Web Usability
description
Transcript of Web Usability
Web Usability
A simple illustration
Example: WebVoyage Timeout Utility Lets an opac user know how much
time is remaining in session (bottom bar)
A pop-up enables user to restart timer and/or session
Created by Jim Robinson,Tarrant County College
Consists of JavaScript apps & a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)
Open source, therefore configurable
Default pop-ups
Lots of web usability advice out there
Just one of many, many, many, books…
Usability Guidelines1 (for this exercise) Krug’s first law of usability: “Don’t
make me think!” Close contender to first law: “Get rid
of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left.”
Fact of life #1: “We don’t read pages. We scan them.”
1. From Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability” 2nd Edition
Guidelines #2 1
Keep your texts short Users scan text and
pick out keywords...
1. From Jakob Nielsen’s “Designing Web Usability”
Default pop-ups
Usability Guidelines1 (for this exercise) Krug’s first law of usability: “Don’t
make me think!” Close contender to first law: “Get rid
of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left.”
Fact of life #1: “We don’t read pages. We scan them.”
1. From Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability” 2nd Edition
Web usability - applied
22 words
6 words
Which button should I click?“Don’t make me think!”
One (self explanatory) choice
Button text
Aesthetics1. Removed table border2. Even spacing
“We don’t read pages, we scan them.”
"Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left."
Web usability - applied
22 words
4 words
Which button should I click?“Don’t make me think!”
One (self explanatory) choice
Tweaked pop-ups