UsabilityNews: News (full)
UsabilityNews - for all the latest News (full) in usability and human-computer interaction.
Don't Judge a Form by its Cover
When it comes to something interactive - like a video game, a website or a form - there are two ways you can make an assessment of its fitness for purpose: by looking and by doing.
Looking at such things can only tell you so much - the cover of the CD might be very pretty, but the death metal music inside not nearly as pleasing. Similarly, looking at a form can only tell you so much about whether it is going to work well 'in the wild'.
Yet people judge forms by how they look all the time. A form with lots of nice white space and some attractive graphics gets a big thumbs up, but what about the questions that don't make sense, or the lack of instructions about what to do with the form when it's been filled out?
A better approach is to 'do', which means trying to complete the form yourself or having others - especially representative users - try to complete it. Only then are you likely to find out whether the form truly works.
Posted: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 12:00amGMT
Beijing Olympics - special State of the eNation report
In this special report AbilityNet asked disabled users to try out the Beijing Olympics website in our interaction lab. Poor information architecture and a lack of adherence to web standards result in an uneven playing field for disabled sports fans across the world.
This special issue of the e-Nation report concentrates solely on the Beijing Olympics website. The owners of the last Olympics website were prosecuted under the Australian Disability Discrimination Act by a blind sports fan. We take a look at both the usability and accessibility of the Beijing Olympics site and ask if disabled sports fans can easily access the games website.
In a departure from our standard State of the eNation review procedure we brought a range of disabled users into our lab to perform some basic tasks on the website. Users uncovered a variety of accessibility and usability issues that only real-life user testing would have uncovered.
The Beijing website has clearly been developed with some accessibility principles in mind, however these have been poorly implemented - showing how a purely technical approach to accessibility won’t result in a good user experience.
Posted: Tueday, August 26, 2008 at 12:00amGMT
It's Who You Know (Or Don't)
By Marina Krakovsky
Nothing demonstrates the wildfire spread of online social networks such as MySpace and Facebook better than the experience 73 Stanford students had last fall. They were enrolled in the computer science course Creating Engaging Web Applications Using Metrics and Learning on Facebook—and did they ever engage. At a public session held at the Arrillaga Alumni Center toward the end of the quarter, 500 people heard how “10 million [users] in 10 weeks” were expected to have installed the students' free applications, some of which were reportedly generating enough ad revenue to pay tuitions.
Most of the apps resemble party games or amusements—ScribbledPhotos lets users draw graffiti on Facebook photos; with KissMe, members can bestow kisses—although some focus on generating useful information. But co-instructor BJ Fogg, an experimental social psychologist whose Persuasive Technology Lab studies how computer technology changes people's beliefs and behaviors, dismisses critics like one blogger who called the applications “monumental drivel.” The point was for students to learn how to think, using psychology and metrics to make their applications more appealing. And by quarter's end, 10 million proved an underestimate: “What other class in the history of the world created student projects that reached 16 million people in 10 weeks?” asks Fogg, MA '95, PhD '97.
It's that kind of dramatic result that has a growing number of academics starting to look at how online social networks function and what they deliver compared with traditional, offline connections. Fogg can envision revolutions; others are not so sure.
Posted: Saturday, August 23, 2008 at 12:00amGMT
Winning Considerations for Interactive Content
By Colleen Jones
User interface designers have more interactive options than ever for presenting content. So, we can make meaningful strides toward offering users the right content in the right place, at the right time, in the right amount. However, these rich options for interactively presenting content also come with a challenge.
Remember, years ago, when the new world of desktop publishing features opened up to us? People often succumbed to the temptation to use all of those features in one document, resulting in indulgences such as five clashing fonts on a single page. Such excessive formatting made
the content harder to read, less usable, and potentially, less credible.
Likewise, today, we need to think carefully about when and how we present content. This column offers my thoughts on some winning considerations for interactively presenting content—from both usability and persuasion perspectives.
Posted: Friday, August 22, 2008 at 12:00amGMT
Microsoft sees end of Windows era
Microsoft has kicked off a research project to create software that will take over when it retires Windows.
Called Midori, the cut-down operating system is radically different to Microsoft's older programs. It is centred on the internet and does away with the dependencies that tie Windows to a single PC. It is seen as Microsoft's answer to rivals' use of "virtualisation" as a way to solve many of the problems of modern-day computing.
TIE BREAKING
Although Midori has been heard about before now, more details have now been published by Software Development Times after viewing internal Microsoft documents describing the technology. Midori is believed to be under development because Windows is unlikely to be able to cope with the pace of change in future technology and the way people use it.
Windows worked well in an age when most people used one machine to do all their work. The operating system acted as the holder for the common elements Windows programs needed to call on. "If you think about how an operating system is loaded," said Dave Austin, European director of products at Citrix, "it's loaded onto a hard disk physically located on that machine. The operating system is tied very tightly to that hardware," he said.
That, he said, created all kinds of dependencies that arose out of the collection of hardware in a particular machine. This means, he said, that Windows can struggle with more modern ways of working in which people are very mobile and very promiscuous in the devices they use to get at their data - be that pictures, spreadsheets or e-mail. Equally, he said, when people worked or played now, they did it using a combination of data and processes held locally or in any of a number of other places online.
When asked about Midori by BBC News, Microsoft issued a statement that said: "Midori is one of many incubation projects underway at Microsoft. It's simply a matter of being too early in the incubation to talk about it."
Posted: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 12:00amGMT
News you can Use
Giving control of a website to a communicator can be like giving a pub to an alcoholic.
Writers and communicators have many of the skills needed to achieve great things on the Web. Public websites and intranets run on content. Writers and communicators have been trained in creating content. There should be a natural fit. However, when communicators get control of websites, particularly intranets, they immediately make them look like daily newspapers. News is important on an intranet but it is rarely the top task.
When the homepage is dominated by news you are not necessarily communicating more. In many situations, you are damaging your reputation as a quality news source. Forcing news into people's faces just annoys them. Many websites also make the mistake of increasing the quantity of news they publish. Another element that will certainly help turn people away is the use of websites for propaganda.
A press release is classic propaganda. It is written in a fawning, self-congratulatory manner. (I'm speaking as someone who has written quite a few of them.) Historically, press releases were never intended to be read by the public. They were a way to sell a story to the press. They have a place in a website's press archive, but they should not be on a homepage. Publishing a press release on a homepage says the communicator is too lazy to take the press release and turn it into a story.
We are dealing with a world exploding with news. A June 2008 study published by The Associated Press of Young Adults' News Consumption found increasing signs of "news fatigue." One of the negative results of news fatigue was that the more overwhelmed or unsatisfied young people became, the less effort they were willing to put in. The study went on to state that "this young audience had little patience for formats that promise and don't deliver." It's not just a young audience that is proving impatient and skeptical. I remember being with an engineer once as he scanned the intranet homepage of his organization. He shook his head and smiled cynically. "Not another 'our great organization saving the world and feeding the hungry children' PR story," he sneered. "I want hard news, practical news. I want news that will give me ideas for new products."
"The enlightened consumers turned news into "units" of social currency that could be used in a variety of interpersonal situations - to look smart, connect with friends and family and even move up the socio-economic ladder," The Associated Press study stated.
"The competing notions of "news fatigue" and "news as social currency" stand out among these findings," the study continued. "This study demonstrated across cultural boundaries that the news can turn consumers off, just as easily as it can turn them on. The key value point to the audience was news they could use."
In an age of attention deficit and impatience, news created on organizational websites and intranets needs to be brutally action-oriented and to-the-point It needs to help people do things. It needs to be practical and real. And it needs to be newsworthy-not simply put up because it's Tuesday and we need to publish something.
Customers need news they can use.
Posted: Monday, August 18, 2008 at 12:00amGMT
Feeling Through your Computer
When you use a computer you’re obviously able to see and hear the information on the screen. Now, you can touch it. A newly designed device lets computer users feel the texture and movement of what they are seeing in front of them. Someday soon, a surgeon may perform computer-aided operations away from the operating room. A new device may give him the feedback he needs at his fingertips.
“What we use is a new form of magnetic levitation,” Ralph Hollis, haptics specialist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa., told Ivanhoe.
Dr. Hollis' specialization, haptics, is the science and technology of touch. Dr. Hollis has developed a way to interact with 3D objects on a computer. A user grasps a handle inside a sphere attached to a desktop computer. The handle is connected to something that looks like an upside-down umbrella, called a flotor.
“That umbrella carries electrical coils, electrical current. These are immersed in high magnetic fields, created by a series of permanent magnets,” Dr. Hollis explained.
The magnets allow the handle to float freely inside the sphere. It moves and rotates to control the position of the 3D object on the screen. When that object touches something in the virtual world, a user can feel it immediately.
Other haptic devices exist, but users must grab motorized arms to interact with the computer. With magnetic levitation, there’s an almost direct connection between the user’s hand and the software, giving immediate feedback. Just one more thing bringing the computer world into our world.
Posted: Saturday, August 16, 2008 at 12:00amGMT
User interviews - A basic Introduction
So you know your users. You understand them, what they do and what makes them tick. Really?
It's surprising how few people have a real understanding of who's using their site. Yes, there is demographic data but to really know your users you must have direct contact. Knowing your users means you know what to do to keep them happy, and keep them returning to your site. Knowing your users is the first step in a fast track to a successful site.
WHY INTERVIEWS?
The aim of interviews is to discover:
- Users' needs and goals
- How users complete tasks on your site (or would do if functionality was available)
- What users think the site offers them (and what more they really want/need)
Interviews help guide future site development by highlighting user needs through increased understanding. This understanding helps you make better decisions, both in general site management and when developing your site further.
“Why not just put out a questionnaire? I'll get the opinions of more people.” You will, but interviews give you so much more detail. It's depth versus breadth. Interviews give you access to greater levels of information and a more complete picture than you could ever gather from a questionnaire.
Questionnaires help you know about users, interviews help you understand them.
Posted: Friday, August 15, 2008 at 12:00amGMT
Helping Visitors find Information
The Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement (IDEA) is a nonprofit organization working to improve the ways people interact with technology. IDEA recently conducted a study using three complementary surveys to determine how people find information online and how the experience of web site visitors can be improved. In order to understand the differences between the actual and perceived needs of end users, the three surveys focused on three different groups of subjects – nonprofit organizations, web designers, and general public (visitors).
The survey questions were designed to answer the following questions:
- What makes a web site effective?
- What factors contribute to visitors’ enjoyment of a web site? Does this vary by segments within each population?
- From a visitor’s perspective, what factors determine a quality web site?
- Are there differences between visitors’ needs as perceived by organizations and designers, and those reported by visitors themselves?
Key findings included:
- Designers tend to be too optimistic about website visitors' ability to maintain orientation
- Writing style is less important to visitors than correct spelling and grammar
- Visitors are highly focused and value fast access to information more than anything else
- Good visual design is very important
- Up-to-date information is very important
- Local search capability is becoming more important
This is the first survey that IDEA has conducted to gather information about online design and visitors’ experiences. The goal was to gain a broad understanding of visitor experience, and hence was not designed to explore any subject in detail. Future surveys may expand questions to refine this survey’s findings and to explore new concepts.
Posted: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 12:00amGMT
Just out - Issue 76 of Interfaces Magazine
Interaction, the HCI service of the BCS, is pleased to announce the publication of issue 76 of Interfaces Magazine. The magazine is published by Interaction - a specialist HCI group of the British Computer Society (BCS) and features a special collection of articles on Games and HCI from a wide range of contributors including:
* Interacting with Ubiquitous Media by Jan Borchers
* Deflections by Gilbert Cockton
* A tropical analysis of game interfaces by Steven Allick, Clive Fencott and Charlie McElone
* On measuring the gaming experience by Paul Cairns
* Measuring video game usability by Graham McAllister
* My work: Developing a mixed reality game by Johannes Löschner
* A return ticket to reality, please by Rod McCall
* Externalisation – How writing changes thinking by Alan Dix
* Designing the WishDish by Philip Webb
* New Graduates Need to be creators as well as critics by Giles Colborne
* Experiencing Design by Chaya Narayanan Kutty & Robert St Amant
* My PhD by Cecily Morrison, and
* Book Reviews by Shailey Minocha
For more information, including future submission dates and membership details contact the editor, John Knight, john.knight@vodafone.com, or visit our website (linked below).
Posted: Tueday, August 12, 2008 at 12:00amGMT
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