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Human Computer Interaction
Week 10Web Usability
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Introduction
Usability rules the Web The Web is the ultimate customer
empowering environment All the competitors (Other Web
Sites) in the world are but a mouse-click away
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Fundamental Errors in Web Design (1)
Business Model Treating the Web as a Marcom brochure
instead of a fundamental shift that changes the way of conducting business.
Project Management Managing a Web project as a traditional
project, leads to an internally focused design. Instead, a website should be managed as a single customer-interface project.
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Fundamental Errors in Web Design (2)
Information Architecture Structuring the site to mirror the company’s
structure. Instead, the site should be structured to mirror the users’ tasks and their views of the information space.
Page Design Creating gorgeous demo pages, resulting in
response-time delays. Instead, design for an optimal user experience even your demo will be less “cool”.
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Fundamental Errors in Web Design (3)
Content Authoring Writing in linear style. Instead write in a
new style that is optimized for online readers who frequently scan text.
Linking Strategy Treating your site as the only one.
Instead, remember that hypertext is the foundation of the Web and that no site is an island.
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Web Usability Page Design
The most immediately visible part of web design.
Content Design Users visit your website for its content.
Everything else is just the backdrop. Site Design
Never explicitly represented on the screen. But from a usability perspective, site design is more challenging.
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Web pages should be dominated by content of interest to the user.
Many sites spend more screen space on navigation than they do on the information.
Navigation is a necessary evil that is not a goal and should be minimized.
Page Design (1)
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Page Design (2)
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Page Design (3)
Designer have to be considerate of users with small screens, but there is no need to suffer in your own use of the Web.
Users are rarely on a site to enjoy the design; instead, they prefer to focus on the content.
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Page Design (4)
Simplicity should be the goal of page design.
Ensure that page designs work across a wide range of platforms and they can be accessed by people who use old technology.
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Content Design (1) Ultimately, users visit your website
for its content. Everything else is just the backdrop.
The design is there to allow people access to the content.
Analogy: When people leave the theatre, they are discussing how great the play was and not how great the costumes were.
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Content Design (2)
When users get to a new page, they look immediately in the main content area of the page and scan it for head lines and other indications of what the page is about.
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Guidelines for Writing for Web
The main guidelines: Be succinct. Write for scannability. Use hypertext.
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Site Design (1)
The site itself is never explicitly represented on the screen.
From a usability perspective, site design is more challenging and usually also more important than page design.
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Site Design (2)
“Under Construction”
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Site Design (3)
All websites are always under construction.
Don’t tell users what you don’t have. That’s only frustrating.
Don’t release a partially finished website.
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Home Page
Home page is the flagship of the site and should be designed differently from the remaining pages.
Should share the same style but there are differences.
Don’t have a Home button. Should have a larger logo, company
name, or site name.
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The Goal of Home Page
Answering two questions:1. Where am I?2. What does this site do?
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Three Features of Home Page
Main Content Areas (Navigation) Summary of the most important
news or promotions Search feature.
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Navigation
The Web is a navigational system. The basic interaction is mouse clicking. Navigation interfaces need to help
users answer the three fundamental questions:1. Where am I?2. Where have I been?3. Where can I go?
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Site Structure
Hierarchical Structure Tabular Structure Linear Structure
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Search Capabilities
Nielsen (2000): 50% search-dominant users. 20% link-dominant users. The rest are mixed-behavior users.
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Summary
Simplicity. HOME-RUN Websites:
(H)igh-quality content (O)ften updated (M)inimal download time (E)ase of use (R)elevant to users’ needs (U)nique to the online medium (N)etcentric corporate culture
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Further Reading
Nielsen, J. 2000, Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity, New Riders Publishing
