One of ten pages from Craig Marion's Software Design Smorgasbord. The others are:
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Usability engineering is a systematic approach to making software easier to use for the individuals who actually use it to get their work done. Like software engineering, it is an evolving science that determines best practices and continually tests and refines its techniques. When many people hear the term "usability," they immediately think of labs where software is tested, where developers quietly gnash their teeth behind one-way mirrors as they watch users fumble over simple functions that they thought were well-designed. Usability labs, in fact, are just one small part of usability engineering. There's an entire "usability engineering cycle" that parallels the software development cycle.
This page contains information on a variety of usability techniques and evaluation methods. Additional information on Web usability appears under
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| Especially Recommended | Usability Professionals Association | A world-wide network of usability practitioners. This is the current issue of UPA Voice, UPA's newsletter, and these are the archives. User Experience is a glossy magazine published four times a year. Their Designing the User Experience poster is wonderful. These are local chapters. And this is their resources page. (Posted 5/97, Updated 1/05) |
| usabilitynet | Funded by the European Union to provide resources and networking for usability practitioners, managers and EU projects, this site is the best single usability resource on the web. Begin with the methods table. Then look at the broad selection of resources under usability practioner. (Posted 6/02, Updated 9/05) |
| STC Usability & User Experience Community SIG | An unusually rich trove of information. Usability Interface, their quarterly newsletter, is substantial and their usability resources section is excellent. Don't miss their salary and career information. (Posted 8/98, Updated 5/07) |
| Other Valuable Resources | |
| OpenUsability.org | "There are many Usability Experts who want to contribute to software projects. And there are many developers who want to make their software more usable, and - as a consequence - more successful." Via InfoDesign. (Posted 12/04) |
| Previous Conference Sites Still of Interest | |
| Usability Professionals' Association 2009 International Conference |
June 8-12, 2009. Portland, Oregon.
Theme: Bringing Usability to Life. Links to previous conferences are available here. (Posted 11/08) 
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| World Usability Day |
November 13, 2008.
This year's theme is Transportation. The site lists events conducted all over the world. There's also a community page. (Posted 7/08) |
| CUU 2003 |
November 10-11, 2003. Vancouver, BC, Canada.
The focus of the conference is universal usability. The last CUU conference was held in 2000. (Posted 9/03) |
| Especially Recommended | |
| User Interface Engineering | A UI design and usability consulting firm featuring Jared Spool, , and Joshua Porter. Their BrainSparks blog/newsletter is excellent. The site also contains Audio of some of their presentations and accompanying visuals. Many articles are also excellent. (Posted 2/99, Revised 7/06) |
| WQUsability | Whitney Quesenberry's consultancy. See especially her excellent collection of publications and handouts. ee especially the paper Dimensions of Usability: Defining the Conversation, Driving the Process and the presentation Personas: Bringing Users Alive, both of which were done in 2003. (Posted 10/02, Updated 8/03) |
| Userfly | "Run instant usability studies for your website using your real users. You can get it up & running in seconds with one line of javascript, and immediately watch movies of your users' browsing sessions to analyze their behavior. . . .It's free to start, and if you find it useful, you pay only $0.05 per recorded user." Via elearning post. (Posted 3/09) |
| The Atlantic Systems Guild Inc. | A good resource for information on requirements gathering. Look at their articles by guild members, requirements template, and requirements and software engineering resouces. (Posted 11/01, Updated 2/03) |
| Other Valuable Sources | |
| Nielsen Norman Group | Strategies to enhance the user experience throughout your company's services and product lines. The principals are Jakob Nielsen, Donald Norman, Bruce Tognazzini, and Brenda Laurel. See especially the Human-Centered Process Audit, a method to trace "the root causes of design deficiencies and provide a sound basis for process improvement." (Posted 10/98, revised 9/00) |
| luiseferguson.com | Luise is a London-based consultant specializing in usability and user experience. Her Articles, reviews, interviews, talks, and research page contains lots of good material. Her blog and resources merit review as well. (Posted 2/05) |
| Dray and Associates | "If the user can't use it, it doesn't work." Susan Dray's consultancy, offering assistance in user and usage studies, interface evaluation and design, and usability testing. The articles page contains links to several of Susan's articles that appeared in Interactions. The links page is especially strong on ethnography. (Posted 9/99) |
| Deborah J. Mayhew and Associates | Deborah Mayhew has been a serious contributer to the field for many years. Nice site, with lots of useful information and interesting links to Martha's Vinyard. In conjunction with the recent publication of The Usability Engineering Life Cycle, her site now hosts a forum to discuss techniques and post case studies. (Posted 5/97, Revised 6/99) |
| Uzilla | "The Uzilla suite is a set of tools for web based usability testing. It decreases the time and effort required set up and do usability testing while increasing the accuracy and power of the data collected during testing. Uzilla makes the job easier for both usability practioners and webmasters." This is their usability testing suite. They also offer free card sorting and heuristic evaluation tools. (Posted 11/02, Updated 10/03) |
| Classic System Solutions, Inc. | This Usability Engineering firm provides a number of valuable articles, presentations and audio clips. (Posted 9/01) |
| Usability First | If you're new to the field of usability, visit the introduction to usability. Look at the sitemap. The site features clear, focused presentations of a number of methodologies. (Posted 5/01, Updated 1/05) |
| Usability Sciences | A firm with a long commitment to and experience in usability testing. Their site explains how testing and other services they offer are performed. They also actively recruit usability testers. (Posted 10/01, Updated 2/03) |
| System Concepts Limited | An ergonomics and usability company with a strong selection of articles and an ask the expert feature. (Posted 12/98, Updated 5/05) |
| webcredible | Consultancy specializing in usability, accessibility, and web design. These are the resources they offer, beginning with usability. (Posted 5/05) |
| Especially Recommended | |
| Microsoft Usability Research | Here's an overview of Microsoft's approach and what a usability lab looks like and how it works. A number of the usability group's publications are online. There's also a strong section called the Ease of Use/PC Quality Roundtable that includes a number of papers, tools, and guidelines. (Posted 11/98, Revised 2/03) |
| Other Valuable Sources | |
| Usability Toolbox | 30 entries capsuling a broad spectrum of usability techniques. A similar approach is taken in Methods for User-Orientated Requirements Specification by the European Usability Support Centers. (Posted 5/97, revised 10/98) |
| Trace Center at the University of Wisconsin | The focus is on universal design principles and guidelines. Interesting sections on designing more usable documents and websites. (Posted 9/00) |
| universal usability.org | The site was created in conjunction with the ACM Conference on Universal Usability in 2000. The resources and publications section has links to a wide range of information. (Posted 9/03) |
| Especially Reccommended | |
| Usability.Edu: 25 Incredibly Useful Usability Cheat Sheets & Checklists | "You can find cheat sheets and checklists for forms, blogs and more below, all listed in alphabetical order." Via InfoDesign. (Posted 7/09) |
| A List Apart | "A List Apart Magazine (ISSN: 1534-0295) explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices." These are the articles. There are many excellent pieces. See, for example, Paper Prototyping by Shawn Medero. (Posted 4/02, Updated 2/07) |
| Articles from User Interface Engineering | Over ten years of articles from Jared Spool's cutting edge organization. (Posted 7/07) |
| Les Misc. | Articles by Jeffrey Zeldman. See especially Style vs. Design and Talking Structure. (Posted 12/00) |
| ROI for Usable UI Design: Examples and Statistics | The business case for usability. By Aaron Marcus. Via Infodesign. (Posted 10/02) |
| Other Valuable Sources | |
| Getting A Form's Structure Right | Designing Usable Online Applications, Part 1, by afshan kirmani. "The basic issues that a usability practitioner must address to create a usable online financial application form (are) affordance, orientation, and chunking." Via InfoDesign. (Posted 10/07) |
| IBM Systems Journal Ease of Use Issue | Vol. 42, No. 4, 2003, is online, featuring articles such as Building ease of use into the IBM user experience by K. Vredenburg and Personalizing the user experience on ibm.com by C. M. Karat, C. Brodie, J. Karat, J. Vergo, and S. R. Alpert. Via InfoDesign. (Posted 3/04) |
| Usability Testing in Internet Time | By Catherine Brown. A beginner's guide to conducting usability tests to gather feedback to use in refining and improving websites. "By following these guidelines, people who are new to the web development field can do a credible job of creating and running their own usability tests." From ISPI Performance Improvement Journal / Nov Dec 2002 / Vol.41 / No.10. (Posted 4/06) |
| Measuring Usability | "A site dedicated to discussing some common and not so common approaches to using quantitative methods, including Six Sigma, to move beyond instinctive decision making in implementing usability solutions." (Posted 7/06) |
| Staples.com: Focus on Usability | Two case studies in which data from a variety of sources were used to identify and resolve site usability issues at Staples.com. Both case studies are also supported by compelling ROI figures. From ISPI Performance Improvement Journal / Nov Dec 2002 / Vol.41 / No.10. (Posted 4/06) |
| Achieving Usability Through Software Architecture | By Len Bass, Bonnie E. John, and Jesse Kates. The authors identify specific connections between aspects of usability, such as the ability to "undo," and software architecture. They formulate each aspect as a scenario, provide an architecture pattern that implements its aspect of usability, and then organize the usability scenarios by category. Via Infodesign. (Posted 11/01) |
| Sensible Forms: A Form Usability Checklist | By C. Brian Crescimanno. Brief and to the point. (Posted 2/06) |
| Making Your Website Senior Friendly | A clear, focused, helpful presentation of factors to consider. From he National Institute of Aging. (Posted 9/03) |
| Questionnaires in Usability Engineering | Compiled by: Jurek Kirakowski, Human Factors Research Group, Cork, Ireland. (Posted 7/03) Via InfoDesign. |
| Improving Web Site Usability and Appeal | Guidelines compiled by MSN Usability Research. By Kevin Keeker. July 24, 1997. Nice approach based on lots of experience and research. Contains useful checklists. (Posted 2/99, Link Updated 2/03) |
| Developing User-Friendly Flash Content | "Many of the most vocal Web critics have recently portrayed Macromedia Flash content in a negative light. The claims that Macromedia Flash content is bad for the Web or that Macromedia Flash and usability are polar opposites are both myths." (Posted 8/02) |
| Ten Usability Heuristics | by Jakob Nielsen. This often-cited list, which Nielsen uses in the usability inspection method called heuristic evaluation, has served as the basis of other treatments of usability characteristics. See also the "Guidelines for the Design of Agent Applications" in Eija Kaasinen's Usability Issues in Agent Applications. (Posted 9/98) |
| Windows 95 User Interface | The Windows 95 User Interface: A Case Study in Usability Engineering. By Kent Sullivan, Microsoft Corporation. (Posted 11/97) |
| Especially Recommended | |
| UPA Voice | A bi-monthly from the UPA. Also contains an online discussion group. (Posted 3/00) |
| Journal of Usability Studies | "A peer-reviewed, international, online publication dedicated to promote and enhance the practice, research, and education of usability engineering." From the Usability Professionals' Association. (Posted 6/07) |
| The Alertbox: Current Issues in Web Usability | A bi-weekly column by Jakob Nielsen. Probably the most widely read column on Web usability. (Posted 5/00) |
| Usability Updates | Monthly newsletters from usability.gov (Posted 11/06) |
| Usability Interface Archives | Newsletter of the STC Usability and User Experience SIG. (Posted 8/06) |
| Journal of Usability Studies | “A peer-reviewed, international, online publication dedicated to promote and enhance the practice, research, and education of usability engineering.“ The journal has a distinguished advisory and editorial board. Via InfoDesign. (Posted 12/05) |
| UsabilityNews.com | A very useful compendium from the British HCI Group. Their Advanced Search feature lets you search for keywords in 35 categories. (Posted 1/04) |
| Other Selected Sources | |
| IBM Systems Journal Accessibility Issue |
Volume 44, Number 3, 2005 Thirteen papers on "architectures, tools, applications, and assistive technologies designed to increase accessibility for diverse user groups." See especially Are guidelines enough? An introduction to designing Web sites accessible to older people by S. Milne, A. Dickinson, A. Carmichael, D. Sloan, R. Eisma, and P. Gregor. Via elearningpost. (Posted 11/05) |
| Internetworking | From the Internet Technical Group, which advances web usability and the application of Human Factors principles and methodologies to Internet technologies and promotes behavioral study of HCI via the Internet. (Posted 8/98, Link Updated 9/03) |
| Especially Recommended | |
| Steve Krug Talks about Usability | One of Microsoft's Great Minds in Development series. See also Designing Your Applications for Usability. (Posted 3/07) |
| Presentations | By Dey Alexander. Fine collection of presentations on usability and accessibility. See also Dey's collection of publications and her resources page that contains links to an excellent User Experience Resource Collection and questions you might draw on when interviewing user experience and Web design professional. (Posted 9/02, Updated 8/05) |
| Other Selected Sources | |
| Slideshare presentations on usability | A collection of presentations on the topic of usability. (Posted 10/07) |
| Presentations by Rashmi Sinha | See especially Cost-effective methods for rapid user research and usability testing and Usability Testing as part of the Iterative Design Cycle. (Posted 3/03) |
| Web Site Usability: the Key to E-Success | A downloadable, zipped version of a 142-slide presentation covered by the GNU public license, so it can be used free of charge. Lots of information, but the large number of slides lack grouping. Download courtesy of Mark Pearrow's usablesites.com. (Posted 2/01) |
| Especially Recommended | |
| Usability.gov | Extremely valuable site. Their Web Design and Usability Guidelines are well-written and pertinent (and has been made more easily accessible here. They're available in PDF format here. And don't miss their visual overview of the usability cycle and their lessons learned in Designing Educational Booklets for the Web. (Posted 2/01, Updated 2/07) | UPA Resources | Strong collection of resources, include several on selling usability within your organization. The Guidelines and Methods page features a number of methodologies, guidelines, and style guides, as well as resources on standards. Their map of the disciplines that feed into usability provides an broad perspective, and their collection of magazines, lists, and blogs is especially thoughtfully done. There's also a job bank. (Posted 5/98, Updated 9/05) |
| IBM's Ease of Use | Lots of terrific information on topics such as web design guidelines, user-centered design, and ease of use design concepts. (Posted 7/00, updated 9/07) |
| Usability with a twist | Over 11,000 articles about usability, accessibility, IA, HCI and web design. You can also view articles by date and most popular. (Posted 1/03, Updated 6/07) |
| Usability Body of Knowledge | "The Usability Body of Knowledge (BoK) project is dedicated to creating a living reference that represents the collective knowledge of the usability profession." Sponsored by the Usability Professionals' Association, BoK currently presents information on methods, design, organizational topics, professional development, related fields, and glossary. (Posted 6/06) |
| Universal Usability in Practice | Principles and strategies for practitioners designing universally usable sites. The content is divided into four areas: Users with Disabilities, Special User Groups, Technology, and Tutorial Methods. A class project for Human Factors in Computer and Information Systems (Computer Science 838S) by Dr. Ben Schneiderman at the University of Maryland. (Posted 7/01) |
| Usability links | From XPLANE. Good selections, well annotated. (Posted 4/00, Link Updated 1/05) |
| Guide to Usability for Software Engineers | A project of the University of Maryland Masters of Software Engineering Fall 98 Usability Engineering class (MSWE 613, Dr. Ben Schneiderman). Very interesting collection. I like their approach to using color as an organizational principle, but the link settings should be thought through more carefully. Sometimes it's hard to tell if a link has been visited. (Posted 12/98) |
| Cre8asite Usability Forum | Discuss and post questions on usability issues. (Posted 12/06) |
| Other Valuable Sources | |
| Web Standards Link Bonanza | 485 links to articles, web sites and weblog enties relating to web standards. (June 21, 2004) (Posted 3/06) |
| Accessify.com | Wide range of resources centering on website accessibility. A number of the Tools and Wizards are of more general interest. (Posted 2/04) |
| Web Standards Link Bonanza | 485 links to articles, web sites and weblog enties relating to web standards. (June 21, 2004) (Posted 2/06) |
| Usability and Information Architecture | Nicely annotated. Worth perusing. See also the other categories listed on the left. From Website Tips. (Posted 6/02) |
| Usable Web | Although this list has not been updated in years, it still contains many useful links and remains one of the best organized portals to materials in this area. (Posted 4/99, Updated 1/05) |
| Usability References | Chunking, Forms, Frames, Fitts Law, Flash Usability, Guidelines & Principles, Link Rot, Liquid Design, PDF, ROI, Writing, Reading & Content, Articles & Related Links. From the University of Minnessota Duluth. Via LUCDESK. (Posted 2/04) |
| Web Accessibility for All | Joint project of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center on Education and Work and McBurney Disability Resource Center. Getting Started. Tutorials. Evaluation. Section 508 guidelines. Accessibility Resources. (Posted 12/03) |
| Usability | Chunking, Forms, Frames, Fitts Law, Flash Usability, Guidelines & Principles, Link Rot, Liquid Design, PDF, ROI, Writing, Reading & Content, Articles & Related Links. from the University of Minnesota Deluth(Posted 12/03) |
| UserDesign.com | "A small collection of introductory information pertaining to some of the hottest topics in the software industry - Usability, User Centered Design, usability testing, Human-Computer Interaction and user interface design." I liked the comparison of usability evaluation methods. The usability FAQs were interesting, too. (Posted 11/01, Updated 1/05) |
| Usability News | "All the latest within the field of usability." Capsules and links to articles. From the British HCI Group. (Posted 5/02) |
| Flazoom.com | "Flazoom.com's objective is to share the coolest Flash content on the web with our visitors." The site contains an important paper on Flash usability. (Posted 7/06) |
| Usable Access | "At UsableAccess.com you'll find information, resources, and the latest news on web site usability and accessibility issues, with a healthy dose of web standards advocacy thrown in for good measure. Anyone may post comments, so please do. Registered users may post new articles."(Posted 5/05) |
| Web Usability | Resources from Clear Design. Via Infodesign. (Posted 2/02) |
| Especially Recommended | |
| The LUCID Framework | The L.U.C.I.D. (Logical User Centered Interaction Design) Computing Movement site has been completely reworked and now presents a clear, focused methodology for managing the design and testing of the software user interface. Start with the summary and explore the six stages. (Posted 5/97, revised 1/99) |
| Research-based Web Design and Usability Guidelines | A wide variety of points to keep in mind in 14 areas. Each one is developed with evidence and examples. From the National Cancer Institute. Via epssinfosite. (Posted 7/01) |
| Methods for User-Orientated Requirements Specification | From the European Usability Support Centers. Part of their Requirements Engineering and Specification in Telematics. The site itemizes 23 methods and links to descriptions of each of them. Along the same lines as James Hom's Usability Toolbox. (Posted 9/98) |
| NASA Glenn Research Center Usability Engineering Team | A basic UCD process including models for a requirements document and a UI design description. The site contains a number of presentations and other documents. Via Infodesign. (Posted 6/03) |
| Other Selected Sources | |
| Simple, Cheap Usability Testing for Your Website | "Start a usability test for your web project in two minutes. Submit questions about your site and receive ten responses from our reviewers. The cost is $7." Here are some samples. Via Xblog. (Posted 1/09) |
| TechSmith Morae |
"Morae is software for usability testing and user experience research that helps you identify site and application design problems and share them with stakeholders."
This is a 22-minute demo video.
(Posted 12/07)
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| Bad Usability Calendar | "The past three calendars have all been successful in distributing examples of bad design around the world. Check out the fresh examples of exaggerated use fancy Web 2.0 design, cover flow, personalization, pull-down menus and more" (Posted 3/08) |
| HFCareers.com | "The Human Factors and Ergonomics career source," with additional listings in usability, interface design, HCI, and information architecture. (Posted 5/05) |
| Index of Resources | A wide variety of usability resources available for download from Information and Design, a consultancy based in Melbourne, Australia. (Posted 5/05) |
| Ergonosearch | "Ergonosearch is a vertical search engine about accessibility and usability, indexing only selected quality ressources : articles and expert blogs, research papers, specialized lists and forums, official specifications and guidelines." Via InfoDesign. (Posted 12/06) |
| An Adaptable Usability Heuristic Checklist for Online Courses | By Laurie P. Dringus and Maxine S. Cohen. "The user experience of an online course from a human-computer interaction point-of-view is not a naturally occurring process; it must be planned for. . . . An adaptable usability heuristic checklist for online courses . . . includes 13 heuristic categories, including: Visibility, Functionality, Aesthetics, Feedback and Help, Error Prevention, Memorability, Course Management, Interactivity, Flexibility, Consistency, Efficiency, Reducing Redundancy, and Accessibility." (Posted 1/06) |
| Usability Test Data Logger | "Most people use Microsoft Excel to analyse the results of usability tests, but did you know you can use it to collect the data too? This spreadsheet allows you to measure task completion rates, analyse questionnaire data, and summarise participant comments. It even includes a timer so you can measure time-on-task. The spreadsheet, developed by Todd Zazelenchuk of Whirlpool Corporation's User Experience Group, is highly customisable." This is the downloadable spreadsheet, and this is the white paper that goes with it. Via InfoDesign. (Posted 9/04) |
| Step508 |
STEP508, the Simple Tool for Error Prioritization for Section 508
compliance, is an electronic tool that:
Prioritizes the repairs you should make to ensure that your Web site is
compliant with the accessibility requirements of Section 508
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| glossary of usability terms and definitions | One you may not be familiar with is Kansei Engineering. From Ergosoft Laboratories. (Posted 2/02) |
| Usor: a collection of user-oriented methods | "The purpose of this web-site is to encourage the usage of user oriented methods in both industry and research projects. We also offer a place for discussing these methods, namely the Usor mailing-list." By Fredrik Winberg. (Posted 1/01) |
| Free Usability Advice | Post a question for free. The service "is intended to provide short, general answers to broad topics about user-centered design. Neither the experts on this site nor Expero Inc. are in any way responsible for any issues related to the advice given on this site. Solving specific problems with specific user interfaces requires a deep understanding of the users, their environment, the technical constraints, and more." From Expero. Via iaslash. (Posted 11/05) |
| Especially Recommended | |
| Krug, S., 2000. Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability . Que. (Posted 12/00) | |
| Rubin, J., 1994. Handbook of Usability Testing. NY: John Wiley. (Posted 5/97) | |
| Nielsen, J. and Hoa, L. 2006. Prioritizing Web Usability. New Riders. (Posted 11/06) | |
| Other Valuable Sources | |
| Badre, A. 2002. Shaping Web Usability: Interaction Design in Context . Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. (Posted 10/07) | |
| Dumas, J. and Redish, J., 1999. A Practical Guide to Usability Testing. Norwood, NJ: Aldex. (Posted 5/97) | |
| Mayhew, D., 1999. The Usability Engineering Lifecycle: A Practitioner's Handbook for User Interface Design . San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann. (Posted 9/99) | |
| Nielsen, J. 1993. Usability Engineering. Cambridge, MA: AP PROFESSIONAL. (Posted 5/97) | |
| Nielsen, J. & Mack, R., 1994. Usability Inspection Methods. NY: John Wiley. (Posted 5/97) | |
| Pearrow, M., 2000 Web Site Usability Handbook. Rockland, MA: Charles River Media. Pearrow also maintains a companion site. (Posted 2/01) | |
| Wiklund, M., 1994. Usability in Practice: How Companies Develop User-Friendly Products. Cambridge, MA: AP PROFESSIONAL. (Posted 5/97) | |
| Suggested Readings for Usability Testing | by J. Hom. Nicely done. Especially strong on usability testing, but contains many other usability-related topics as well. (Posted 5/97, revised 5/98) |
