Directory of Web Usability Resources

Home > Computers > Internet > Web Design and Development > Web Usability

Resources for web-page authors who want to make their sites easier for visitors to use.

Subcategories

• Accessibility
• Companies and Consultants
• People
• Site Checking and Debugging Tools

Resources in This Category

• 100 Things to Do to Make a Better Site

  http://philip.greenspun.com/wtr/100-things
  List of several (actually, eight) ways to make a more user-friendly site. Also has other reader comments on the same topic.

• A Heuristic Evaluation of a World Wide Web Prototype

  http://stats.bls.gov/ore/htm_papers/st960160.htm
  Experiment by the Bureau of Labor Statistics(BLS)finding a large number of usability problems that were identified and suggestions for correction.

• Adobe - Flash : Usability

  http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/testing_usability.html
  Usability tips, examples, test case, quotes, related articles and a Flash forum for site developers.

• AgeLight Institute

  http://www.agelight.com/Resources/webdesign.htm
  Guidelines written for webmasters, communicators and marketers to assist with website design for maximum usability for seniors and older internet users.

• Alertbox

  http://www.nngroup.com/articles/
  Jakob Nielsen's bi-weekly column on current issues in Web usability, focusing on simple and minimalist design based on real user needs.

• alt tags - Muddling Through

  http://www.alttags.org/usability/muddling-through/
  Web site designers should think hard about how to keep users from muddling around on their sites. "Users muddle when it isn’t clear what they are supposed to do in any given situation."

• AnyBrowser.com

  http://www.anybrowser.com/
  Web page viewer presents a site as it might be seen by visitors with different browsers.

• Art and the Zen of Web Sites

  http://www.tlc-systems.com/webtips.shtml
  Suggestions and guidelines for putting together a usable and attractive web site.

• CNET.com - Study: Design lacking in e-tail sites

  https://www.cnet.com/news/study-design-lacking-in-e-tail-sites/
  The design of some of the leading online stores is mediocre at best, but, according to a new study, it is improving.

• Croc O' Lyle

  http://crocolyle.blogspot.com/
  Weblog by a practicing User Experience Architect. Usually about usability, design information architecture and e-business.

• eShopability

  http://www.eshopability.com/
  Provides design and usability information and advice on how to convert browsers into buyers and keep them, analysis and trends. Free fortnightly newsletter.

• Fifth Conference on the Human Factors and the Web

  http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/hfweb/index.html
  A forum for sharing information among a community of human factors engineers, designers, and developers who are interested in producing web sites that are more useful and usable. Site contains proceedings of the most recent (3/Jun/1999) conference and archives of all previous conferences.

• Hot Text: Web Writing That Works

  http://www.webwritingthatworks.com/
  Articles from trainer-writer team Jonathan and Lisa Price. Ideas and services for web writers, editors, and content managers.

• HTML Authoring Tools

  http://www.delorie.com/web/
  Provides free services to assist web authors who wish to make their information available to the largest audience.

• IBM DeveloperWorks: Web Architecture

  http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/
  Offering tools needed to understand usability and accessibility issues. Includes materials that can help you create user-centered applications and gain insight into accessibility challenges.

• Internet Brothers: Helpware for the Cybercommunity

  http://internetbrothers.com/
  Expanding web community by offering free tips and tutorials about HTML and DHTML, graphics editing, site promotion, digital photography, and desktop publishing. Presented often with a touch of humor, and always with examples.

• Java Software Human Interface

  http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/index-138217.html
  Essential information about human interface design and usability for applications and applets written in the Java programming language.

• Jeffrey Veen: The Usability of Subscribing to Feeds

  http://www.veen.com/jeff/archives/000733.html
  RSS feeds are surprisingly difficult for the average user to use.

• Klariti Guide to Usability and Information Architecture

  http://www.klariti.com/information-architecture/
  Directory contains over 500 links, mainly to scholarly articles.

• Lynx Friendly

  http://www.cs.umanitoba.ca/~djc/personal/lynxfriend.html
  The key to being Lynx Friendly is to be consciously aware of the HTML which goes into creating a web page and to ensure that those using a non-graphical browser are not ignored.

• Morville, Peter: Building a Synonymous Search Index

  http://www.drdobbs.com/building-a-synonymous-search-index/184412944
  Help users find the documents they're looking for by incorporating a 'thesaurus-like' hierarchy for your site.

• Morville, Peter: Virtual Documents: The Challenges of Chunking

  http://www.drdobbs.com/virtual-documents/184412896
  Advice for determining a level of granularity in breaking up documents for online viewing.

• Nielsen Norman Group

  http://www.nngroup.com/
  Jakob Nielsen shares his thoughts on usability.

• Norman, Don: Human Centred Design

  http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/gratuitous_grap.html
  Don Norman discusses the approach to usability when building his own website. This includes links to related content by Jakob Nielsen.

• Opquast

  http://www.opquast.com/
  A list of best practices intended to improve the quality of on-line services.

• Principia Hypertextica: Introduction

  http://people.cst.cmich.edu/chaff1ra/m132/WWW/type/
  A mathematics educator's view of web design. Encourages speed, accessibility, validity, and navigability. Discusses difficulties of math typesetting on the web.

• Rosenfeld, Lou: Is Less Really More?

  http://www.drdobbs.com/is-less-really-more/184412956
  When it comes to the usability factor of tables of contents, is less really more?

• Rosenfeld, Lou: Yahoo! is Dead. Long Live Yahoo!

  http://www.drdobbs.com/yahoo-is-dead-long-live-yahoo/184412919
  Discussion on the inevitable collapse of Yahoo directory due to its size and complexity. He Predicts mini-yahoo sites within corporate intranets.

• Schroeder, Will: Testing Web Sites with Eye-Tracking

  http://www.uie.com/articles/eye_tracking/
  Describes an experiment carried out to monitor the eye movements of visitors to a prototype web site.

• Scottberkun.com

  http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/
  Expert columns on web usability, interaction and web design.

• ShoreWalker

  http://www.shorewalker.com/
  Covers every area of site design as well as what not to do. Steers the user away from hype and towards more practical, user-friendly Web design. Based in Australia.

• Something 4 Nothing Web Pages

  http://www.webdeveloper.com/html/html_something_4_nothing.html
  Tips for building pages which are visually pleasing, and yet still download quickly and make information easy to access. From Webdeveloper.com.

• Spool, Jared: Hard Evidence from Research

  http://www.drdobbs.com/jared-spool-presents-hard-evidence/184412959
  Spool uncovers the lessons his research has taught him about how best to design a site so that users don't end up thwarted

• Spool, Jared: Web Graphic Design Is Not What You Think, A Usability Perspective

  http://www.drdobbs.com/web-development/its-not-what-you-think/184412961
  "The number one activity on the Web is information retrieval." In part of his tutorial, Spool explained his findings on graphic design and users' success.

• Starling Access Services

  http://www.starlingweb.com/webac.htm
  Interesting definition of Accessible Web Design. For use by "anyone, any web browsing technology and any site".

• The Scent of Information

  http://www.drdobbs.com/web-development/the-scent-of-information/184413077
  The reason why so many people lose their way on the Web, according to usability expert Jared Spool, is because they lose the scent of the information they are looking for. Jared shares his thoughts and perspectives on the Web, usability, and the user's quest for information.

• Theory

  http://www.merges.net/theory/
  A weekly column by Adam Baker that discusses web usability, interface, and interaction design. Includes previous columns for review.

• Tognazzini, Bruce: First Principles

  http://www.asktog.com/basics/firstPrinciples.html
  Bruce Tognazzini discusses basic prinicples of usability for both traditional applications and web services.

• Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2003 (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

  http://www.nngroup.com/articles/top-10-web-design-mistakes-of-2003/
  Sites are getting better at using minimalist design, maintaining archives, and offering services. However, these advances entail their own usability problems, as several prominent mistakes from 2003 show.

• Universal Usability

  http://universalusability.com/
  Includes an online version of the book "Access by Design: A Guide to Universal Usability for Web Designers" by Sarah Horton, along with links to other useful resources.

• Usability First

  http://www.usabilityfirst.com/
  Diamond Bullet Design offers their experience and knowledge on website and software usability.

• Usability Professionals' Association

  http://www.upassoc.org/
  The UPA's purpose is to promote usability concepts and techniques worldwide.

• Usability.gov

  http://www.usability.gov/
  Provided by the National Cancer Institute. Includes information and resources on making web sites and other user interfaces more useful, usable, and accessible. News and current publications and additional links are provided.

• Usable Web

  http://usableweb.com/
  Collection of links and accompanying information about human factors, user interface issues, and usable design specific to the World Wide Web.

• Usefo.com

  http://patsula.com/usefo/
  Web design resources, Usableword newsletter, and web usability guidelines to make web sites faster, more educational, and usable.

• Vaspers the Grate

  http://vaspersthegrate.blogspot.com/
  Insights into web writing, user-focused web design, and web credibility enhancement.

• Vaspers the Grate: Web Credibility Destroyers

  http://vaspersthegrate.blogspot.com/2004/06/web-credibility-destroyers.html
  List of design issues that pollute an overall impression of trustworthiness and dependability.

• Web Development

  http://www.december.com/web/develop.html
  A summary of the complete life cycle of web development: planning, analysis, design, implementation, and promotion. Key practices and online resources are given for each process. By John December, author of numerous material for web development methodology.

• Web Pages That Suck

  http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/
  Learn good web page design by looking at bad web pages.

• Web Usability Findings

  http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bing/oversite/webusefind.html
  Compilation of surveys of web usability engineering and test results.

Related Categories

• Home > Computers > Human-Computer Interaction
• Home > Computers > Internet > Web Design and Development > Authoring > Style and Design
• Home > Reference > Knowledge Management > Information Architecture

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