Prioritizing Web UsabilityNielsen and Loranger

Chapter 3: Revisiting Early Web Usability Findings

Paul Ammann

http://cs.gmu.edu/~pammann/

SWE 432

Design and Implementation of Software for the Web

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Overview

• Eight Problems that Haven’t Changed

• Technological Change: Its Impact on Usability

• Adaptation: How Users Have Influenced Usability

• Restraint: How Designers Have Alleviated Usability Problems

34 Usability Problems:

Improved vs. Irrelevant vs. More Important Than Ever

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Eight Problems That Haven’t Changed

• Links That Don’t Change Color When Visited• Breaking the Back Button• Opening New Browser Windows• Pop-Up Windows• Design Elements That Look Like Advertising• Violating Web-Wide Conventions• Vaporous Content and Empty Hype• Dense Content and Unscannable Text

Why Do We Still Do These Things?

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1: Links That Don’t Change Color When Visited

• Users Need to Understand– Where They Have Been

– Where They Are

– Where They Can Go

• Users Go in Circles If They Lose The Past• 74% of Sites Comply With Guideline

– 26% Are Still Deficient!

• Exception: Command Oriented Functionality– If Users Want To Repeat Actions, Links Can Stay The Same

Color

Support User’s Need To Be Oriented

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2: Breaking The Back Button• “Undo” Support Is a Basic Usability Requirement• Repeated “Back” vs. Pull Down History List• Second Most Used Feature in Web Browsing• Benefits:

– Back is Always Available

– Recognition is Better than Recall

– The Back Button is a Large (and Fast) Target

• Ways to Break the Back Button– Hiding the “Chrome”

– Opening a New Brower Window

– Redirects Embedded in Web Pages

“Back” is the User’s Lifeline

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3: Opening New Browser Windows• Opening A New Window Breaks the Back Button

– But Doesn’t Effectively Trap Users On Your Site

• Multiple Windows Present Multiple Usability Problems– Disrupts Expected User Experience

– Pollutes User’s Work Space

– Hampers Ability To Return To Visited Pages

– Obscures Window User Is Working In

– Can Make User Believe Links Are Inactive

• Users Can Always Right Click For A New Window• Exception

– PDF and Similar Documents

Leave New Windows Up to the User

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4: Pop-Up Windows

• Consider Pop-Up Blockers– A Clear Indication That Users Hate Pop-Ups

• Many Users Close Pop-Ups Before Seeing the Content• Closing a Pop-Up Invariably Requires The Mouse• Evil Pop-Ups Form The Vast Majority• Pop-Ups Are Especially Hard For Certain Users• Theoretical Legitimate Use For Pop-Ups

– Provide Supplementary Info While Keeping Workspace Clear

Don’t Use Them

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5: Design Elements That Look Like Advertisements

• Users Automatically Filter Out Anything That Looks Like An Ad– Basic Self-Defense Mechanism

– Includes Anything Shaped Like A Banner

– Anything Flashing

– Anything That is Too Big

• Users Usually Look For Text– Because That’s Where Most Links Are

User Behavior Evolves As The Environment Changes

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6: Violating Web-Wide Conventions

• Users Spend Most Time On Other Web Sites– Expectations For Your Site Set By Other Sites

• Example: Zinc Bistro– Things That Look Clickable Should be Clickable

– Don’t Hide Links in Weird Places

User’s Don’t Care About You; They Want Your Data

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7: Vaporous Content and Empty Hype

• Basic Marketing– Sell The Benefits, Not the Features

• Search Engine Optimization– Concrete Text Leads To Better Rankings

• Example: Mont Blanc

Fluffy Language Drives Users Away AND Hides Your Site

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8: Dense Content and Unscannable Text

• Unpacking Dense Text is Hard Work– Users are Lazy

• Government Sites Are Prime Offenders– Example: Social Security Answer Desk

• Web Text Should be Short, Scannable, and Approachable– Write Half (or a Quarter) as Many Words For Web as for Print

This is Really Hard to Do, But it’s Important

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Technological Change: Its Impact on Usability

• Slow Download Time• Frames• Flash• Low-Relevancy Search Listings• MultiMedia and Long Videos• Frozen Layouts• Cross Platform Incompatibility

Less Important Today Because of Better Browsers, More Bandwidth, or Other Internet Technology

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Adaptation: How Users Have Influenced Usability

• Uncertain Clickability• Links that Aren’t Blue• Scrolling• Registration• Complex URLs• Pull-Down and Cascading Menus

Less Important Today Because Users Know More

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Restraint: How Designers Have Alleviated Usability Problems

• Plug-Ins and Bleeding Edge Technologies• 3D User Interfaces• Bloated Design• Splash Pages• Moving Graphics and Scrolling Text• Custom GUI Widgets• Not Disclosing Who’s Behind Information

Web Designers Are Getting Smarter

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Restraint: How Designers Have Alleviated Usability Problems (2)

• Made-Up Words• Outdated Content• Inconsistency Within a Web Site• Premature Requests for Personal Information• Multiple Sites• Orphan Pages

Web Designers Are Getting Smarter