Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (Voices That Matter)

Typical problems Here are some of the types of problems you’re going to see most often: Users are unclear on the concept. They just don’t get it. They look at the site or a page and either they don’t know what to make of it or they think they do but they’re wrong. The words they’re looking for aren’t there. This usually means that either you failed

The name of the page will match the words I clicked to get there. In other words, if I click on a link or button that says “Hot mashed potatoes,” the site will take me to a page named “Hot mashed potatoes.” It may seem trivial, but it’s actually a crucial agreement.

The main difference is that in usability tests, you watch people actually use things, instead of just listening to them talk about them.

Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems.

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Take advantage of conventions Create effective visual hierarchies Break pages up into clearly defined areas Make it obvious what’s clickable Eliminate distractions Format content to support scanning

Unmoderated remote testing. Services like UserTesting.com provide people who will record themselves doing a usability test.

Navigation isn’t just a feature of a Web site; it is the Web site, in the same way that the building, the shelves, and the cash registers are Sears. Without it, there’s no there there. The moral? Web navigation had better be good.

“How to Get People to Do Stuff”