Userfocus Usability Newsletter

247 web usability guidelines

david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:55:36 GMT

Although designing usable systems requires far more than simply applying guidelines, guidelines can still make a significant contribution to usability by promoting consistency and good practice. We use this list of guidelines in our consultancy work. For best results, remember to interpret the guideline in context: this requires a bit more thought but ensures you will get a lot more from your review. You can also download the guidelines as an Excel workbook.

Usability Test Moderation: The Comic

david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:25:36 GMT

If you've been tasked with running a usability test, then you'll love this instructional guide. Aimed at people about to moderate their first usability test, this free graphic instruction guide covers the essential techniques you'll need to moderate a usability test.

What every usability test moderator ought to know about good listening

gret.higgins@userfocus.co.uk (Gret Higgins) — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:25:16 GMT

Moderation seems effortless but there’s a lot more to good listening than opening your ears. Here are 15 suggestions to improve your own listening skills.

The rule of 5: How to create a usability test highlights video you can be proud of

david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:25:16 GMT

There’s no shortage of software that will record videos from usability tests, but how do you put the clips together in a way that will convince management and the design team to take action on your results? Our solution is to use the rule of 5: create 5 separate highlights videos each focusing on one usability issue, with each issue comprising 5 clips and with each video lasting 5 minutes or less.

Two measures that will justify any design change

david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:25:16 GMT

Two measures commonly taken in a usability test -- success rate and time on task -- are the critical numbers you need to prove the benefits of almost any potential design change. These values can be re-expressed in the language that managers understand: the expected financial benefit.

Creating a usability dashboard

david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:05:00 GMT

We're often told that senior managers don't have the time to read a detailed report describing the findings from a usability test. This means our thoroughly argued, carefully analysed and clearly presented 60-page report could have no effect on improving the product or changing the culture. How can we better engage managers with our data?

New standards in usability

david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 09:05:00 GMT

2008 saw the release of several international usability standards, many within the influential ISO 9241 series. Two of these standards focus on accessibility and another provides guidelines for usable web sites. This article explains why usability standards are important and summarises the 13 new parts of ISO 9241.

Shopping basket usability: Nine tests for a usable checkout

helpdesk@userfocus.co.uk (Phillip Gardiner) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:05:00 GMT

With consumer budgets tightening, retailers need to fix every potential leak in their e-commerce site. Many sites lose customers during the series of screens that appear after the customer clicks the checkout button. We've observed hundreds of e-commerce sessions in our usability labs and the best performing sites demonstrate these 9 features.

Writing the perfect participant screener

david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:05:00 GMT

"Know thy user" is the first principle of usability, so it's important that you involve the right kind of people in your usability study. These 8 tips for screening participants will show you how to recruit articulate, representative users for your research, quickly filter out the people you don't want and help you avoid the dreaded "no show".

Credit-Crunch Usability: 10 ways to maximise your usability budget

philip.hodgson@userfocus.co.uk (Philip Hodgson) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Being frugal during economic hard times is good business practice. So how can you squeeze your usability budget and still deliver great insights? These 10 suggestions for streamlining your usability efforts explode the myth that usability is expensive and time-consuming.

How to run an unmoderated usability test

david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:00:00 GMT

In an unmoderated usability test, a computer automates the process of administering a usability test. This means you can test with much larger samples than with a conventional test, calculate reliable measures of usability and feel confident that you're capturing your customer's context of use.

Site visit interviews: from good to great

gret.higgins@userfocus.co.uk (Gret Higgins) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:00:00 GMT

Site visits are the best method we have of gaining real insight into the way customers work — to understand what customers do, rather than what they say they do. But to get the most from a site visit you need to polish your interviewing skills. Great interviewers show 5 characteristics from which we can learn.

Morae for Usability Practitioners

david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:00:00 GMT

Targeted at both new and experienced users of Morae, Morae for Usability Practitioners is a step-by-step guide to using Morae 2 to plan, execute and analyse usability tests. Packed with insider tips and expert advice, this guide will help you use Morae to its full potential.

Layout grids for Axure

gret.higgins@userfocus.co.uk (Gret Higgins) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT

Designed for use with Axure RP Pro 5, this resource will help you layout prototype web pages using the 960-grid system.

Measuring the usability of everyday products

david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:03:00 GMT

ISO have released a new standard for measuring the usability of every day products, like ticket machines, mobile phones and digital cameras. This standard, ISO 20282, includes test methods for quantifying the usability of consumer products to ensure they meet a pre-defined quality level. This development is exciting because the standard's focus on usability measurement reflects a sea change in the evolving practice of usability. In the old world, usability specialists just found usability problems with a design. In the new world, usability specialists also answer the question: 'How usable is this design?'

Data collection for usability research

todd.zazelenchuk@userfocus.co.uk (Todd Zazelenchuk) — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:03:00 GMT

How should you go about collecting data in usability tests? This article examines the data collection process in usability studies and describes some popular data logging solutions. Since most of these tools are expensive, we show you how you can use Microsoft Excel with Visual Basic macros to collect the data.

SPSS: Statistics for the mathematically challenged

tendayi.viki@userfocus.co.uk (Tendayi Viki) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:03:00 GMT

Many people enjoy behavioural research, whether it's running a usability test, fielding a survey or observing people doing their jobs. Finding things out and making new discoveries excites our natural human curiosity. But when faced with the task of analysing the data behind the research, many people feel their excitement drain away. Most of us are not excellent mathematicians and the notion of using data to test scientific hypotheses can be intimidating. But data analysis is an important aspect of virtually all research. So how can you overcome a fear of maths to learn how to use statistics?

Usability Datalogger v5.0

todd@zazelenchuk.com (Todd Zazelenchuk) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:03:00 GMT

Most people use Microsoft Excel to analyse the results of usability tests, but did you know you can use it to collect the data too? This spreadsheet allows you to measure task completion rates, analyse questionnaire data, and summarise participant comments. It even includes a timer so you can measure time-on-task. The spreadsheet is highly customisable.

Measuring satisfaction: Beyond the usability questionnaire

david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 10:00:00 GMT

Most usability tests culminate with a short questionnaire that asks the participant to rate, usually on a 5- or 7-point scale, various characteristics of the system. Experience shows that participants are reluctant to be critical of a system, no matter how difficult they found the tasks. This article describes a guided interview technique that overcomes this problem and includes a spreadsheet to generate and randomise the word list.

Measuring usability with the Common Industry Format (CIF)

philip.hodgson@userfocus.co.uk (Philip Hodgson) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:00:00 GMT

Are you a CIO, purchasing officer, or IT manager, about to invest in productivity software for your company? If you are, here's a question you should ask your supplier before you sign on the dotted line: "Just how usable is this product?" Astonishingly, most companies won't be able to answer, and those that try will answer the question only vaguely. But now help is at hand. It's called CIF. And it's about to change the game.

Dragons' Den Usability

david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 10:00:00 GMT

It's easy to get caught up in the promise of new technologies and lose sight of the fundamental issues that make a product successful. By listening to the questions venture capitalists pose when reviewing new products we can develop a checklist to assess the viability of a new product idea.