This is Broken

Mark Hurst at Good Experience has launched a web site illustrating cases of bad design for both online and offline experiences. Much in the spirit of Norman's The Design of Everyday Things visitors can submit photographs and accounts of bad experiences from poor design.

Link:
www.thisisbroken.com

Peter Merholz and Nathan Shedroff on User-Centered Design

Nate Shedroff: User-centered Design is an approach (with many variations) to creating experiences (whether products, interfaces, events, or other media) for people with their needs in mind. Usability is one of the primary focii but only one of several. Others include usefulness, desirability, legibility, learnability, etc. The benefits are that these experiences are often easier to use and learn; more appropriate in terms of functions and use, and more compatible with existing processes.

Good overview article on UCD process. Also, some info on benefits and shortcomings of heuristic reviews.

Link:
http://www.digital-web.com/interviews/interview_2002-10.shtml

The right way to do (code) pop-ups

a href="http://google.com/" onclick="window.open (this.href, 'popupwindow', 'width=400,height=300,scrollbars,resizable'); return false;"

This allows a right-click to open in new window if needed, and also allows user to bookmark the pop-up. Standard javascript pop-ups without an href do not allow for this.

Link from:
http://www.youngpup.net/?request=/articles/how-to-create-popups.xml

Software that checks for accessibility while you code

"LIFT-Nielsen Norman Group Edition," a new software product that allows developers to check pages for compliance with usability guidelines as they code. It works with Macromedia Dreamweaver (4.0 or MX) on both Windows and Macintosh. LIFT NN/g checks to ensure that websites are compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium's accessibility guidelines and Section 508 guidelines. It's Jakob Nielsen in a box!

[via ChallisHodge]

Links:
http://www.nngroup.com/reports/accessibility/software/
http://www.w3.org/WAI/
http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/guide/act.htm

Bonnie Nardi

Anthropologist and general brainiac concerned with how users interact with technology.

Link:
http://www.darrouzet-nardi.net/bonnie/
Her contact map
http://www.izix.com/pro/lightweight/contactmap.php

Usability Heuristic Tool

Poster/paper from the UK: A usability tool for web evaluation applied to digital library design.

Link:
http://www9.org/final-posters/poster60.html

Nice look at proposed tool:

Good example of heuristic review

At 37 signals

Fitt's Law

http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html
The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target.

Study on Common e-commerce objects

Michael Bernard has conducted two studies, which sought to better understand users’ expectations concerning the location of common objects on web sites and E-commerce site.

Some of the findings show that people expect:
- Links back to the front page to be located top-left of a page
- Internal links to be placed along the left side and external links along the right
- Shopping cart, account and help to be located along the top-right side
- Login to be placed top-left
Links:
The article Developing Schemas for the Location of Common Web Objects

The article Examining User Expectations for the Location of Common E-Commerce Web Objects

Thanks to:
Henrik Olsen

what's with the anthroplogists?

http://www.incent.com/community/design_corner/02_0524arch.html

more about testing from macromedia

great article on UCD process. this guys looks like he knows what he's doing. Jared Braiterman, Ph.D. www.jaredresearch.com

once again, don't make me think Henrik Olsen in Denmark has published great introductory article on the value of usability and prototype testing. Suggested audience: project managers, business managers and strategists, others with limited IA or usability experience. The Bottom-line of Prototyping and Usability Testing MORE...