Usability

Posted on | June 28, 2007 | 3 Comments

Having a site everyone can use is obviously something every designer should strive for, but how should we do it, and why are certain methods better than others? As with many other research areas, there are divided opinions also within Usability. Some believe that the Usability rule set could be applied anywhere and goes above everything else, while others believe that usability should go hand in hand with a pleasing design to let the users have a relaxed look while trying to find what they look for. However, all agree that the user come first and the designer opinion last – meaning we must understand the target group to understand how to create the product…

In my first University course in the subject, we were first introduced to this way of thinking by looking at the Usability of real objects, such as kitchen appliances and parking meters. The books we used for a start were Designing visual interfaces by Mullet and Sano and The Design of Everyday Things by Norman – two books I can highly recommend both for a novice in the area and for someone who wants to know more about Usability in general. If you look at everyday things such as stereos, cellphone, laundry machines or even toasters, you can easily notice some part of the object which is more difficult, which is true especially the more advanced objects.

So what can designers, programmers, developers, managers, users and others do to help making for example web applications more user friendly? What can the ordinary man or woman do to help the designer, and what can the annoyed user with no patience do to help the programmer get it right? What can the programmer do to help both designers and users and what can the graphical designer do to help himself and everyone else?

What the users can do is pretty simple to answer – give feedback, comment and tell both what is good and what is not good enough. For this, the designer should give space for simple ways of contact – after all, the users is what should make the site live. However, the designer should still allow some security precautions to avoid spam, which can distract both programmers and designers…

One of the so called gurus of Usability is Jakob Nielsen, creator of the useit website and author of multiple books. If you want something simple and fast to read I recommend his book ‘50 websites deconstructed‘ – but when you look at his own site it’s easy to wonder if he cares at all about the design, and then the thought can be extended

The last course I had in Usability included one of the simplest books on the subject (besides many articles and essays of course) – ‘Don’t make me think‘ by Steve Krug – a well thought out book with simple illustrations and explanations of how the designers and programmers should think, to let the users keep their mind on the intended goal.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll write more about Usability and Accessibility, with simple rules to follow and methods to use – and also include simple analysis of a few websites. You are welcome to make comments here (or send a mail) to ask for an analysis of a specific site, or I’ll find one or a few myself which catches the eye – and maybe I’ll even use my own site as a starting point (yes, I am aware that it has flaws)…

Happy reading

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