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    Usability Testing and Web Design: Dr. Will Kurlinkus

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    Will Kurlinkus
    This document discusses usability testing and web design principles. It begins with an overview of an assignment on usability testing, including common errors to avoid. It then provides guidance on conducting usability tests, defining them as watching users try to use a design to make it easier to use or prove ease of use. The document outlines best practices for web design, including keeping pages simple, clear navigation and structure, and prioritizing user tasks. It emphasizes design principles like minimizing clicks and ensuring understandability. Examples are provided and the reader is prompted to evaluate pages against these usability and design criteria.

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    Usability Testing and Web Design: Dr. Will Kurlinkus

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    Will Kurlinkus
    175 views17 pages
    This document discusses usability testing and web design principles. It begins with an overview of an assignment on usability testing, including common errors to avoid. It then provides guidance on conducting usability tests, defining them as watching users try to use a design to make it easier to use or prove ease of use. The document outlines best practices for web design, including keeping pages simple, clear navigation and structure, and prioritizing user tasks. It emphasizes design principles like minimizing clicks and ensuring understandability. Examples are provided and the reader is prompted to evaluate pages against these usability and design criteria.

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    UsabilityTest1.pptx

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    This document discusses usability testing and web design principles. It begins with an overview of an assignment on usability testing, including common errors to avoid. It then provides guidance on conducting usability tests, defining them as watching users try to use a design to make it easier to use or prove ease of use. The document outlines best practices for web design, including keeping pages simple, clear navigation and structure, and prioritizing user tasks. It emphasizes design principles like minimizing clicks and ensuring understandability. Examples are provided and the reader is prompted to evaluate pages against these usability and design criteria.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    175 views17 pages

    Usability Testing and Web Design: Dr. Will Kurlinkus

    Uploaded by

    Will Kurlinkus
    This document discusses usability testing and web design principles. It begins with an overview of an assignment on usability testing, including common errors to avoid. It then provides guidance on conducting usability tests, defining them as watching users try to use a design to make it easier to use or prove ease of use. The document outlines best practices for web design, including keeping pages simple, clear navigation and structure, and prioritizing user tasks. It emphasizes design principles like minimizing clicks and ensuring understandability. Examples are provided and the reader is prompted to evaluate pages against these usability and design criteria.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 17

    Usability Testing and Web Design

    Dr. Will Kurlinkus

    Trouble Shooting Assignment 2


    1. Read over assignment sheet
    2. Look at all three examples on the course website
    3. Common Errors:

    Introduction: Problem isnt clearly defined and illustrated through examples, quotes,
    stats, and facts in the intro

    Audience/client isnt clearly defined (remember you are pretending to write to


    someone, pretend you are working for a boss)

    User isnt kept in mind during all the analyses (remember the user is different from
    the client)

    Examples are too similar to one another. You cant just do 3 ted talks

    Examples arent described in detail

    Examples arent analyzed enough in terms of WHY they were designed in the way
    they were. Remember, youre analyzing rhetoric, user adaptation, and pros and
    cons.

    Not enough time is spent on the proposal. You should propose something that is
    clear that checks out in terms of feasibility that you can talk about for an extended
    time. Your conclusion should be as long as one of your body sections

    Quiz
    1. What is a usability test?
    2. Is Krugs usability test quantitative or qualitative?
    Whats the difference?

    Question
    1. What is your favorite website?
    2. What is a bad website?
    3. What is a website you use a lot?

    What is a Usability Test?

    In this assignment you will find a


    poorly designed website; you will
    create a usability test to get
    feedback on how successfully or
    poorly that site is designed for its
    intended users and purposes; you
    will run a usability test with 2
    users; and you will create a lab
    report proposing suggestions for
    improvement.
    1.

    Website Redesign
    Evaluation

    2.

    Usability Protocol Memo

    3.

    Final Lab Report

    4.

    Group Presentation on Your


    Findings

    Watching people try to


    use what youre
    creating/designing/buildin
    g (or something youve
    already
    created/designed/built)
    with the intention of (a)
    making it easier for
    people to use or (b)
    proving that it is easy to
    use.
    Steve Krug, Rocket
    Surgery Made Easy

    Rocket Surgery Made Easy: 1-4


    Watching users makes you a better designer. Why?
    We are performing a qualitative test in hopes to improve a preexisting website. We cant prove something from qualitative
    data, but we can suggest improvements.
    Usability testing can be exceedingly easy, but it often isnt done
    simply because designers think that they are their users. If the
    designer/engineer understands it, then the user will understand
    it. WRONG!
    Usability testing can be done on any design that has a user. It is
    a useful tool for all designers, engineers, and scientists who
    create things.

    What Were Doing: Overview


    Teams of 4
    Writing for a client testing 1 website and 3 pages in that
    site
    Testing 2 participants: ~45 minutes each
    Designing a scripted think-aloud-protocol including a
    homepage tour and several common scenarios for
    participants to go through
    Record the screen (screen capture software) and the
    usability test room (with a small video camera)

    Web Design: Dont Make Me Think


    Dont Make Me Think: Web design should be obvious and selfexplanatory. Dont create frustration and confusion. Let a user
    accomplish tasks as easily as possible.
    Open up the pizza shuttle, Norman website.

    Web Design: Home Page


    Goals: What is this website? Whats the company? How
    can I get from here to the place I need to be? Should
    spell out the big picture of the site.

    Clear navigation

    Clear imagery and logo

    Search bar

    Avoids needless words

    Resonates with target audience

    Lets evaluate one of your examples.

    Web Design: Site Structure


    There generally should only have to be three levels of a
    site structure: Homepage>Level 1>Level 2>Level 3
    Getting to these lower-level pages should be easy and
    obvious
    Understanding what content belongs in what section and
    how to get a user to that content is the most difficult parts
    of web design
    Usability: Card sorting for webdesign and writing
    Find the Graduation Checklist: http://www.ou.edu/coe.html

    Web Design: Page Structure

    Clear visual hierarchy

    Size, spacing, font

    Nesting

    Chunk pages into clear


    sections

    Avoid having too much on


    any page

    Beware of content below


    the fold

    Lets evaluate one of your


    examples.

    Web Design: Page Structure

    Web Design: Navigation 1

    Let me get where I want to


    go

    Make terms obvious

    Give a search bar

    Navigation should stay the


    same across all pages

    Navigation should tell us


    where we are

    Usability: Renaming
    navigation

    http://som.ou.edu/index.php

    Web Design: Navigation 2


    Sign Posting: Once Im on a page I should be able to see the title
    of the specific page, have a visual marker of the page Im on (a
    button is lit up), and know the path I took to get to that page
    (breadcrumb trail).
    Uniformity: When I click something, the title of the button should
    match the title of the page Im sent to.

    Web Design: Trunk Test


    Usability: The Trunk Test:
    http://som.ou.edu/index.php/academics/future
    Imagine that youve been blindfolded and locked in the trunk of a car,
    then driven around for a while and dumped on a page somewhere
    deep in the bowels of a Web site. If the page is well designed, when
    your vision clears you should be able to answer these questions
    without hesitation:
    1. What site is this? (Site ID)
    2. What page am I on? (Page name)
    3. What are the major sections of this site? (Sections)
    4. What are my options at this level? (Local navigation)
    5. Where am I in the scheme of things? (You are here indicators)
    6. How can I search?

    Web Design: Beautification

    Uniformity: Using the same navigation,


    hierarchy scheme, titles, etc., across the
    entire site.

    White Space: Give your information and


    images breathing room. Clutter is the
    opposite of white space. The more white
    space on a site, generally, the more
    ethos the site has. White space doesnt
    have to be white.

    Color Scheme: Repeated, meaningful,


    colors. Goal is the 3 color 60-30-10 rule.

    Visual Hierarchy: Is consistent

    Image Driven

    Scannability: Uses headings, small


    paragraphs, pull quotes, bullets, etc.

    Homework
    Find 1 poorly designed website for a small business or
    academic department and evaluate it on the criteria
    weve discussed today.

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