Usability & User Experience

Web usability

Web usability is an approach to make web sites easy to use for an end-user, without the requirement that any specialized training be undertaken. (wikipedia)

Web usability is about making your website in such a way that your site users can find what they're looking for quickly and efficiently.

The broad goal of usability can be:

Present the information to the user in a clear and concise way.

To give the correct choices to the users, in a very obvious way.

To remove any ambiguity regarding the consequences of an action e.g. clicking on delete/remove/purchase.

Put the most important thing in the right place on a web page or a web application.

KISS principle : had proven to be effective in focusing end-user attention.

Usability Basics

It is important to realize that usability is not a single, one-dimensional property of a user interface. Usability is a combination of factors including:

Ease of learning : How fast can a user who has never seen the user interface before learn it sufficiently well to accomplish basic tasks?

Efficiency of use : Once an experienced user has learned to use the system, how fast can he or she accomplish tasks?

Error frequency and severity : How often do users make errors while using the system, how serious are these errors, and how do users recover from these errors?

Subjective satisfaction : How much does the user like using the system?

Memorability : If a user has used the system before, can he or she remember enough to use it effectively the next time or does the user have to start over again learning everything?

Facts

Every $1 invested in improving your websites usability returns $10 to $100 (source: IBM)

A web usability redesign can increase the sales/conversion rate by 100% (source: Jakob Nielson)

User Experience

Is about how a person feels about using a product, system or service. (wikipedia)

The level of satisfaction an average user gets form a product.

Satisfaction is related to how user:1- like the product2- understand the product3- use the product

Difference Between Usability and UX

Usability is a subset of the overall User Experience.

Usability answers the question, Can the user accomplish their goal? with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction about the results.

User Experience answers the question, Did the user have as delightful an experience as possible doing so?.

User Experience takes far more effort to do well, but the results have far better impact.

Some principles of usability

Don't make me think !?

Consumer are lazy ..and getting lazier.

Users are usually under time pressure.

Make obvious what is clickable

People don't read web pages, they scan them

Too hard to find the Back & start again Button

F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content

Users first read in a horizontal movement, usually across the upper part of the content area. This initial element forms the F's top bar.

Next, users move down the page a bit and then read across in a second horizontal movement that typically covers a shorter area than the previous movement. This additional element forms the F's lower bar.

Finally, users scan the content's left side in a vertical movement. Sometimes this is a fairly slow and systematic scan that appears as a solid stripe on an eyetracking heatmap. Other times users move faster, creating a spottier heatmap. This last element forms the F's stem.

Some principles of usability

Omit words!!get rid of half of the words on each page, then get rid of half of what is left

Use searches as long as the results are relevant and well presented.

Make what I want available when I want it, and where I want it in the form I want it.

Break pages into clearly defined areas

Don't put unnecessary images and avoid using too much colors.

Some principles of usability

Web applications should explain themselves as far as humanly possible, when I look at a web page it should be self-evident. Obvious. Self-explanatory.

Dont waste my timeMuch of our web use is motivated by the desire to save time. As a result, web users tend to act like sharks. They have to keep moving or theyll die.

Make less choices.

Whitespace:

more screen size doesn't mean more content.

Use it to create structure.

Whitespace is attractive.

The user should always know:

What page am I on?

What are the major sections of this site?

What are my options at this level?

How can I search?

People wont use your website if they cant find there way around it.

Homepage should answer:

What is the page about?

What do they have here?

What can I do here?

Why should I be here and not somewhere else?

Where do I start?

Eliminate confusions

Why is it called ________?

I thought _______ meant something else?

Can I click on it? should I click on it?

If something is not a link, don't underline it.

Why is Usability and UX Important?

Too difficult people leave

Lost people leave

Too hard to read people leave

Don't understand what to do next people leave

To much to do people leave

some Common mistakes

1-a person doesn't know what your website is about within 4 seconds

some Common mistakes

2- issues of images and multimedia.

3- forcing sign-in to browse.

4-page element that look like advertising.

5-bad search

Albawaba

Mineeds

yahoo

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