Tuesday 29 March 2011

Usability blooper videos - usertesting.com

Usertesting.com (a service I rate very highly) are posting videos to a blog highlighting usability problems with a range of major websites.

Compare search terms - google web trends

Web Trends is a really useful tool to bookmark if you're interested in what people are searching for on Google.


Saturday 26 March 2011

Facebook user attitudes to business

Recent market research shows that "despite living online, US teenagers don't want to 'Like' your company on Facebook". This research tallies with a usability study of college students worldwide.

Sunday 20 March 2011

Readability & comprehension of webpages - mobile implications

Jakob Nielsen talks through the difference between readability and comprehension of online content and introduces the Cloze Test - a really easy way to score how easy your content is to understand. He relates this to a study of mobile user behaviour.

Monday 14 March 2011

Prioritising customer convenience on your website

Gerry McGovern writes about the "price of doing business on the web".  In a nutshell - are we making things convenient for ourselves as organisations, or for our customers?

Saturday 12 March 2011

Interview skills for user testing

If you've ever conducted a usability test, you'll know that a core aspect of the session is how well you encourage the participant to verbalise their thoughts and experiences.

Screenreader usage survey

A survey of over 1000 European screenreader users in December 2010 by Web AIM.

4 usability testing don'ts

An excellent article which picks on four common failures of user testing sessions. Good tips to bear in mind, particularly if you're new to running sessions like this to learn more about your website or application.

Friday 11 March 2011

Prioritising design & development - the Kano model

Fascinating article on the Kano Model - a means to identify development priorities according to the cost to you, and the expectations of your target audiences.

Students & smart phones session in Edinburgh

This month's Scottish Usability Professionals Association session is "Student attitudes towards mobile library services for Smartphones" on Tuesday 15 March in Edinburgh.

Managing project meetings - great tips & techniques

A couple of great articles to help manage development projects. How to build a shared vision, diffuse differences of opinion and neutralise dominant stakeholders.

Free usability seminars from UIE

Jared Spool and his usability business UIE are offering free access to 12 online seminars on a range of usability-related topics if you register by 14 March 2011. They're available to download en masse, as well as accessing online.