Making The Site Easy to Use
Usability is a function of the relationships between information architecture, the graphical user interface and computer human interface, general graphic design, and many other subtle characteristics of the web site or software. The impact of usability can affect the success of a site in many ways. It can be measured with rule of thumb techniques, or by engineering studies, but is to a great extent quantifiable, as qualities go.
What would you measure? One aspect of usability is the speed with which your site loads in the browser. Another is the availability of information measured in how many times people find what they are looking for versus how many times they do not. Yet another is the clarity of navigation functions: does clicking a certain button actually do what most people think it would. These and many other factors can contribute to whether people stay on your site, return for additional visits, or go away and never come back.
Improving Usability...
Methods of organizing information on your site often have an impact on the GUI... The GUI has an impact on finding information, and the architecture affects navigation. It is obvious when these things are considered, that Usability is related to information architecture and graphical user interface design. But how do we know when a site is "usable"? What makes a site "user friendly"? How do we improve the ease of use of our site? Is usability a science or an art? What are reasonable compromises?
This area of the site contains articles, notes, and links to other resources that will help you answer these questions. |
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AWM Resource Area Sponsors |
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Resource Links
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alt.hypertext Frequently Asked Questions - some of the most frequently asked questions in the alt.hypertext newsgroup (+info)
Developer resources at Sun Microsystems - Java, Forums, tools, and more. (+info)
Dr, Dobb's Reference - Software tools, guides, etc. (+info)
GUI Design, some high level ideas - By Owen Ransen of Ransen Software. (+info)
High-Tech Anthropology at the Melon Institute - It is possible to create new and innovative software products that dominate a marketplace. You can create great products with features your customers will want to buy and your users will want to use. (+info)
Human Factors Internations GUI Articles - Also includes articles on Usability, Menus, Accessibility, and other User Interface issues. (+info)
Hypermedia structures and systems - Dr. PME De Bra discusses details of hypermedia strucures and systems (+info)
Jakob Nielsen: Is Navigation Useful? - users look straight at the content and ignore the navigation areas (+info)
Mailing List: CHI WEB - Computer Human Interface email list... very professional, very interesting, very much "applied" -- sponsored by ACM (+info)
Rapid Navigation in Online Documents - An in depth discussion of navigation issues (+info)
The problem(s) with sitemaps - An article on dealing with site maps (+info)
The Usability Guru: Jakob Nielsen - The ultimate authority on web site usability, Jakob Nielsen, has a site called Useit.com... this is it... (+info)
Usability News - A newsletter of the Software Usability Research Laboratory at Wichita State University (+info)
Web Bloopers: The worst in interface design - Web Bloopers showcases examples of poor web interface design from real web sites (+info)
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Web Usability
