During the height of the 2013 Christmas shopping season we surveyed online shoppers for their attitudes about the user experience of 10 popular US retail websites. In conjunction with our panel partner, Op4G, we collected and analyzed the responses of 800 participants about factors such as usability, loyalty, trust and appearance using the Standardized User
We’ve put together a visual timeline of the 100 year history of usability that we detailed in an earlier blog. This detailed infographic covers many of the key events, publications and people that have shaped the profession. If you’re obsessed with usability like we are, you can also purchase a 52 inch full-color version and
The quarter just ended for a graduate level class I taught on Usability at the University of Denver. Here are eleven questions I wanted to be sure everyone in the class could answer and understand. See how well you can answer some questions on the core concepts of usability, with an emphasis on usability evaluation.
It’s not terribly complicated, yet it’s not universally applied. When designing an application, website or product, three things help generate a more usable experience: an early focus on the users and tasks, empirical measurement, and iterative design. These three key principles were articulated by John Gould and Clayton Lewis almost 30 years ago in the
If you’ve ever wondered whether there’s research to help guide a design or inform product development, then you’ll likely want to look to the published literature. Despite the vast power of the internet and search engines, it’s still surprisingly difficult to know where to look to find relevant, peer-reviewed research. A simple Google search will
The profession of usability as we know it largely started in the 1980s. Many methods have their roots in the earlier fields of Ergonomics and Human Factors which began near the beginning of the 20th century and had a strong influence through World War II. While not exhaustive, the following is a timeline of several
Few things are more revealing than watching just a few users attempt tasks on a website or software. But while you’re watching users you should ask them some key questions to help put the observations into perspective. Here are eight recommendations for helping quantify both attitudes and put the insightful observations into context. Software Usability–
In 1906 Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, observed that wealth was unequally distributed in Italy. He noted that 80% of the land and wealth was owned by 20% of the people. A similar relationship can be observed in the wealth and income across most countries. A minority of the population tends to generate the majority
There are many reasons why usability professionals don’t use statistics and I’ve heard most of them. Many of the reasons are based on misconceptions about what you can and can’t do with statistics and the advantage they provide in reducing uncertainly and clarifying our recommendations. Here are nine of the more common misconceptions. Misconception 1:
Every field has its set of hot-button issues and usability is no exception. Here are six topics that tend to generate some passionate discussions. 1. Quantifying usability: Usability is all about the user (i.e. people). Talk of using numbers to describe human computer interaction gets some upset. Usability is typically considered a qualitative activity and
