Moving Forms to the Web
I just found this real gem about forms usability: a PDF handout from Ginny Redish's talk entitled "Moving Forms to the Web" that she gave at Usability University (a US Government training program) in June 2004.
Ginny offers a lot in this little PDF:
- The section called "planning to move forms online" offers a great approach on how to go about researching user and business needs prior to designing an online form. The approach is comprehensive yet pragmatic - something I really appreciate as a practitioner.
- She outlines 17 guidelines for consideration when designing web forms.
Download the PDF Handout from Ginny's site.
I got to know Ginny a bit better at UPA 2004, where she gave a great keynote address on communities. (You can find those slides online too, but one of the reasons her talk was great because it was interactive and engaging with PowerPoint playing a minimal role in the overall mix. Therefore, the slides don't really stand alone.)
August 20, 2004
Don't Read This Article
Please don't read this trash masquerading as usability advice.
Here are a few tips for the author:
1) Actually know something about the topic you're writing about.
2) Follow your own advice: "If your site [or article] has too much content ensure readability" ... and accuracy, and validity, and clarity, etc., etc., etc. Oh, and if you have to much content...maybe you have too much content.
3) Follow your own advice: "Test for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors." Try using a proofreader.
4) Follow your own advice: Add a sitemap, strategic links, and some XP style icons - I'm sure that will make your article much better.
5) Learn what usability is - if you don't recognize that different sites have different users with different needs, then you'll continue to speak about usability incorrectly and offer ineffective platitudes and generalities that perpetuate unusable web sites. What you're advocating is that people waste a lot of time and money on activities that do little or nothing to make their web site more effective.
People have much better alternatives if they want truly effective tips for designing usable web sites.
Please don't read this trash masquerading as usability advice.
Here are a few tips for the author:
1) Actually know something about the topic you're writing about.
2) Follow your own advice: "If your site [or article] has too much content ensure readability" ... and accuracy, and validity, and clarity, etc., etc., etc. Oh, and if you have to much content...maybe you have too much content.
3) Follow your own advice: "Test for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors." Try using a proofreader.
4) Follow your own advice: Add a sitemap, strategic links, and some XP style icons - I'm sure that will make your article much better.
5) Learn what usability is - if you don't recognize that different sites have different users with different needs, then you'll continue to speak about usability incorrectly and offer ineffective platitudes and generalities that perpetuate unusable web sites. What you're advocating is that people waste a lot of time and money on activities that do little or nothing to make their web site more effective.
People have much better alternatives if they want truly effective tips for designing usable web sites.
August 17, 2004
SEO Without Usability -- An Exercise In Futility
From a WebProNews article by Scottie Claiborne we get a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) article that talks about why site owners shouldn't simply worry about search engine marketing tactics like Google Pagerank optimization, higher rankings, and reciprocal links. If you do somehow manage to drive a lot of traffic to your site, it then needs to be usable or those visitors will quickly go away and you'll lose the sale (or other business opportunity) you seek.
Here are a few excerpts (emphasis is mine):
"[I]n the same way that the average SEO can spot design or technical issues and recommend or work with a specialist, they should also be able to spot major usability issues and recommend or work with a usability analyst. "
"A usability analyst can walk through the site and spot obstacles that may prevent users from completing their goal. They typically address marketing, layout, technical, and design issues that can frustrate users or even drive them away. When site owners are presented with a usability study in addition to an SEO analysis, they have a better picture of overall "health" of the site and a blueprint for greater profitability, not just more traffic.
"Usability reports are a relatively inexpensive investment that return far more than their cost in increased sales, subscriptions, leads, etc. SEO and usability improvements implemented together can result in dramatic changes in traffic and conversions.
"Search engine optimization is still in its infancy, and is a constantly changing discipline. As the search engines get better and better at rewarding the best/most complete sites, usability will become even more important.
"Many long-time SEOs are now looking at the big picture and working with usability analysts. This ensures that their sites are crawler- and user-friendly along with being ready for sales conversions. Sites that can be found and that are usable as well will also attract links. It just makes sense. The double impact of more traffic and higher conversions makes for happy clients and powerful testimonials, as well as satisfied searchers."
You can find a qualified usability consultant on the Usability Professionals Association (UPA) web site. The UPA maintains a list of usability consultants who are members.
From a WebProNews article by Scottie Claiborne we get a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) article that talks about why site owners shouldn't simply worry about search engine marketing tactics like Google Pagerank optimization, higher rankings, and reciprocal links. If you do somehow manage to drive a lot of traffic to your site, it then needs to be usable or those visitors will quickly go away and you'll lose the sale (or other business opportunity) you seek.
Here are a few excerpts (emphasis is mine):
"[I]n the same way that the average SEO can spot design or technical issues and recommend or work with a specialist, they should also be able to spot major usability issues and recommend or work with a usability analyst. "
"A usability analyst can walk through the site and spot obstacles that may prevent users from completing their goal. They typically address marketing, layout, technical, and design issues that can frustrate users or even drive them away. When site owners are presented with a usability study in addition to an SEO analysis, they have a better picture of overall "health" of the site and a blueprint for greater profitability, not just more traffic.
"Usability reports are a relatively inexpensive investment that return far more than their cost in increased sales, subscriptions, leads, etc. SEO and usability improvements implemented together can result in dramatic changes in traffic and conversions.
"Search engine optimization is still in its infancy, and is a constantly changing discipline. As the search engines get better and better at rewarding the best/most complete sites, usability will become even more important.
"Many long-time SEOs are now looking at the big picture and working with usability analysts. This ensures that their sites are crawler- and user-friendly along with being ready for sales conversions. Sites that can be found and that are usable as well will also attract links. It just makes sense. The double impact of more traffic and higher conversions makes for happy clients and powerful testimonials, as well as satisfied searchers."
You can find a qualified usability consultant on the Usability Professionals Association (UPA) web site. The UPA maintains a list of usability consultants who are members.
August 16, 2004
User Friendly Gestures
User interfaces: The next generation - Computerworld: "One example is a gesture recognition system developed for the U.S. Department of Defense by Cybernet Systems Corp. in Ann Arbor, Mich. The technology was developed to facilitate silent troop communication during combat. It allows users to stand in front of a camera-mounted monitor and manipulate images, data and application windows by using specific hand movements from a lexicon of roughly 80 gestures recognized by the system. A San Antonio-based TV station is using a commercial version of the product, called GestureStorm, to control computerized visual effects in its weather reports."
Gesture input has received a lot of press lately. You occasionally hear about a specific use of the technology (like in this Dept. of Defense system), with claims of broad future use of gesture input. I think there's still a lot of hype about gesture input, and I think broad usage is unlikely, or at least a long way off - for a couple of simple reasons:
1) Affordances
2) Lack of Standards
Affordance: Affordance is the perceived properties of a thing that determine just how the thing could possibly be used. Gesture input is usually done by moving the hand in a certain way or by moving a mouse in a certain pattern (usually after or while a button is depressed). The problem with gestures is that they aren't obvious. A keyboard or onscreen menu have clear labels - gestures usually don't, and so they place a larger burden on the user to learn, remember and accurately recall the correct gesture for what they want to do. Then they have to perform some small gymnastics - executing the gesture properly so the system can recognize their command. Basically gestures seem to have a lot of the same issues as command line interface input with the added fun of hand gymnastics.
Standards: Who wants to learn different sets of gestures for each application or each platform (PC, cell phone, PDA, etc.)? It probably doesn't make sense to create gestures for low-level functions like copy and paste. After all, how would a gesture be better than a CTRL-C keyboard shortcut? If gestures are used for more complex, higher level functions, then they are likely to be industry, context, user or at least application specific (e.g. "Open a list of all bugs assigned to me" or "Close this order and generate an invoice")
It's possible that standards for gestures at the platform level might be established in the short term (e.g. "Email this file"), but how would they be any better than what we have today?
My prediction is that voice recognition will slowly, but eventually take off in mobile applications. We'll get voice recognition software for composing text messages - only requiring the user to edit the message with a keyboard. Voice menus might also eliminate the need for gesture input in some cases.
Gestures effectively flatten the menu structure - making many or all functions available at once - much like keyboard shortcuts do today. In a similar way (to shortcuts), I think they will mainly be suited for power users - primarily in specialized applications.
User interfaces: The next generation - Computerworld: "One example is a gesture recognition system developed for the U.S. Department of Defense by Cybernet Systems Corp. in Ann Arbor, Mich. The technology was developed to facilitate silent troop communication during combat. It allows users to stand in front of a camera-mounted monitor and manipulate images, data and application windows by using specific hand movements from a lexicon of roughly 80 gestures recognized by the system. A San Antonio-based TV station is using a commercial version of the product, called GestureStorm, to control computerized visual effects in its weather reports."
Gesture input has received a lot of press lately. You occasionally hear about a specific use of the technology (like in this Dept. of Defense system), with claims of broad future use of gesture input. I think there's still a lot of hype about gesture input, and I think broad usage is unlikely, or at least a long way off - for a couple of simple reasons:
1) Affordances
2) Lack of Standards
Affordance: Affordance is the perceived properties of a thing that determine just how the thing could possibly be used. Gesture input is usually done by moving the hand in a certain way or by moving a mouse in a certain pattern (usually after or while a button is depressed). The problem with gestures is that they aren't obvious. A keyboard or onscreen menu have clear labels - gestures usually don't, and so they place a larger burden on the user to learn, remember and accurately recall the correct gesture for what they want to do. Then they have to perform some small gymnastics - executing the gesture properly so the system can recognize their command. Basically gestures seem to have a lot of the same issues as command line interface input with the added fun of hand gymnastics.
Standards: Who wants to learn different sets of gestures for each application or each platform (PC, cell phone, PDA, etc.)? It probably doesn't make sense to create gestures for low-level functions like copy and paste. After all, how would a gesture be better than a CTRL-C keyboard shortcut? If gestures are used for more complex, higher level functions, then they are likely to be industry, context, user or at least application specific (e.g. "Open a list of all bugs assigned to me" or "Close this order and generate an invoice")
It's possible that standards for gestures at the platform level might be established in the short term (e.g. "Email this file"), but how would they be any better than what we have today?
My prediction is that voice recognition will slowly, but eventually take off in mobile applications. We'll get voice recognition software for composing text messages - only requiring the user to edit the message with a keyboard. Voice menus might also eliminate the need for gesture input in some cases.
Gestures effectively flatten the menu structure - making many or all functions available at once - much like keyboard shortcuts do today. In a similar way (to shortcuts), I think they will mainly be suited for power users - primarily in specialized applications.
The Thumb Generation
The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > All Thumbs, Without the Stigma: "So important has the thumb become on gadgets in Japan, where text messaging caught on earlier, that a certain demographic group is referred to as oyayubi sedai, 'the thumb generation.' Dr. Tenner pointed to findings that young Japanese, accustomed to using their thumbs to send messages, are now using them to do other tasks - like pointing and ringing door bells - traditionally the realm of the index finger."
"Of course, there is some worry, even among users, that speed typing with one thumb could create repetitive strain injuries, like joystick wrist. But the early evidence is inconclusive, according to people who follow the field. ... Professor Katz said the thumb was unlikely to face as many problems as, for instance, the wrist. The reason, he said, is that the wrists have lots of tendons and have not adapted well to the unexpected use of the forearm for typing."
The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > All Thumbs, Without the Stigma: "So important has the thumb become on gadgets in Japan, where text messaging caught on earlier, that a certain demographic group is referred to as oyayubi sedai, 'the thumb generation.' Dr. Tenner pointed to findings that young Japanese, accustomed to using their thumbs to send messages, are now using them to do other tasks - like pointing and ringing door bells - traditionally the realm of the index finger."
"Of course, there is some worry, even among users, that speed typing with one thumb could create repetitive strain injuries, like joystick wrist. But the early evidence is inconclusive, according to people who follow the field. ... Professor Katz said the thumb was unlikely to face as many problems as, for instance, the wrist. The reason, he said, is that the wrists have lots of tendons and have not adapted well to the unexpected use of the forearm for typing."
July 16, 2004
Usability is NOT a technical problem
Designing usable applications is a multi-disciplinary problem, the heart of which is a people problem. Designers and developers need to understand their users, and customers.
Frans Englich wrote an article for Newsforge called Open source usability is a technical problem we can solve on our own -- and it's an amazing read. It's amazing to me how horribly misunderstood the basic premise of usability is in some areas of the Linux community. I have noticed the folks working on the usability teams seem to be headed in the right direction, although I haven't look at it in depth.
Linux and Open Source have a huge constraint that make usability a difficult to acheive goal: lack of leadership. Let me add: lack of strategy, lack of measurement, lack of clarity -- too many voices are considered at all times, and solid decisions are never really made...not for long.
Here are some horribly wrong statements from Frans' article (and my comments in bold):
1) "For some reason, we treat it [usability] as a mystery instead of looking at it as a problem we can solve the same way we solve all other technical problems."
Sure, the way to solve your problems is to use the same flawed process you used to get into them.
2) "Even if we decide to rely on outside experts to solve our usability problems, they are going to find it impossible to keep up with us. The KDE project alone has an average of 200 checkins to its code repository each day. There aren't enough outside usability specialists available to correct all the errors that are inevitable with this level of productivity."
So he's saying 'We're making too much "progress" to worry about fixing all the errors we're making at this level of "productivity"! Let's be honest here, he's really saying "We don't want to slow down, get organized and do it better the first time...after all, the proper measure of productivity is of course the number of code changes checked in every day."
3) "One of the advantages of open source is its ability to put the consumer ahead of profit. Our goal is to produce great software while honoring the user's privacy, rights, and freedom. When usability, central to everything in today's software, is outsourced to companies, the open source community's independence and opportunity to achieve its noble goal is compromised. The open source community must be able to handle all its issues -- including usability -- by itself in order for our development approach to give maximum benefit to society and the user by constantly advancing our level of technical excellence." .... "We don't need usability reports. We need each developer to devote as little as one single thought to usability."
Okay, now the evidence of heavy Kool-Aid drinking is pretty obvious. This one's so convoluted it's amazing. So the "noble goal" of "putting the consumer ahead of profit" is better served by not paying evil "companies" (god forbid) to identify the consumer, understand their needs and deliver them a better product. Right... The consumer is *definitely* put "ahead" when you rationalize your decision to not practice user-centered design... This is like a non-profit organization deciding that tax and finance consultants are evil because they bill for their time - and then calling for their volunteers to just "think about taxes for one minute."
Design is a skill, an area of knowledge, a craft, a realm where experience matters. Design is also fun, and designers have power -- often people just don't want to share the reins with anyone else, even if those other folks are better suited to that role on the team. And to reiterate: designer is just a role on a much larger team.
Designing usable applications is a multi-disciplinary problem, the heart of which is a people problem. Designers and developers need to understand their users, and customers.
Frans Englich wrote an article for Newsforge called Open source usability is a technical problem we can solve on our own -- and it's an amazing read. It's amazing to me how horribly misunderstood the basic premise of usability is in some areas of the Linux community. I have noticed the folks working on the usability teams seem to be headed in the right direction, although I haven't look at it in depth.
Linux and Open Source have a huge constraint that make usability a difficult to acheive goal: lack of leadership. Let me add: lack of strategy, lack of measurement, lack of clarity -- too many voices are considered at all times, and solid decisions are never really made...not for long.
Here are some horribly wrong statements from Frans' article (and my comments in bold):
1) "For some reason, we treat it [usability] as a mystery instead of looking at it as a problem we can solve the same way we solve all other technical problems."
Sure, the way to solve your problems is to use the same flawed process you used to get into them.
2) "Even if we decide to rely on outside experts to solve our usability problems, they are going to find it impossible to keep up with us. The KDE project alone has an average of 200 checkins to its code repository each day. There aren't enough outside usability specialists available to correct all the errors that are inevitable with this level of productivity."
So he's saying 'We're making too much "progress" to worry about fixing all the errors we're making at this level of "productivity"! Let's be honest here, he's really saying "We don't want to slow down, get organized and do it better the first time...after all, the proper measure of productivity is of course the number of code changes checked in every day."
3) "One of the advantages of open source is its ability to put the consumer ahead of profit. Our goal is to produce great software while honoring the user's privacy, rights, and freedom. When usability, central to everything in today's software, is outsourced to companies, the open source community's independence and opportunity to achieve its noble goal is compromised. The open source community must be able to handle all its issues -- including usability -- by itself in order for our development approach to give maximum benefit to society and the user by constantly advancing our level of technical excellence." .... "We don't need usability reports. We need each developer to devote as little as one single thought to usability."
Okay, now the evidence of heavy Kool-Aid drinking is pretty obvious. This one's so convoluted it's amazing. So the "noble goal" of "putting the consumer ahead of profit" is better served by not paying evil "companies" (god forbid) to identify the consumer, understand their needs and deliver them a better product. Right... The consumer is *definitely* put "ahead" when you rationalize your decision to not practice user-centered design... This is like a non-profit organization deciding that tax and finance consultants are evil because they bill for their time - and then calling for their volunteers to just "think about taxes for one minute."
Design is a skill, an area of knowledge, a craft, a realm where experience matters. Design is also fun, and designers have power -- often people just don't want to share the reins with anyone else, even if those other folks are better suited to that role on the team. And to reiterate: designer is just a role on a much larger team.
May 26, 2004
How do companies running Linux request new features?
An article in LinuxWorld asks a great question: What About the Linux End Users?
"If Linux were a proprietary operating system, then companies such as Gillette and Staples who might want to use Linux to run mission-critical applications would make any queries or requests to the vendor. But who looks after them in the Linux world, asks Dr. Bill Claybrook - how do such companies get the features that they want included in Linux?"
Side note: The design of the "regular" version of this article on the LinuxWorld site is horrible. I clicked to this story from Google News and had a hard time finding the actual story content. Yuck! There's so much other stuff at the top of the page that the content I came for is far below "the fold." They also have an iconic toolbar below the story's title that has a "Read Story" link. Clicking on that actually takes you AWAY from the story you just fought so hard to find. How exactly does that help you read the story?
Related posts:
- Misuse of (Linux) usability report findings continues
- Linux needs focus not whiners
- Open Letter to a Power User / Developer (Linux related)
- Usability and Open Source Software
- Confessions of a Mozillian
An article in LinuxWorld asks a great question: What About the Linux End Users?
"If Linux were a proprietary operating system, then companies such as Gillette and Staples who might want to use Linux to run mission-critical applications would make any queries or requests to the vendor. But who looks after them in the Linux world, asks Dr. Bill Claybrook - how do such companies get the features that they want included in Linux?"
Side note: The design of the "regular" version of this article on the LinuxWorld site is horrible. I clicked to this story from Google News and had a hard time finding the actual story content. Yuck! There's so much other stuff at the top of the page that the content I came for is far below "the fold." They also have an iconic toolbar below the story's title that has a "Read Story" link. Clicking on that actually takes you AWAY from the story you just fought so hard to find. How exactly does that help you read the story?
Related posts:
- Misuse of (Linux) usability report findings continues
- Linux needs focus not whiners
- Open Letter to a Power User / Developer (Linux related)
- Usability and Open Source Software
- Confessions of a Mozillian
May 11, 2004
Fudgability is next to Usability
A good post from the blog Kasei tells the story of a system so over-engineered that users couldn't use it. It's a good lesson in the KISS principle.
The Importance of Fudgability
"In any human process there's always a degree to which the outcome can be fudged by the person performing the task. Even when the rules are simple or well-understood, there are always cases when someone will have a compelling reason to do things differently. In this case we didn't even know all the rules, and discovered to our horror that there were many more edge-cases than we'd imagined."
A good post from the blog Kasei tells the story of a system so over-engineered that users couldn't use it. It's a good lesson in the KISS principle.
The Importance of Fudgability
"In any human process there's always a degree to which the outcome can be fudged by the person performing the task. Even when the rules are simple or well-understood, there are always cases when someone will have a compelling reason to do things differently. In this case we didn't even know all the rules, and discovered to our horror that there were many more edge-cases than we'd imagined."
April 22, 2004
Good Food, Good Life, Bad Site
The Nestle corporate web site gets my vote for bad site of the day...maybe the week. I haven't seen a site quite this bad for some time. Where do you start? I could spend hours critiquing all the basic flaws (i.e. breaking widely known web usability and design standards) in this site.
Check out these pages (and issues):
- Media Centre (frames, hidden-in-plain-sight Search box placement, link colors, headquarters map)
- Home Page (what's clickable?)
- Download Kiosk (can you say "Fitt's"?)
- Internet Directory (can't see the forest for the trees and the flash)
- Country Access (nice icons by the phone #'s!)
- Careers Site Site Map (it's spelled C.O.N.T.R.A.S.T)
- Investor Relations - The designers and authors of the site show nothing but contempt for their content, not to mention their investors and other audiences by shoehorning content into little porthole-like frames and pop-up windows with ghastly PowerPoint slides shrunk down to thumbnail size. Someone there needs to read a bit of Tufte for enlightenment!
Okay, I've got to quit now...but someone at Nestle should give Rolf Molich or another decent usability consultant a call -- right after they fire their horrible design firm.
The Nestle corporate web site gets my vote for bad site of the day...maybe the week. I haven't seen a site quite this bad for some time. Where do you start? I could spend hours critiquing all the basic flaws (i.e. breaking widely known web usability and design standards) in this site.
Check out these pages (and issues):
- Media Centre (frames, hidden-in-plain-sight Search box placement, link colors, headquarters map)
- Home Page (what's clickable?)
- Download Kiosk (can you say "Fitt's"?)
- Internet Directory (can't see the forest for the trees and the flash)
- Country Access (nice icons by the phone #'s!)
- Careers Site Site Map (it's spelled C.O.N.T.R.A.S.T)
- Investor Relations - The designers and authors of the site show nothing but contempt for their content, not to mention their investors and other audiences by shoehorning content into little porthole-like frames and pop-up windows with ghastly PowerPoint slides shrunk down to thumbnail size. Someone there needs to read a bit of Tufte for enlightenment!
Okay, I've got to quit now...but someone at Nestle should give Rolf Molich or another decent usability consultant a call -- right after they fire their horrible design firm.
April 21, 2004
Defibrillator Maker claims FDA warnings about quality don't relate to usability, safety or efficacy
A statement in a short Reuters article (Cardiac Science Gets FDA Warning on Quality) struck me as a good example of a corporate PR group trying to spin bad press. Here's an excerpt (emphasis is mine):
"Cardiac Science Inc., a defibrillator maker, said on Wednesday that it received a warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration following an inspection of its manufacturing facility in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The FDA letter ... said certain procedural and documentation items in the company's quality system were not in compliance, the company said in a statement. The letter did not relate to the usability, safety or efficacy of the company's defibrillators, the firm said."
So what they are REALLY saying is the FDA warned them about problems with their quality process. The FDA didn't point out any exact issues with their products. Of course, the process is what leads to (i.e., designs, tests, and approves) the products, but that's just a minor point, right?
A statement in a short Reuters article (Cardiac Science Gets FDA Warning on Quality) struck me as a good example of a corporate PR group trying to spin bad press. Here's an excerpt (emphasis is mine):
"Cardiac Science Inc., a defibrillator maker, said on Wednesday that it received a warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration following an inspection of its manufacturing facility in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The FDA letter ... said certain procedural and documentation items in the company's quality system were not in compliance, the company said in a statement. The letter did not relate to the usability, safety or efficacy of the company's defibrillators, the firm said."
So what they are REALLY saying is the FDA warned them about problems with their quality process. The FDA didn't point out any exact issues with their products. Of course, the process is what leads to (i.e., designs, tests, and approves) the products, but that's just a minor point, right?
April 20, 2004
Search Best Bets & Reporting on Search Log Data
Looking for a way to process your search logs (data files that keep a record of each search query performed on a web site)? Check out this helpful article from Jean Ferguson, a Masters student at UNC: Counting frequency in a list of search terms. It does a nice job of explaining how to get Excel to show you your most popular search terms.
If you're managing your search engine, you should keep track of the most popular terms and make sure that people will find relevant results when searching for those terms. Search term popularity follows a "zipf distribution" (think 80/20 or pareto principle), so you get the most bang for your buck by focusing on the most popular search queries. Some search tools allow you to manually point users to "best bets" for a given search term. Here's an example for a search for "support" on the Novell site. Here's another example from the BBCi site - a search for "politics."
See also:
- Lou Rosenfeld, Bloug: 80/20 Again—Critical Architectural Junctures
- Lou Rosenfeld, Presentation called Search Log Analysis for User Research (.5 MB PowerPoint file) given to a local UPA chapter.
- Tanya Rabourn, Pixelcharmer: Best Bets. (Great example of real data from a real site.)
- James Robertson, Column Two: Search tools articles
- Richard Wiggins, Searcher Magazine: Beyond the Spider: The Accidental Thesaurus
- Avi Rappoport, SearchTools.com: Recommending Pages for Special Searches (Covers best bets pretty well with tool suggestions.)
Looking for a way to process your search logs (data files that keep a record of each search query performed on a web site)? Check out this helpful article from Jean Ferguson, a Masters student at UNC: Counting frequency in a list of search terms. It does a nice job of explaining how to get Excel to show you your most popular search terms.
If you're managing your search engine, you should keep track of the most popular terms and make sure that people will find relevant results when searching for those terms. Search term popularity follows a "zipf distribution" (think 80/20 or pareto principle), so you get the most bang for your buck by focusing on the most popular search queries. Some search tools allow you to manually point users to "best bets" for a given search term. Here's an example for a search for "support" on the Novell site. Here's another example from the BBCi site - a search for "politics."
See also:
- Lou Rosenfeld, Bloug: 80/20 Again—Critical Architectural Junctures
- Lou Rosenfeld, Presentation called Search Log Analysis for User Research (.5 MB PowerPoint file) given to a local UPA chapter.
- Tanya Rabourn, Pixelcharmer: Best Bets. (Great example of real data from a real site.)
- James Robertson, Column Two: Search tools articles
- Richard Wiggins, Searcher Magazine: Beyond the Spider: The Accidental Thesaurus
- Avi Rappoport, SearchTools.com: Recommending Pages for Special Searches (Covers best bets pretty well with tool suggestions.)
How many navigation bars can you fit on a screen?
Check out this page on the Dell Support site:
Dell Support: Reference Info: User Guides: Dell Printers: Workgroup Laser Printers
I count well over a dozen distinct navigation bars or levels of navigation...
Now click on "Enterprise Support" at the top right (which is not a distinct label from "Support Home")...you get a dialog box saying "Your current 'Manage My Systems List' will remain on this support site while you visit the Enterprise Support site." It tells me nothing worthwhile - I didn't know I had such a 'list,' and now I'm confused. I also noted that while the message seems to indicate I won't lose the place I'm leaving, the Back button doesn't function properly once I get to Enterprise Support.
...I smell a few silos somewhere...
Got any more examples of nav bar overload? Send them to me at Lyle_Kantrovich at Bigfoot dot com (replace the words with the usual punctuation).
Related Posts:
- Segmenting Users with Navigation Games
- Dell.com design case study
Check out this page on the Dell Support site:
Dell Support: Reference Info: User Guides: Dell Printers: Workgroup Laser Printers
I count well over a dozen distinct navigation bars or levels of navigation...
Now click on "Enterprise Support" at the top right (which is not a distinct label from "Support Home")...you get a dialog box saying "Your current 'Manage My Systems List' will remain on this support site while you visit the Enterprise Support site." It tells me nothing worthwhile - I didn't know I had such a 'list,' and now I'm confused. I also noted that while the message seems to indicate I won't lose the place I'm leaving, the Back button doesn't function properly once I get to Enterprise Support.
...I smell a few silos somewhere...
Got any more examples of nav bar overload? Send them to me at Lyle_Kantrovich at Bigfoot dot com (replace the words with the usual punctuation).
Related Posts:
- Segmenting Users with Navigation Games
- Dell.com design case study
March 21, 2004
NASA Researching new input technology that may improve accessibility
"NASA has developed a computer program that comes close to reading thoughts not yet spoken, by analyzing nerve commands to the throat. It says the breakthrough holds promise for astronauts and the handicapped.
"A person using the subvocal system thinks of phrases and talks to himself so quietly it cannot be heard, but the tongue and vocal cords do receive speech signals from the brain," said developer Chuck Jorgensen, of NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. Jorgensen's team found that sensors under the chin and one each side of the Adam's apple pick up the brain's commands to the speech organs, allowing the subauditory, or "silent speech" to be captured.
'A logical spin-off would be that handicapped persons could use this system for a lot of things,' he said, as well as persons wanting to speak by telephone without being overheard."
[Via Yahoo! News]: Yahoo! News - NASA hears words not yet spoken
More:
- NASA - SUBVOCAL SPEECH DEMO PHOTOS
- NASA - NASA DEVELOPS SYSTEM TO COMPUTERIZE SILENT, 'SUBVOCAL SPEECH'
"NASA has developed a computer program that comes close to reading thoughts not yet spoken, by analyzing nerve commands to the throat. It says the breakthrough holds promise for astronauts and the handicapped.
"A person using the subvocal system thinks of phrases and talks to himself so quietly it cannot be heard, but the tongue and vocal cords do receive speech signals from the brain," said developer Chuck Jorgensen, of NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. Jorgensen's team found that sensors under the chin and one each side of the Adam's apple pick up the brain's commands to the speech organs, allowing the subauditory, or "silent speech" to be captured.
'A logical spin-off would be that handicapped persons could use this system for a lot of things,' he said, as well as persons wanting to speak by telephone without being overheard."
[Via Yahoo! News]: Yahoo! News - NASA hears words not yet spoken
More:
- NASA - SUBVOCAL SPEECH DEMO PHOTOS
- NASA - NASA DEVELOPS SYSTEM TO COMPUTERIZE SILENT, 'SUBVOCAL SPEECH'
JetBlue founder & CEO takes time to serve customers - in flight
Inc magazine has a nice story of how a company's CEO takes time each month to serve customer and motivate his team.
Full Story:
Inc.com | Street Smarts: Learning From JetBlue:
"by keeping in touch, he gets a real-time sense of the market. He knows first hand what's going on out there, and he'll see trends before his competitors. That's one of the biggest advantages of having direct contact with customers. Markets change. Technologies change. Customer wants and needs change. If you have your finger on the pulse of the market, you're a step ahead of the competition. If you don't, you run the risk of getting blind-sided.
In addition, he's shaping the company culture. Employees see him working the crowd, going out of his way to help a customer, and they do the same. They hear him talking about the plans to introduce new services, and they spread the word. Above all, they know that Neeleman isn't sitting behind a desk somewhere counting his stock options. He's putting in overtime, and he's doing it with them. They can rest assured that he understands what's happening on the frontlines because he's been there. He's on their team."
Inc magazine has a nice story of how a company's CEO takes time each month to serve customer and motivate his team.
Full Story:
Inc.com | Street Smarts: Learning From JetBlue:
"by keeping in touch, he gets a real-time sense of the market. He knows first hand what's going on out there, and he'll see trends before his competitors. That's one of the biggest advantages of having direct contact with customers. Markets change. Technologies change. Customer wants and needs change. If you have your finger on the pulse of the market, you're a step ahead of the competition. If you don't, you run the risk of getting blind-sided.
In addition, he's shaping the company culture. Employees see him working the crowd, going out of his way to help a customer, and they do the same. They hear him talking about the plans to introduce new services, and they spread the word. Above all, they know that Neeleman isn't sitting behind a desk somewhere counting his stock options. He's putting in overtime, and he's doing it with them. They can rest assured that he understands what's happening on the frontlines because he's been there. He's on their team."
January 26, 2004
Beyond Bookmarks & Powermarks
A New York Times article called Now Where Was I? New Ways to Revisit Web Sites talks about new research being done to help users find useful web pages after some time has elapsed.
"Software being tested at Microsoft Research takes a stab at solving that problem. Susan Dumais, a senior researcher with Microsoft who is also part of the University of Washington team, has helped develop a program called Stuff I've Seen. The software is designed to help people recall documents like e-mail messages and Web sites through a unified search interface. Keyword search results include related Web sites already visited, regardless of whether they have been bookmarked."
Frequent COL readers might recall I have an affinity for Powermarks. So far, it's still the best I've found for this sort of recall task.
Related:
- Stuff I've Seen - A System for Personal Information Retrieval and Re-Use (SIGIR Paper in PDF format)
- COL: Who needs bookmarks?
A New York Times article called Now Where Was I? New Ways to Revisit Web Sites talks about new research being done to help users find useful web pages after some time has elapsed.
"Software being tested at Microsoft Research takes a stab at solving that problem. Susan Dumais, a senior researcher with Microsoft who is also part of the University of Washington team, has helped develop a program called Stuff I've Seen. The software is designed to help people recall documents like e-mail messages and Web sites through a unified search interface. Keyword search results include related Web sites already visited, regardless of whether they have been bookmarked."
Frequent COL readers might recall I have an affinity for Powermarks. So far, it's still the best I've found for this sort of recall task.
Related:
- Stuff I've Seen - A System for Personal Information Retrieval and Re-Use (SIGIR Paper in PDF format)
- COL: Who needs bookmarks?
December 23, 2003
B2B e-commerce pioneer Staples continues to define the cutting edge
According to a Network World Fusion article, usability studies help Staples stay ahead of the competition:
"By last count, customers that have standing contracts with Staples place 70% of their orders electronically, says Mike Ragunas, vice president of technology strategy and architecture at the Framingham, Mass., office-supply retailer. At least some of those results can be attributed to the company's focus on making it easy for customers to shop at Staples, whether online, in the store or from a catalog. Often that effort involves making Staples.com simple to use."
"Easy Reorder required only relatively simple programming and database work. "The bigger challenge was working with customers on finding the right way to present it," he says. He adds that Staples puts significant effort into usability studies "so when we put something new out, we know customers will get it."
Yes, Staples has usability folks -- a number of them. And the company's bottom line shows the results. Check out this case study.
According to a Network World Fusion article, usability studies help Staples stay ahead of the competition:
"By last count, customers that have standing contracts with Staples place 70% of their orders electronically, says Mike Ragunas, vice president of technology strategy and architecture at the Framingham, Mass., office-supply retailer. At least some of those results can be attributed to the company's focus on making it easy for customers to shop at Staples, whether online, in the store or from a catalog. Often that effort involves making Staples.com simple to use."
"Easy Reorder required only relatively simple programming and database work. "The bigger challenge was working with customers on finding the right way to present it," he says. He adds that Staples puts significant effort into usability studies "so when we put something new out, we know customers will get it."
Yes, Staples has usability folks -- a number of them. And the company's bottom line shows the results. Check out this case study.
December 12, 2003
The SheLingual Woman Translator
More proof that PT Barnum was right when he said there's a sucker born every day:
BowLingual
This made me think of a million dollar idea: "The SheLingual" - a device to translate what women are saying into something men can understand.
Some potential features:
- Gripe Translation: Uses the exclusive YPMS system to analyze what she's saying. Now when you hear "blah, blah, blah, blah" during football games, you can use the "SheLingual" to avoid having to respond with "did you say something sweetie?". And when she's sniping about the laundry, you'll know it's really because you haven't given her flowers in over two years.
- Home Alone Mode: records up to 12 hours of phone chats, gossip, griping and mood swings while you are away.
- Body Language Guide: helps you interpret hand guestures, facial expressions, sighs, snickers, and a variety of hands-on-hips stances. No more asking "what was THAT look for?"
More proof that PT Barnum was right when he said there's a sucker born every day:
BowLingual
This made me think of a million dollar idea: "The SheLingual" - a device to translate what women are saying into something men can understand.
Some potential features:
- Gripe Translation: Uses the exclusive YPMS system to analyze what she's saying. Now when you hear "blah, blah, blah, blah" during football games, you can use the "SheLingual" to avoid having to respond with "did you say something sweetie?". And when she's sniping about the laundry, you'll know it's really because you haven't given her flowers in over two years.
- Home Alone Mode: records up to 12 hours of phone chats, gossip, griping and mood swings while you are away.
- Body Language Guide: helps you interpret hand guestures, facial expressions, sighs, snickers, and a variety of hands-on-hips stances. No more asking "what was THAT look for?"
November 25, 2003
Usability Service with a smile...
...okay, a quirky, possibly scary "The Shining" kind of smile, but a smile nonetheless.
The following is from the home page of Kurt Robinson Usability Consulting. It struck me as funny - but then I have a rather twisted sense of humor (a fact that anyone who reads this site often will atest to). I'm not sure it's the kind of writing style that conveys a sense of credibility or professionalism.
"We rigorously inspect your site, looking for ways to make it quicker and easier for your site's visitors to find things, compare products, check out, subscribe, etc. Beyond that, we look for any opportunity to enhance the user's sense that your company is trustworthy, and that, vaguely speaking, your company has a consistent, likable personality. Failing that, at least try to be likable in your private life. Remember birthdays. Really listen. Play dumb. Put a sock in it.
"The deliverable is a Usability Report - A concise report describing ways to improve the user experience your site provides. In this context, 'the deliverable' has no sexual connotations."
I'd never hire this consultant - not based on their web site. Then again, there's so much obviously wrong with this site that I can't believe they actually expect to get any business from their site.
Of course, maybe they're not targeting folks like me or my clients. If their target market is adolecent boys, maybe this is spot on.
Being funny's great, and I think it can actually help in marketing. Just look at Steve Krug, his book was a huge seller, largely because of his fabulous writing style. But there comes a point when things go too far and turn people away.
...okay, a quirky, possibly scary "The Shining" kind of smile, but a smile nonetheless.
The following is from the home page of Kurt Robinson Usability Consulting. It struck me as funny - but then I have a rather twisted sense of humor (a fact that anyone who reads this site often will atest to). I'm not sure it's the kind of writing style that conveys a sense of credibility or professionalism.
"We rigorously inspect your site, looking for ways to make it quicker and easier for your site's visitors to find things, compare products, check out, subscribe, etc. Beyond that, we look for any opportunity to enhance the user's sense that your company is trustworthy, and that, vaguely speaking, your company has a consistent, likable personality. Failing that, at least try to be likable in your private life. Remember birthdays. Really listen. Play dumb. Put a sock in it.
"The deliverable is a Usability Report - A concise report describing ways to improve the user experience your site provides. In this context, 'the deliverable' has no sexual connotations."
I'd never hire this consultant - not based on their web site. Then again, there's so much obviously wrong with this site that I can't believe they actually expect to get any business from their site.
Of course, maybe they're not targeting folks like me or my clients. If their target market is adolecent boys, maybe this is spot on.
Being funny's great, and I think it can actually help in marketing. Just look at Steve Krug, his book was a huge seller, largely because of his fabulous writing style. But there comes a point when things go too far and turn people away.
November 24, 2003
Dispelling myths about spam
Rebecca Lieb has an excellent piece at Clickz called The 10 Biggest Spam Myths. If you think "something must be done," then you should read this very informative and eye-opening article.
"Everyone battling the spam scourge -- marketers, consumers, lawmakers, and the media -- could do with a little reason and rationality just about now. It's time to think critically about received ideas on spam."
Rebecca Lieb has an excellent piece at Clickz called The 10 Biggest Spam Myths. If you think "something must be done," then you should read this very informative and eye-opening article.
"Everyone battling the spam scourge -- marketers, consumers, lawmakers, and the media -- could do with a little reason and rationality just about now. It's time to think critically about received ideas on spam."
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