Usability Guidelines from the Yale University Library
We've come a long way from the days of 'you must learn our system in order to use it'. From the Usability Guidelines at Yale University Library:FactorExamplesSimplicity. Scale back features and...
View ArticleYes, Virginia, in Interface Design, There are Winners & Losers
Usability is a major objective for Drupal 7, the new upcoming version -- so much so that they've set up a site entirely devoted to it called, 'Drupal 7 User Experience Project' -- or 'D7UX.org' for...
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Current Reading: 'User-Centered Library Websites: Usability Evaluation Methods'
'User-Centered Library Websites: Usability Evaluation Methods' by Carol A. George finally came in.It sounded a bit basic but I thought I'd give it a look. It's listed as "Temporarily out of stock" at...
View ArticleWhy I Love Task Analysis
So we were developing some survey or the other and I thought I'd try it on a couple real live students before releasing it to the world.Our first real-live student (guinea pig) comes in and is...
View ArticleThe World is not (only) a Search Box
Interesting conclusion from a round of usability testing by Gerry McGovern:The larger the website, the more important it becomes to have quality search. However, the foundation of all great websites...
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MetaFilter - Happy 12th Anniversary!
MetaFilter was the original community blog. It's where everyone went to discuss everything from web design to politics. Last week it celebrated its 12th Anniversary.The site was originally put together...
View ArticleSearch Box Syndrome
We've been here before -- from a usability study looking at how students use (or don't use as the case may be) various library database pages:In 2006, Steve Krug said internet users were mostly looking...
View ArticleDraft BBC Mobile Accessibility Standards and Guidelines
Draft BBC Mobile Accessibility Standards and Guidelines:http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/posts/Accessibility-Mobile-AppsInteresting that they worked with a firm from "the States" (USA! USA!). A...
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QOTD: Not Your Grandmother's Horse-Drawn Tractor
UX Quote of the Day*:"The designers of the Phelps farm tractor in 1901 based their interface on a metaphor with the interface for the familiar horse: farmers used reins to control the tractor. The...
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Dumb 'Security' Idea About to Be Axed by Bank of America - Finally
Well, it took them a while but Bank of America is finally saying 'bye-bye' to a particularly ineffective form of online security called 'SiteKey'. Probably better known as a 'security image', the idea...
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Usability-Thursdays
MPOW: I set up shop at the computer lab in the Student Center and then hustled out to the hallway to ask students if they had time to test out a page. Some had to go to class. Others said yes (8 in...
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Holiday Readings
Ethan Marcotte on the inadvisability of setting up a purely mobile site:"...Fragmenting our content across different 'device-optimized' experiences is a losing proposition, or at least an unsustainable...
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First Books of 2017
Actually I've had the 'Handbook of Usability Testing' for years -- the first edition, that is.
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Current Cites for Sept. 2019
Current Cites for Sept. 2019 is out! You can find the issue here...Usability studies on the effectiveness of library research guides are popping up all over the place. The one I recommended appeared in...
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