Web Usability

A simple illustration

Example: WebVoyage Timeout Utility Lets an opac user know how much

time is remaining in session (bottom bar)

A pop-up enables user to restart timer and/or session

Created by Jim Robinson,Tarrant County College

Consists of JavaScript apps & a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)

Open source, therefore configurable

Default pop-ups

Lots of web usability advice out there

Just one of many, many, many, books…

Usability Guidelines1 (for this exercise) Krug’s first law of usability: “Don’t

make me think!” Close contender to first law: “Get rid

of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left.”

Fact of life #1: “We don’t read pages. We scan them.”

1. From Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability” 2nd Edition

Guidelines #2 1

Keep your texts short Users scan text and

pick out keywords...

1. From Jakob Nielsen’s “Designing Web Usability”

Default pop-ups

Usability Guidelines1 (for this exercise) Krug’s first law of usability: “Don’t

make me think!” Close contender to first law: “Get rid

of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left.”

Fact of life #1: “We don’t read pages. We scan them.”

1. From Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability” 2nd Edition

Web usability - applied

22 words

6 words

Which button should I click?“Don’t make me think!”

One (self explanatory) choice

Button text

Aesthetics1. Removed table border2. Even spacing

“We don’t read pages, we scan them.”

"Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left."

Web usability - applied

22 words

4 words

Which button should I click?“Don’t make me think!”

One (self explanatory) choice

Tweaked pop-ups