Prioritizing Web UsabilityNielsen and Loranger
Chapter 3: Revisiting Early Web Usability Findings
Paul Ammann
http://cs.gmu.edu/~pammann/
SWE 432
Design and Implementation of Software for the Web
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Overview
• Eight Problems that Haven’t Changed
• Technological Change: Its Impact on Usability
• Adaptation: How Users Have Influenced Usability
• Restraint: How Designers Have Alleviated Usability Problems
34 Usability Problems:
Improved vs. Irrelevant vs. More Important Than Ever
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Eight Problems That Haven’t Changed
• Links That Don’t Change Color When Visited• Breaking the Back Button• Opening New Browser Windows• Pop-Up Windows• Design Elements That Look Like Advertising• Violating Web-Wide Conventions• Vaporous Content and Empty Hype• Dense Content and Unscannable Text
Why Do We Still Do These Things?
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1: Links That Don’t Change Color When Visited
• Users Need to Understand– Where They Have Been
– Where They Are
– Where They Can Go
• Users Go in Circles If They Lose The Past• 74% of Sites Comply With Guideline
– 26% Are Still Deficient!
• Exception: Command Oriented Functionality– If Users Want To Repeat Actions, Links Can Stay The Same
Color
Support User’s Need To Be Oriented
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2: Breaking The Back Button• “Undo” Support Is a Basic Usability Requirement• Repeated “Back” vs. Pull Down History List• Second Most Used Feature in Web Browsing• Benefits:
– Back is Always Available
– Recognition is Better than Recall
– The Back Button is a Large (and Fast) Target
• Ways to Break the Back Button– Hiding the “Chrome”
– Opening a New Brower Window
– Redirects Embedded in Web Pages
“Back” is the User’s Lifeline
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3: Opening New Browser Windows• Opening A New Window Breaks the Back Button
– But Doesn’t Effectively Trap Users On Your Site
• Multiple Windows Present Multiple Usability Problems– Disrupts Expected User Experience
– Pollutes User’s Work Space
– Hampers Ability To Return To Visited Pages
– Obscures Window User Is Working In
– Can Make User Believe Links Are Inactive
• Users Can Always Right Click For A New Window• Exception
– PDF and Similar Documents
Leave New Windows Up to the User
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4: Pop-Up Windows
• Consider Pop-Up Blockers– A Clear Indication That Users Hate Pop-Ups
• Many Users Close Pop-Ups Before Seeing the Content• Closing a Pop-Up Invariably Requires The Mouse• Evil Pop-Ups Form The Vast Majority• Pop-Ups Are Especially Hard For Certain Users• Theoretical Legitimate Use For Pop-Ups
– Provide Supplementary Info While Keeping Workspace Clear
Don’t Use Them
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5: Design Elements That Look Like Advertisements
• Users Automatically Filter Out Anything That Looks Like An Ad– Basic Self-Defense Mechanism
– Includes Anything Shaped Like A Banner
– Anything Flashing
– Anything That is Too Big
• Users Usually Look For Text– Because That’s Where Most Links Are
User Behavior Evolves As The Environment Changes
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6: Violating Web-Wide Conventions
• Users Spend Most Time On Other Web Sites– Expectations For Your Site Set By Other Sites
• Example: Zinc Bistro– Things That Look Clickable Should be Clickable
– Don’t Hide Links in Weird Places
User’s Don’t Care About You; They Want Your Data
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7: Vaporous Content and Empty Hype
• Basic Marketing– Sell The Benefits, Not the Features
• Search Engine Optimization– Concrete Text Leads To Better Rankings
• Example: Mont Blanc
Fluffy Language Drives Users Away AND Hides Your Site
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8: Dense Content and Unscannable Text
• Unpacking Dense Text is Hard Work– Users are Lazy
• Government Sites Are Prime Offenders– Example: Social Security Answer Desk
• Web Text Should be Short, Scannable, and Approachable– Write Half (or a Quarter) as Many Words For Web as for Print
This is Really Hard to Do, But it’s Important
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Technological Change: Its Impact on Usability
• Slow Download Time• Frames• Flash• Low-Relevancy Search Listings• MultiMedia and Long Videos• Frozen Layouts• Cross Platform Incompatibility
Less Important Today Because of Better Browsers, More Bandwidth, or Other Internet Technology
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Adaptation: How Users Have Influenced Usability
• Uncertain Clickability• Links that Aren’t Blue• Scrolling• Registration• Complex URLs• Pull-Down and Cascading Menus
Less Important Today Because Users Know More
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Restraint: How Designers Have Alleviated Usability Problems
• Plug-Ins and Bleeding Edge Technologies• 3D User Interfaces• Bloated Design• Splash Pages• Moving Graphics and Scrolling Text• Custom GUI Widgets• Not Disclosing Who’s Behind Information
Web Designers Are Getting Smarter
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Restraint: How Designers Have Alleviated Usability Problems (2)
• Made-Up Words• Outdated Content• Inconsistency Within a Web Site• Premature Requests for Personal Information• Multiple Sites• Orphan Pages
Web Designers Are Getting Smarter