has zDon’t impose an order on the fields

42. Dates zDon’t use all number formats 12/10/2000 is ambiguous zDon’t require users to use your format (they’ll surely get it wrong)

43. Beeps zBeware of generating beeps from an application

44. Languages (and not flags) zDon’t use a French flag to represent the French language: there are many languages in France, and there are many other countries that speak French. (And the same for all other flags)

45. Currency zMakes the user feel at home.

46. Icons zCan be insulting zMost combination of hand/finger positions is an insult somewhere in the world, even ‘Thumbs up’! zAvoid visual puns, ‘run’, ‘step’, ‘save’, ‘change’, even ‘server’

47. The Role of Colours Don’t assume meanings to colours that you would expect. zBlack/white zRed/green

48. Characters zDon’t assume standard meanings to characters z“?” vs “;” vs “i” z#

49. Greek version

50. French version

51. Characters zCheckbox: “x” can mean “no”, tick doesn’t necessarily mean yes zThis is a tick on homework in the Netherlands:

52. Conclusion zCulture is in the details zBeing aware of the issues is an important first step zMaking the user feel at home builds trust