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Trisha Gao's Library tagged usability →  View Popular

05 Oct 08

Usability: the key to manufacturing ERP success - SA Instrumentation & Control

  • A software solution that scores high in usability will shorten implementation timeframes and reduce the amount of training required to go live.
11 Jun 07

The Effect of Typeface on the Perception of Email

  • Shaikh, Chaparro, and Fox (2006) found that Comic Sans was perceived as happier,
    more cuddly, younger, and more passive than Calibri.
  • the typeface that was lower in appropriateness led participants to conclude that
    the author was a lower level trainee employee
  • 3 more annotations...
10 Jun 07

Older adults' attitudes towards and perceptions of 'smart home' technologies: a pilot study - Medical Informatics & The Internet in Medicine

  • The study aim is to explore the perceptions and expectations of seniors in regard to 'smart home' technology installed and operated in their homes with the purpose of improving their quality of life and/or monitoring their health status.
  • Three focus group sessions were conducted
  • 6 more annotations...
29 Nov 06

Readability of Fonts in the Windows Environment

  • The readability of twelve different fonts and sizes in the Microsoft Windows
    environment was studied. The specific fonts were Arial, MS Sans Serif, MS Serif,
    and Small Fonts. Their sizes ranged from 6.0 to 9.75 points. These were
    presented using black text on either a white or gray background and either bold
    or non-bold style. There were significant differences between the various
    font/size combinations in terms of reading speed, accuracy, and subjective
    preferences. There were no consistent differences as a result of background
    color or boldness. The most preferred fonts were Arial and MS Sans Serif at
    9.75. Most of the fonts from 8.25 to 9.75 performed well in terms of reading
    speed and accuracy, with the exception of MS Serif at 8.25. Arial at 7.5 and
    both of the Small Fonts (6.0 and 6.75) should generally be avoided
31 Aug 06

Clarifying Search: A User-Interface Framework for Text Searches

  • a four-
    phase framework for user-interface design: the framework provides common structure and terminology for
    searching while preserving the distinct features of individual collections and search mechanisms.

Mental Models For Search Are Getting Firmer (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

  • Don't use a "Search" button for parametric search.

    • Users expect search to have three components:

      • A box where they can type words
      • A button labeled "search" that they click to run the search
      • A list of top results that's linear, prioritized, and appears on a new page -- the search engine results page (SERP)

Search: Visible and Simple (Alertbox)

  • First Results Page is Golden


    • If you choose to use scoped search, I recommend following a few basic rules:

      • Set the default search scope to "all" (search the entire site).
      • When the user chooses a narrow search scope, explicitly state the scope at the top of the results page.
      • Offer one-click access to enlarge the scope. It is especially important to give users a highly visible way of searching the entire site if their scoped search fails to return any results.
      • If a search returns too many results, give users suggestions for limiting the scope.
  • 8 more annotations...

Search User Interface and User Experience - SearchTools Report

    • Put a simple, reasonably long search field on every page of the site.



    • Use simple words to explain the process: remove all jargon and technical
      terms, and make sure that any icons have labels.



    • Avoid inventing a new interface, which will confuse users: take the best
      of the formats of the large public search engines



    • Make the search forms and results pages fit into the overall design of
      the web site: they should use the same colors, fonts and so on.



    • Include site names and navigation links into results pages, so users can
      see the context and structure of the site.



    • Set up a special page to be displayed when the search does not find any
      matches in the index (see No-Matches Page
      Guidelines      )



    • Avoid surprises: clarify all automated search features, such as stemming,
      phonetic matching, thesaurus lookups and stopwords (see Glossary).

Search Usability (Alertbox July 1997)


  • Our usability studies show that more than half of all users are search-dominant, about a fifth of the users are link-dominant, and the rest exhibit mixed behavior. The search-dominant users will usually go straight for the search button when they enter a website: they are not interested in looking around the site; they are task-focused and want to find specific information as fast as possible. In contrast, the link-dominant users prefer to follow the links around a site: even when they want to find specific information, they will initially try to get to it by following promising links from the home page. Only when they get hopelessly lost will link-dominant users admit defeat and use a search command. Mixed-behavior users switch between search and link-following, depending on what seems most promising to them at any given time but do not have an inherent preference.

  • Despite the primacy of search, webdesign still needs to grounded in a strong sense of structure and navigation support: all pages must make it clear where they fit in the larger scheme of the site. First, there is obviously a need to support those users who don't like search or who belong to the mixed-behavior group. Second, users who get to a page through search still need structure to understand the nature of the page relative to the rest of the site. They also need navigation to move around the site in the neighborhood of the page they found by searching: it is rare that a single page holds all the answers or even that the search found the most relevant page, so users need to see related pages.
  • 7 more annotations...
10 Aug 06

UPA: About UPA

    • he Usability Professionals’
      Association supports usability specialists, people from all aspects of
      human-centered design, and the broad family of disciplines that create
      the user experience in promoting the design and development of usable
      products.


      Our goals are to:


      • Provide an international network through which usability
        professionals can share information about the techniques and methodologies
        in the profession.
      • Create an inclusive community for those interested
        in usability, whether it is their primary focus or a related discipline.
      • Change new product development processes to include
        a concern for the people who use them by presenting the business case
        for usability in product development to colleagues, customers, the public
        and governmental agencies.
      • Increase the body of knowledge about usability and
        user-centered design through professional education, meetings and conventions
        and other professional interchanges
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