In honor of World Usability Day (November 8th), usability is the theme of week's Reader's Corner, because technology should always make life easier, for everybody involved. Check out the official World Usability Day website to see how companies are joining together to ensure that the services and products important to life are easier to access and simpler to use.
How to Recruit For and Run Remote User Testing
Source: Optimal Workshop Blog
Takeaway: At DesignHammer we are not alone in our belief that usability and user testing is essential for a successful project outcome. Unfortunately, both budget and schedule constraints can limit can limit the amount of in-person testing options available. Luckily, in recent years a wide variety of online tools have been developed that allow for very efficient, and affordable, remote usability and user testing. We are big fans of Optimal Workshop’s card sorting and tree testing tools. In this blog post from the developer, Jess Lewes outlines the strengths, as well as weaknesses of remote testing, as well as ways to integrate remote testing into your usability plan.
Tags: #Usability, #UserTesting
How to Map Complex Customer Journeys
Source: Medium: Victoria Hughes
Takeaway: Understanding how visitors move through a site is an important part of designing an appropriate user interface for navigating the site. We try not to make decisions based on gut feel alone. However, even with data, it's not always easy to understand how traffic numbers relate to user activity over the course of many page views. Victoria Hughes provides several methods of visually rendering user journeys which can help guide a UX design team, particularly when the user journeys show circular or re-entrant patterns.
Tags: #Usability, #Visualization, #UX
Why Web Accessibility is the New Usability
Takeaway: Elsevier, a global information analytics business specializing in science and health, began a journey towards 'inclusive design' (or accessibility) over a decade ago. In 2014 they discussed their process so far, and what they'd learned from it. One of the critical paradigm shifts they experienced along the way was thinking differently about accessibility: it's not a burden, but rather a set of guidelines that lead to more usable pages for everyone. Among the chief consumers of data who do not experience a website as the average visitor does is, in fact, Google; as such, building sites that are accessible through correct use of structured data not only makes them more accessible to people who have sensory challenges, but also to Google, improving the SEO of the site. Seeing accessibility as advanced usability also heightens the appreciation of the ROI for accessibility work. Even in industries where accessibility is not required for funding, by building a better UX for your site, your target audiences will be more engaged.
Tags: #Usability #Accessibility
How intuitive is the navigation on your site? Not sure? Then have us take a look.
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