Tag: Usability

One of the most important things you need to do when starting to design is to understand who your users are. Resist if you are told to design "for anybody", this way your design will be good for nobody. Choose a target population even if you think that other people will use your site as...

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when designing a UI for consumers. One of the most important is the unfortunate fact that about 40% of the general population has low literacy. Keeping that in mind, most pages need to be designed at a 6th-grade level. Some other tips to consider: 1....

Users spend very little time on the Homepage. If the user is experienced, it can be as little as 25 seconds. What do you need to show them in this short period of time? Obviously, users don't read long paragraphs of text. Most of those precious seconds are spent figuring out where to go next....

"The term "usable" means more than just easy to learn. Ease of learning is an important component of usability, but it is the least important of the three components. To be usable, the product also has to be quick to use and relatively error-free. Most importantly, you must do what the user wants... Usability refers...

One sure way for software to annoy its users is to ask them for data the software obviously doesn't need. The form of this blooper that annoys users the most is asking them to reenter data they already entered... Make it a high priority not to require users to enter data repeatedly. Here are several...

Well, first we need to agree what the PC is. Let's say for the sake of argument that it's desktop and laptop computers. Then all other devices - ipad, phones, etc., are mobile devices. Steve Jobs said something like this about a year ago: Long time ago there were mostly trucks. But when population moved...

Average users can't always complete what they started and leave websites in frustration, never returning again. Why is it happening and what are the main offenders in the UI of those websites? Here are the top 5 usability problems that caused incomplete or wrongly done tasks: 1. Information Architecture - the user doesn't know where...

Due to enormous competition on the Web, usability is a vital surviving factor. If a website is difficult to use, people turn to your competitors. It's that simple. Here are some other reasons why visitors leave: The homepage fails to communicate what you offer and what problem you solve They can't easily navigate the website...

It seems that with the advanced computers and laptops widely available web designers can consider moving from 1024x768 to 1280×800 which covers 76% of the market according to w3schools.com and NetMarketshare. The game is to have all vital information ABOVE THE FOLD LINE. According to the latest study from NNg, users scroll much more than...

Symbian — the OS that runs in about 330m mobile phones on the market is not Open source and free. Non-profit Symbian Foundation consists of about 50 companies and was created by Nokia in mid-2008 followed by the acquisition of Symbian LTD. Lee Williams, executive director of the Symbian Foundation says that all source code...