Mobile Usability
Jakob Nielsen has done a study into mobile usability. Basically, my translation of his conclusions is that the biggest hurdle to mobile usability is the mobile device itself.
Mobile, Usability | Permalink
Usability elsewhere on the 'Net.
23 July 2009
Jakob Nielsen has done a study into mobile usability. Basically, my translation of his conclusions is that the biggest hurdle to mobile usability is the mobile device itself.
Mobile, Usability | Permalink
21 June 2007
Zeldman thinks the "Maybe" option should be removed from Yes/No questions.
In addition, he feels we should be starting to use a four-star rating system instead of the ubiquitous five-star one. I've never experienced such a rapid conversion in my life. It took me exactly three seconds to go from "Why does he say that?" to "Of course we should!", and from now on I'm going to recommend a four-star system to everybody who's willing to listen.
Usability | Permalink
17 May 2007
Paul Boag on the importance of homepages.
I think it would be fair to say that we are going to see a continued decline in the traffic going to home pages over the coming years.
More in general, clients are aware of usability research from the mid nineties ("users don't scroll"), but not of more recent advances.
I like Paul's 10 point system: you can divide 10 "user attention" points among the home page features, with every feature taking at least 1 point. That forces the client to focus on important things instead of trivia or internal-politics points.
Usability | Permalink
8 April 2007
Definitions of some interaction design terminology. Quite useful, since it feels as if new terms and definitions are invented every year.
(Via Naar Voren.)
Reference, Theory, Usability | Permalink
23 January 2007
Intriguing piece. Officially it's about why Java applet interfaces "look like a Soviet tractor built on a Monday." Be this true or not (I tend to agree), the real treat is in the three point approach to creating UIs that is mentioned later:
- You need to lay out the user interface components visually, by hand, with total control over where they go. [...]
- You need to be able to change the UI around really easily during development [...] even after you’ve attached a lot of code to it. That means no [...] tools that write code for you, because once their code mingles with your code, it gets hard to disentangle.
- Changing the UI around also requires being able to change your own UI code easily. As the Ruby and Agile Programming zealots always point out, strict type checking can really get in the way of this. [...]
Isn't this a perfect description of how we create websites? We must be doing something right.
(Via Simon.)
Server side, Usability | Permalink
11 October 2006
Stuart points out an important usability requirement of Ajax sites: no discernible load time.
There is no point in using Ajax if you have to pop up a “Loading” screen and wait ten seconds when a link is clicked.
Spot on.
Data Retrieval, Usability | Permalink
23 February 2006
'Regular folks who have been using the Internet for a number of years are comfortable with the existing page-based model and limited interactivity, as clumsy as it may appear to designers and developers.'
Usability | Permalink
17 February 2006
A methodology for deciding on browser support.
Accessibility, Browsers, Usability | Permalink
15 February 2006
Yahoo! goes community, too. It has released a user interface library and a design pattern library. Since I'm not terribly interested in JavaScript libraries, I'll spend most of my attention on the second one, which looks very promising and ties in with John Allsopp's ideas along the same line.
JavaScript, Society, Usability | Permalink
28 January 2006
'Drag and drop on the web is rubbish.' Agreed, mostly.
JavaScript, Usability | Permalink
26 January 2006
How to enable the Back button in Ajax applications.
Data Retrieval, Usability | Permalink
4 January 2006
Ajax breaks the Back button. Some observations and possible solutions from Isolani.
JavaScript, Usability | Permalink
5 December 2005
Alex Bosworth about when to use Ajax and when not to. Useful overview.
JavaScript, Usability | Permalink
3 December 2005
Roger Johansson gives a few guidelines for creating sites for interactive TV.
Accessibility, Browsers, Usability | Permalink
10 November 2005
Results of usability tests of tabbed browsing. Interesting. Again, the Back button is one of the most serious problems.
Usability | Permalink
27 August 2005
Davaid Flanagan doubts whether the lack of Back and Forward functionality within an AJAX application will make a difference to users.
Usability | Permalink
26 July 2005
A subject that interests me highly. I recently considered a sidenote system like the one presented here, but with one slight difference. Maybe I'm still going to write that article, but I first have to study the examples mentioned here.
CSS, JavaScript, Usability | Permalink
12 July 2005
As it says. By Joe Clark.
Accessibility, Screen readers, Usability | Permalink
7 July 2005
Must-read about the usability of AJAX applications.
Data Retrieval, Usability | Permalink
This is the linklog of Peter-Paul Koch, mobile platform strategist, consultant, and trainer. You can also visit his QuirksBlog, or you can follow him on Twitter.
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