Web 2.0 Usability

Web 2.0 Usability Shyamala Prayaga 23 October 2008

Agenda What is Usability? Usability principles of web 2.0 Do’s and don’t of Usability Slide

How does users think Users appreciate quality and credibility. Users don’t read, they scan. Web users are impatient and insist on instant gratification. Users don’t make optimal choices. Users follow their intuition. Users want to have control. Slide

Don’t squander users patience Slide

Manage to focus users attention Slide

Strive for feature exposure Letting the user see clearly what functions are available is a fundamental principle of successful user interface design. What matters is that the content is well-understood and visitors feel comfortable with the way they interact with the system. Slide

Strive for simplicity Use as few features as are necessary to achieve what we need Users’ attention is a finite resource, we must fix their attention in the things that are important Slide

Simple navigation Make global navigation visible (large, bold, clean and obvious). It’s important for informing the users about where they are and what options do they have. Slide

Cute icon, simple and clean Icons play an important role in Web 2.0 design. Today we use fewer, better icons that carry more meaning Slide

Usability principles - 1 Slide 7±2 Principle human brain has some limits on its capacity for processing information, it deals with complexity dividing information into chunks and units. According to studies humans’ short term memory can retain only about 5-9 things at one time. This fact is often used as an argument for limiting the number of options in navigation menus to 7

Usability principles - 2 Slide 2-Second-Rule A user shouldn’t need to wait more than 2 seconds for certain types of system response, such as application-switching and application launch time. The less users have to wait, the better is the user experience.

Usability principles - 3 Slide 3-Click-Rule According to this rule users stop using the site if they aren’t able to find the information or access the site feature within 3 mouse clicks. This rule emphasizes the importance of clear navigation, logical structure and easy-to-follow site hierarchy.

Usability principles - 4 Slide 12 80/20 Rule This rule states that 80% of the effects comes from 20% of the causes. This is the basic rule of thumb in business (”80% of your sales comes from 20% of your clients”) but can also be applied to design and usability

Usability principles - 5 Slide 13 Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design Strive for consistency. Enable frequent users to use shortcuts. Offer informative feedback. Design dialog to yield closure. Offer simple error handling. Permit easy reversal of actions. Provide the sense of control. Reduce short-term memory load.

Usability principles - 6 Slide Inverted Pyramid The inverted pyramid is a writing style where the summary of the article is presented in the beginning of the article. This approach makes use of the “waterfall effect” well-known in journalism where writers try to give their readers an instant idea about the topic they’re reporting. The article begins with a conclusion, followed by key points and finally the minor details such as background information.

Captcha Slide Image based authentication

Mysterious Icon Slide Mysterious icon

Pop-ups for content presentation. Slide

Dead End This website welcomes its visitors with a pop-up and a Java-applet . Visitors have to provide some input to start browsing through the site. Slide

Donts … don’t use pop-ups. don’t change users’ window size. don’t use too small font sizes. don’t have unclear link text. don’t have dead links. Slide

Web 2.0 Usability

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