Want to learn more about user experience, guidelines,
metrics or usability return on investment? See below
or contact us.
Check out our newest resource, Expero's Free Usability Advice weblog. You can see a list of recent questions and answers on topics in usability and user-centered design, or ask your own question and we'll respond.
Incorporating User-Centered Design into an Agile Development Process, Expero
Help and Online Documentation, Expero
Error Message Usability Guidelines, Expero
Windows
User Interface Design Guidelines, Microsoft
Apple
User Interface Design Guidelines, Apple Computer
Accessibility
Guidelines, U.S. Section 508 Compliance
"Concise, SCANNABLE,
and Objective: How to Write for the Web," Expero's
John Morkes and Jakob Nielsen
"Applying Writing
Guidelines to Web Pages," Expero's John Morkes
and Jakob Nielsen
Example Business and
User Experience Metrics, Expero
Books
Usability
Engineering, Jakob Nielsen
This is the premier
text on software usability. Although it was written
years ago, the principles and premises
apply just as aptly to the web today. The book gives
concrete, actionable methodologies and tools to improve the ease of use, usefulness and satisfaction
of a system.
Designing
Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity, Jakob
Nielsen
This book segments discussions of web usability into
page, content, site, and intranet design. Nielsen uses
research and many examples to communicate his guidelines.
Emotional
Design: Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things, Donald Norman
This is a book to inspire and evangelize. It's more
of a why book than a how book, as in "why are we drawn
to some objects more than others?"
Cost-Justifying
Usability, Randolph G. Bias and Deborah J. Mayhew
If
you are trying to convince your organization of the
need for usability, Cost-Justifying Usability is
the book for you. It gives the business case for why
and how usability saves companies money in the long
haul. The book has many case studies and techniques
for quantifying usability.
Don't
Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach To Web Usability,
Steve Krug
Includes tips, techniques and examples
of website design. It covers topics such as user patterns,
navigation
design and home page layout, as well as user testing.
Links
Free Usability Advice weblog (freeusabilityadvice.com) is Expero's own weblog, providing expert answers to questions about usability, design, content, process and strategy for websites and software applications.
Jakob Nielsen's
Alertbox is an archive of bi-monthly columns
about specific issues in usability. Browse through
articles to find out about guidelines, research results,
and methodologies.
"Maximizing
Windows" is the best article on single-use web
applications (applications used just once, or very
infrequently). It's also one of the best arguments
for iterative user testing.
"How
Usability-Focused Companies Think" gives great
advice on how and why to implement user-centered
design for the betterment of your users—and your
sales.
Organizations and Associations
SIGCHI (Special
Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction) is
the premier international society for professionals,
academics and students interested in human-computer
interaction (HCI).
UPA (The Usability
Professionals' Association) supports those who
promote and advance the development of usable products.
Members come from across the broad family of disciplines
that create the user experience. It's less academic
than SIGCHI and focuses more exclusively on usability.
HFES (Human Factors and
Ergonomics Society) promotes the discovery and
exchange of knowledge concerning the characteristics
of human beings that apply to the design of systems
and devices of all kinds. The group focuses broadly
on human factors and ergonomics as they apply to
a range of systems, including software applications,
websites, aeronautics and cars.
Books
Bringing
Design to Software, Terry Winograd
This collection
of essays provides essential inspiration for reflective
software designers driven by practical
concerns of what works, what doesn't, and why. Contains
contributions by such insightful software engineers
as David Liddle, Don Norman, John Bennett and Michael
Schrage.
The Design
of Everyday Things, Donald Norman
An inspiring book
that gets everybody thinking in a different way about
how users interact with and experience
anything that's designed.
The
Art of Human-Computer Interface Design, Brenda
Laurel
A collection of essays from industry luminaries
such as Alan Kay, Nicholas Negroponte and Ted Nelson.
Don't
expect to read it for hard-and-fast advice on solving
your programming problems, but do expect to gain new
perspectives on how your users view your applications
and what they expect from a computer.
Envisioning
Information, Edward Tufte
One of the most-cited
design books. Tufte presents examples of good and
bad information design and deconstructs
why they work—or don't.
Designing
Visual Interfaces: Communication-Oriented Techniques,
Kevin Mullet and Darrell Sano
An excellent introduction
to the design theories involved in the creation of
user interfaces. Instead of using
the usual examples and pictures of computer screens
and application menus, the book approaches the concept
of UI from its "outside world" roots. Examples
include street signs, corporate logos, and the map
of the London Underground.
Links
"Graphic
Design for User Interfaces" is a short overview
from Georgia Tech of basic tips for creating visual
design. It's a good place for beginners to start.
Organizations and Associations
AIGA is the professional
association for communication design. It is committed
to furthering excellence in communication design as
a broadly defined discipline, strategic tool for business
and cultural force. AIGA is the place design professionals
turn to first to exchange ideas and information, participate
in critical analysis and research, and advance education
and ethical practice.
InfoDesign is
a site dedicated to interaction and information design
for those in the trenches. It has more than 20 sub-categories
of information, including accessibility, content, mobile
design, navigation and more.
GUUUI is
a site for people engaged in the various fields of
making the web a better experience for the users. At
GUUUI, you'll find weekly postings and quarterly articles
about interaction design, information architecture,
usability, visual design and the like. GUUUI is a private
project and isn't sponsored or initiated by any private
or public organization or company.
"Return
on Investment for Usability," Jakob Nielsen
This
is one of the definitive articles on the incredible
value of usability to organizations. Nielsen quantifies
the value several ways. An excerpt:
Following a usability redesign, websites increase
usability by 135% on average; intranets improve slightly
less.
ROI
of Usability, UPA
The Usability Professionals' Association
has compiled a list of statistics and anecdotes on
how usability
can save money. Two excerpts:
The average UI has some 40 flaws. Correcting the easiest
20 of these yields an average improvement in usability
of 50%. The big win, however, occurs when usability
is factored in from the beginning. This can yield efficiency
improvements of over 700%.
With its origins in human factors, usability engineering
has had considerable success improving productivity
in IT organizations. For instance, a major computer
company spent $20,700 on usability work to improve
the sign-on procedure in a system used by several thousand
people. The resulting productivity improvement saved
the company $41,700 the first day the system was used.
On a system used by over 100,000 people, for a usability
outlay of $68,000, the same company recognized a benefit
of $6,800,000 within the first year of the system's
implementation. This is a cost-benefit ratio of $1:$100.
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