Category: 02 – Usability, Accessibility and Navigation Design
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Story Boards
Good practise to create story board for each page in website. Common though to create single story board for pages with same functionality or in same category. Example of information collected by story board template: Screen Name and Classification used for archiving. Other useful information is recorded. Notes pane can contain draft graphic representation of…
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Navigation Basics
Navigation chart – shows way around website. Can be one chart or split for different navigation levels. Four main types of navigation: Linear Non-linear Hierarchical Composite, or Complex Good principles: No more than seven (plus/minus two) nav buttons “3 clicks convention” – user never more than three click from main page Keep it simple Label…
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User Testing
Three to five testers using system, explaining their decisions out loud. Observer records observations without offering help. Testers should be representative of target audience. Identify trends in user behaviour during use of system to spot problems. System can be prototype or existing system, either way it needs to be operational.
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Ten Usability Heuristics
Web Usability: Usability Inspections Ten Usability Heuristics Ten general principles for user interface design – more rules of thumb than specific usability guidelines, hence “heuristic”. Visibility of system status – the system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time. Match between system and the real world –…
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Heuristic evaluation
Web Usability: Usability Inspections Heuristic evaluation A heuristic technique (/hjᵿˈrɪstᵻk/; Ancient Greek: εὑρίσκω, “find” or “discover”), often called simply a heuristic, is any approach to problem solving, learning, or discovery that employs a practical method not guaranteed to be optimal or perfect, but sufficient for the immediate goals. (Wikipedia, 2017) In context of usability, heuristic…
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Nielsen’s views
Jakob Nielsen – five concepts: Learnability – system ease of use. Efficiency – how well system maps interface to user interaction. Memorability – how easy it is for users to remember how to do something. Errors – how well errors are handled and prevented. Satisfaction – user satisfaction with system. Top ten web design mistakes…
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Design for usability
User Centred Design – identify users needs & requirements. Define purpose of website. Perform User Requirements Analysis – define users assumptions & future behaviour on site. Implement these steps when designing & producing objects & functions. Become familiar with general rules & guidelines for website usability such as: Web Site Usability Handbook by Mark Pearrow…
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Usability
Generic term – design features enable=ing something to be user-friendly. Measure of quality of user experience with product or system such as: website mobile device software application Usability problem WRT WWW: Millions of users with different skills, knowledge, experience and expectations International & multicultural make-up of users & websites Billions of websites Tens of thousands of…
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Accessibility validation tools
508 accessibility suite for Dreamweaver (download free from macromedia) available at http://www.adobe.com/macromedia/accessibility/508standards.html Markup test available at http://validator.w3.org/ Wave free accessibility check at http://wave.webaim.org/
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Designing for accessibility
Compliant websites do not have to be dull. Do not rely on colour to convey information. Text colour should contrast background colour. Font size defined in CSS should be customisable by user. Important images should have a meaningful ‘alt’ attribute & description. Provide text-based alternative to audio or video content. Content requiring specific plug-in should…