Usability and user experience

"The difference (and relationship) between usability and use experience". An article on a website called Usability Geek. Maybe not something that immediately strikes you as something for anyone other than a specialist, but worth a look as the author does a good job of placing the role of usability in the wider context of website management and marketing.

McGovern on satisfaction surveys

Gerry McGovern repeats the often heard maxim - what people do and what people say are not the same. I've seen first hand many times what Gerry outlines this week.

Metrics don't equal success

A pithy, but worthwhile reminder of why we shouldn't get too caught up in various metrics collected through web analytics packages.

Reasons to try remote testing

A nice little article in which Jeff Sauro lists his 5 reasons why he likes remote testing. He lists a few services he's involved with too, so if you're new to this kind of thing there are a few companies to investigate.

Persona mistakes to avoid

Jared Spool picks on 5 mistakes he's observed in development teams using personas. There's a fair amount of effort involved in putting the user at the centre of your design in this way, so it makes sense not to fall into these traps and waste the effort you've put in.

Nielsen's heuristics in action

Jakob Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics are nicely illustrated in this article pulling together lots of examples of good practice.

Does your CMS support your content strategy?

A blog article by a content management system (CMS) developer with a refreshingly enlightened understanding of content strategy. Rachel Andrew writes about how the CMS should serve to support website editors to do a better job, focusing the content that they write.

Website usability for mobile users

Jakob Nielsen has done a couple of studies in recent years that reveal a lot about user behaviour on websites when using mobile devices. Some companies are very aware of these differences and develop strategies accordingly.

Content management system usability

A well considered and structured series of principles for the usability of content management systems.

User time on web pages

Jakob Nielsen summarises some new research revealing more about how long users typically spend on web pages. Basically an interesting and detailed piece of work that can be summarised as, 'not very long at all, almost all of the time'.

Paul Boag on content management systems

Paul Boag - who wrote the excellent "Website Owners Manual" - has written a number of articles on his views about content management systems (CMS). I've pulled together links to several of his articles that have provided me with some food for thought.

Why people leave your website

A nice little article, including video footage, which highlights 5 common usability problems. I particularly like the points that are the real fundamentals, underlining what happens when you're not 100% clear about what your site is there to do.

Practical website development podcast - Boag

Paul Boag's latest podcast series is an excellent listen. Week by week he is covering all the key tasks and considerations when undertaking a website redesign, and practically applying it to an overhaul of his own site - www.boagworld.com.

Web strategies that don't work

In his article, "5 popular web strategies that don't work", Scott McDonald outlines some common approaches often adopted at the outset of website projects. See how many are familiar to you...

Reporting usability problems - 10 tips & facts

If you've ever conducted your own usability tests and then reported on your findings,  then this article will be worth a read (and bookmarking for future reference).

Usability vs business interests

A really interesting article packed with examples in which Jeff Sauro discusses situations where improved usability doesn't necessarily help a business achieve its goals.

Scenarios & personas

Kim Goodwin discusses how scenarios help bring your personas to life, and encourage stakeholders to engage with them.

Field studies - benefits & costs

Jared Spool writes about field studies - how he's used them, their benefits and the overheads involved.

Steve Krug blog

Steve Krug - author of probably the two most accessible and enjoyable books about usability - has started blogging.

Social media challenges for higher ed

An interesting article in UK newspaper the Guardian, on how college students are using social media more and more - ahead of relying on official communications channels. It also gives a few examples of what universities are doing to begin to engage with these key audiences in new ways.