web usability....

having done a course at uni on HCI and usability... I've leart a lot about how people use the Internet, and their perceptions of websites....

I thought it might be a good topic to discuss peoples web design ideas...... to share what people think is the "perfect" web site design for users...

I personally think that you.....

a. must have "alt" tags on images for blind users....
b. must have great navigation
c. must tell users exactly what they are about to do... with links etc.

there are loads of other things, but having a website that is simple to use is essential. Like I've said before, you've got to treat people like they are "Internet Virgins" ..... as if they have never surfed the net before......

what do others think about this???

ps... some good sites for usability are:

www.useit.com - jacob Neilsons web useability website...

http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp - Bobby is a web standard which checks for elements on your website such as alt tags.... etc...... check your site out for the standard!!

I personally recomment Jacob Neilson, as we studied his theories in great detail in HCI concepts.....

what do others think of creating a web standard in authoring??

Hi,
Well, I think that in general, Neilson has some good points. However, I think his proposal that "Design is Dead" is fundamentally flawed. Design speaks to our emotional gut... which acts as a pre-logical information filter... Neilson's site is a prime example of this.. I've heard many people say that it's hard to accept his theories because his site is so ugly... is his site an example of design ugliness that usability professionals aspire to?? Probably not, but it's an important point to remember.

In other words, I do believe that design is the first step in usability: an ugly site is difficult to absorb regardless of the quality of information on it.

Accessibility is an excellent baseline from which to measure usability.

that's pretty true actually... his web site is rather "old" and "ugly" looking!!

I agree that a good website starts from the design... people tend to simply write a website in their editor and publish it, having never done any design..... you wouldnt build a car, or a house like that!!

this website shows you some examples of what not to do with your website: http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com


On another note, this site ( http://www.baddesigns.com/ ) is quite funny... it's examples of bad product design ..... I think this website could use some neatening up!!

i always recommend a link on every page of your site to return you to the main page.

yeah I agree..... I always try and tell the user where they are, and how they got there..... eg:

Home > Products > Electircal > Microwaves

There's nothing worse for a user if they feel lost. If you dont tell them where they are...... they'll soon get lost and probably not use your site thinking it was "too hard to use"!!

Matt:

I agree with letting the user know where they are... Either by using a "directory" structure you mentioned, or even by using a header on the top of the page. It's a simple solution. Another would be to use an alternate color for the page link they are currently on.

As for the comment made about design... I agree completely. Although I agree that web standards need to be followed more carefully, there's nothing that irritates me more than when a site, that may follow web standards, has a horrible design. If I have to sacrifice standards for design, I'll have no regrets in doing so.

It's suprising how many sites don't adhere to usability guidelines. They are not hard to implement, so it must be that people aren't aware of them. All they'd have to do is read a couple of books to get the general concepts down (Nielsen's Designing Web Usability, Krug's Don't Make Me Think and Morville and Rosenfeld's Information Architecture for the World Wide Web).

I think in addition to considering web usability (i.e., consistent and descriptive labelling, navigation scheme indicating where the user is in relation to the web and the site, etc.), site designers also must consider straight usability. By that I mean, is their site usable - can the user easily perform the task they need to do (i.e., buy plane tickets). A lot of problems would be addressed by doing some user testing.

I don't think that design has to be sacrified for web usability. I think you can still make a nice looking site that adheres to web usability guidelines. And, by creating a consistent graphical look & feel, you're actually enhancing usability.

Ahhh - I love this topic. Design vs. Usability (with regards to websites). It's been going on since hyperlinking was invented. There were two schools of thinking when it came to labelling your hyperlinks.

One group thought that you should label the link with the address of where it'll take you (following a description).

The others were the "click here" mob.

Personally, I'm a click here kinda guy. Maybe that's just cos it's company policy. lol

It's funny that Jacob Neilson site is about design (or lack of) and usability - as c_madrone says, it's ugly! As soon as I saw it, I said, I'm not even going to bother reading it. Maybe that's just cos I'm a lefty, and if something is not aesthetically pleasing for me to look at, then I won't use it. e.g. Linux. (don't flame me, I'm just being arrogant.)...

Sure, there are a lot of standards you should follow when building a site, and by now (8 or so years since browser have been around), many principle idea's are in place. But if you don't make your site aesthetically appealing, then what will separate it from the other billion pages of plain-jane crap out on the web?

As a side note, I think DevArticles is one of the best looking dev site out there!

I consider my collegue Steve Krug as a brilliant Web Usability Specialist. And I would like to recommend his book here, which I consider as one of the best in the market, which may be found here: http://www.sensible.com/

For accessibility evaluations, I would like to advice here, that Bobby is no more the best validator. He appear's to have problems with validating "null alt tags" etc. It would be suggested using CynthiaSays found here: http://www.cynthiasays.com/

I though have created a full accessible page with the above and other validators, which is worth to have a visit: http://www.webnauts.net/check.html

Books for Web Usability

1. Don't make me think - Web Usability, by Steve Krug
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0789723107/

2. Web Usability & Navigation - A Beginner's Guide, by Merlyn Holmes
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0072192615/

3. The Elements of User Experience, by Jesse James Garrett
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735712026/

4. Usability: The Site Speaks For Itself, by Braun and others
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904151035/

5. Designing Web Usability : The Practice of Simplicity, by Jakob Nielsen
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/156205810X/

6. Usability for the Web - Designing Web Sites that Work, by Tom Brinck and others
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1558606580/

7. User-Centered Web Design, by John Cato
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201398605/

8. Web Site Usability: A Designer's Guide, by Jared Spool, and others
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/155860569x/

9. Cost Justifying Usability, by Randolf G Bias
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0120958104/

10. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 2nd Edition, by L. Rosenfeld & P. Morville
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596000359/

11. Information Architecture - Blueprints for the Web, by Christine Wodtke
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735712506/

12. Web Style Guide, 2nd Edition, by P. Lynch & S. Horton
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300088981/

13. E-Commerce Usability: Tools and Techniques to Perfect the On-Line Experience
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...l/-/0415258340/

Do you want to learn how to make build usable web sites?

Here are some valuable tutorials to get started:

1. Designing Web Usability: http://wdvl.internet.com/Authoring/...lity/index.html

2. Usability 101: http://www.webusability.com/training2.htm

3. Criteria for optimal web design (designing for usability), by Michael L Bernard: http://psychology.wichita.edu/optimalweb/default.htm

4. Professional Website Usability, by Lauren Kirby: http://www.sitepoint.com/article/223

5. Information and Design: http://www.infodesign.com.au/usabil...ces/default.asp

6. Principles and strategies for practitioners designing universally usable sites: http://www.otal.umd.edu/UUPractice/

7. Usability: How to Make a Good Design Brilliant, by Karen Jessett of Jessett.com: http://www.coolhomepages.com/cda/usability/

Some useful resourses to your point above:

Breadcrumb Navigation: An Exploratory Study of Usage: http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/.../breadcrumb.htm

Breadcrumb Navigation: Further Investigation of Usage: http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/.../breadcrumb.htm (update)

Website Breadcrumbs by Dr. Bob Bailey: http://www.webusability.com/usabili...dcrumbs2003.htm

Navigation Bars for Hierarchical Web Sites: http://www.otal.umd.edu/SHORE2001/navBar/index.html
_________________