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"The business we're in today ...
is based on an innate understanding of, and empathy for, the experience a
user or customer has when engaging the product, service, or brand we're
creating."
and
"Remember this if you work online: there is no packaging on a website. Online branding should involve
less emphasis on logos and color schemes, and more work on what actually improves things for the customer."
-- by Mark Hurst, in Good Experience
W3C - The World Wide Web Consortium ...
Architecture of the World Wide Web
"Make everything as simple as possible,
but not simpler." -- Albert Einstein
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
-- Antoine de Saint Exupery (French Poet, 1900-1940)
"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple." -- Oscar Wilde
Good Software Takes Ten Years. Get Used To it.
"it takes a long time to write a good program, but when it's done, it's
done. ... After that, nobody can think of a single feature that they really need.
... Failure to understand the ten-year rule leads to crucial business mistakes."
5 questions for your web development team -
"When we purchase a car most of us aren't aware of the underlying technical issues.
Double overhead camshafts, limited slip differential, inline 6 cylinder engine
all mean little to most purchasers. But there are always a number of key issues to address.
What's the mileage? How long is the warranty? How safe is it in an accident?
How does the resale value hold up? Is there a new model due? ...
You should ask the same sort of questions before you invest in a new or improved
web site. You don't need to understand the minutiae of the technology - XHTML,
CSS, SVG, PNG, ECMAScript may mean little to most of you - however these underlying technologies
do have an impact on a number of key issues. ... It's your developers' job to build the site.
But it is your job to understand enough that you make the right decisions about your investment.
If you make the right choices it may be paying dividends several years down the track.
Go down the wrong path and it may cost you a lot more than you think."
Where Are the Flying Cars? -
"By continually mystifying and shrouding computers as the realm of the geek and the nerd
and creating ridiculous user interfaces, they [movies] perpetuate the idea that computers should be
hard to use. The syllogism is that if programmers create hard-to-use applications, they are somehow
creating a sophisticated piece of software. Nothing could be further from the truth -
the GUI is all about simplicity through sophistication."
Users Want
Freedom to Be Wrong -
System designers should understand that users won't let dumb machines decide what risks to take for them.
Now you see it, now you don't - To be truly successful, a complex technology needs to “disappear”
Mobile PC magazine's Top 100 Gadgets of All Time
The Wayback Machine
Browse through 55 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago. To start surfing the Wayback,
type in the web address of a site or page where you would like to start, and press enter.
Then select from the archived dates available. The resulting pages point to other archived pages at as close a date as possible.
The Interface of a Cheeseburger - All things have an interface.
Shaping interfaces is shaping the character of things. The brand is what transports the character of things.
Why Software Sucks (a Dr. Dobb's podcast)
Author David Platt has some theories about why users are
so frustrated with current software. Ultimately, he says, it's all down to losing touch with what users care about.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing
Why so many mainstream software development tools are not as powerful as they theoretically could be.
Nine Rules for Good Technology
As technologies mature they tend to become easier to use, even intuitive. But not all technologies are easy to use,
remaining in the domain of specialists, requiring expertise and patience to operate. ...
What distinguishes a good technology from a stupid technology? The author, a senior researcher
in the Canadian National Research Council, argues that there are some easily identifiable features
which separate the good from the bad, and says that technology should do exactly what you want it to do.
Technology which does something else, either by design or by accident, is not good technology.
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USABILITY & INTERFACE DESIGN
"LESS
IS MORE"
-
Browser Statistics - Who uses what
-
Global Reach
-
OK/Cancel -
"a comic strip ... that focuses on interfaces, good and bad and the people behind the industry
of building interfaces - usability specialists, interaction designers, human-computer interaction (HCI) experts, industrial designers, etc."
-
Internet Vision Technologies
- DesignerVista -
a commercial Graphic User Interface (GUI) design tool for software professionals, analysts, consultants,
usability engineers and project managers. It features a visual editor for creating and modifying GUI mockups,
screenshots, desktop GUI prototypes and simple Web page prototypes.
-
TouchGraph Google Browser
- Enter a web site's URL and "see" that website in the context that
Google sees it - fascinating!
-
PowerPoint presentations a 'disaster' - It is more difficult to process information if it is coming at you in the written and spoken form at the same time.
-
Good Experience
- "Changing the organization
is the most difficult and most important part of user experience
work."
-
Good Experience games
-
This Is Broken
- places, things, and websites that are just "broken"
-
Joining strategy and usability - creating positiver with the Customer Experience Methodology (CEM)
-
The Page Paradigm (of Web site navigation)
USERS DON'T CARE WHERE
THEY ARE IN THE WEBSITE
On any given Web page, users will either...
- Click something that appears to take them closer to the fulfillment of their
goal, or
- Click the Back button on their Web browser
-
Welcome to the Global Village: Some Considerations for Doing Usability in the Global Markets
- the importance of considering local psychology in developing globalized Internet sites
>> Hofstede’s Dimension of Culture Scales
-
The Bollywood Technique (for usability testing)
-
Exercise in Customer Experience
- "In many cases, the focus on the *basics* - customers' basic needs at each moment -
is THE differentiating factor between successful and failing companies. In fact, companies who invest more in the
"wow factor" almost always take resources *away* from focusing on those more important (if visually less exciting) issues."
-
The Basics of Customer Experience - "Basics sell."
-
Introducing the Customer-Centric Worldview
-
Four Words to Improve User Research
and
Tips on Moderating Listening Labs
-
The Paradox of Choice
GripeLog
- "a place where customers of technology products
can air their beefs with vendors and read about the problems and issues other customers are raising."
Annoyances.org
Webcredible
Stanford University's
Web Credibility Project
- You are asked to view two Web sites, so that you can make a reasonable evaluation,
then to evaluate which site is more credible -- that is which site is more believable
(giving a brief explanation to support your choice).
Can one build a Web site or application that engenders trust?
Usability and Open Source Software
Five Keys to a Successful Usability Test
Usability is increasingly pivotal to e-business success
What Web Developers Can Learn from Retailers
Cultural Dimensions and Global Web User-Interface Design
The Culture of Usability
The Usability Company
Software Ageism
- the "ruthless discarding" of old software!
Eons, Inc.
-
CRANKY
(search engine aimed at the 50+ user)
Stephen Downes
>>
Principles for Evaluating Websites (and lots
more)
Internationalization, Accessibility, and Ranking of Web Pages
Website Usability and the Theory of Multiple Intelligences
The Usability Company
Debunking the 'eight-second rule' for Web performance
WebWord Usability Blog
/
Oristus - Usability Consulting
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Baekdal.com
Usability Partners
IDD - Interface Design and Development
AgeLight Consultancy
Quick Tips for Web Site Design
Xenu's
Link Sleuth - freeware - tests for broken links
interfaces.org
- resources for interface designers
Ask Tog
>> About Bruce Tognazzini
SURL -
Software Usability Research Laboratory
Site design as a
business decision
UPA - Usability Professionals' Association
Debunking the myths of UI design
Society for Technical Communication >>
STC
Usability SIG
Use
It Or Lose It
Universal Usability in Practice -
How can information and communications services be made usable for every citizen?
Universal usability involves understanding how users attempt to accomplish tasks using a variety of
technologies in different organizational and social contexts.
How Users Surf: What Usability Tests Reveal (video) - how users move around a site, how they scan pages,
what they see and don't see, and more (findings of hundreds of usability tests).
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A
Heuristic Evaluation of a World Wide Web Prototype
Interactive Heuristic Evaluation Toolkit
Ergonomics in Australia
>>
Useful links to further ergonomics information
SiteAngel
- a service that monitors online customer satisfaction
Making the Web Truly Global
Web Enabling the Mainframe
Cognitive design principles: 7 Stages of Action by Don Norman
Ben Blinn's
Human Factors /
Usability links
HCID - The Centre for Human Computer Interaction Design
The Society for Technical Communication
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