Week 10 : Weblog Usability

Nowadays, millions of weblogs are created in all around the world. Weblog, actually is a kind of website. They should also apply the concept of web usability, as normal as common website. However, weblog can be classified as a special genre of website. So they have unique characteristics and thus distinct usability problems.

To reach new readers and respect your existing readers’ time constraints, test your weblog against the following usability problems.

1. No Author biographies – Write more about yourself
The basic rationale for “about us" translates directly into the need for an “about me" page on a weblog: users want to know who they’re dealing with. Anonymous writings have less credence than something that’s signed. And, unless a person’s extraordinarily famous, it’s not enough to simply say that Joe Blogger writes the content.

2. No Author Photo
Two advantages of putting your photo on weblog:
– It offers a more personable impression of the author and enhance credibility.
– People are dedicated to remembering and recognizing faces, but not words. If you want someone recognizes you, faces work better than names.

3. Nondescript Posting Titles
Try to make your headlines scannable. Avoid cute or humorous headlines that make no sense out of context. Users often see only the headline and use it to determine whether to click into the full posting.
Bad Examples:
– What Is It That You Want?

– Hey, kids! Comics!
– Victims Abandoned

Good Examples:
– Should Designers or Developers do Usability?
– Banner Blindness

4. Links Don’t Say Where They Go
There are many bloggers would try to link websites likes this: “some people think" or “there’s more here and here." Please tell people where they’re going and what they’ll find at the other end of the link. Link Titles are also the best practices. To see a link title in action, mouse over the “link titles" link.

5. Classic Hits Are Buried
Remember to link to your past pieces in newer postings. Don’t assume that readers have been with you from the beginning; give them background and context in case they want to read more about your ideas.

6. The Calendar Is The Only One Navigation
A timeline is rarely the best information architecture, yet it’s the default way to navigate weblogs. Most weblog software provides a way to categorize postings so users can easily get a list of all postings on a certain topic. Do use categorization, but avoid the common mistake of tagging a posting with almost all of your categories. Be selective. Decide on a few places where a posting most belongs.

7. Irregular Publishing Frequency
For most weblogs, daily updates are probably best, but weekly or even monthly updates might work as well, depending on your topic. In either case, pick a publication schedule and stick to it. If you usually post daily but sometimes months without new content, you’ll lose many of your loyal and thus most valuable readers.

8. Mixing Topics
If you publish on many different topics, you’re less likely to attract a loyal audience of high-value users. Busy people might visit a blog to read an entry about a topic that interests them. They’re unlikely to return, however, if their target topic appears only sporadically among a massive range of postings on other topics. The only people who read everything are those with too much time on their hands (a low-value demographic). The more focused your content, the more focused your readers.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html

Some good websites for blog:
The Blogging Process
10 Tips on Writing the Living Web
Tools on WordPress

Week 8: Usability in Movies

Movies are always dramatically, but you could also find many mistakes in reality. Here are the ten mistakes you could find in movies but also in your website.

The Hero Can Immediately Use Any UI
In movies, stars are easy to figure out the UI when the application is new to him. But in fact, we all know even the smartest one may have problems using the best system in the world. It is not an good assumption.

Time Travelers Can Use Current Designs
You should not assume that every users could use your user interface well. In movies, time travelers from the past or future do not know how to use the current system designs. For example, someone who’s never seen a command line or typed a command would have a much harder time using DOS than someone who grew up in the DOS era.
The 3D UI
In Minority Report, the characters operate a complex information space by gesturing wildly in the space in front of their screens. Immersive environments and fly-through navigation look good, and allow for more dramatic interaction than clicking on a linear list. However, 3D is only for demos, 2D is for work.

Integration is Easy, Data Interoperates
In the show 24, Jack Bauer calls his office to get plans and schematics for various buildings. Once these files have been transferred from outside sources to the agency’s mainframe, Jack asks to have them downloaded to his PDA. And miracle, the files are readable without any workarounds.
You would never experience it unless the PC world is over.

Access Denied / Access Granted
Countless scenes involve unauthorized access to some system. Invariably, several passwords are tried, resulting in a giant “Access Denied" dialog box. Finally, a few seconds before disaster strikes, the hero enters the correct password and is greeted by an equally huge “Access Granted" dialog box. A better user interface would proceed directly to the application’s home screen as soon as the user has correctly logged in.
Never “Access Granted" !!

Big Fonts
In addition to the immense font used for “Access Denied" messages, most computer screens in the movies feature big, easily readable text. In real life, users often suffer under tiny text.

Star Trek’s Talking Computer
The voice-operated computer in Star Trek is an example of designing an audience interface rather than a user interface. Spoken commands and spoken responses make it easy for the audience to follow the action, but it’s a very inefficient way of controlling a complex system.
It’s a less data-rich channel and it’s harder to specify something in words than to choose it on a graphical display.

Remote Manipulators (Waldo Controls)
In Tomorrow Never Dies, James Bond drives his BMW from the back seat with an Ericsson mobile phone that works as the car’s remote control. And 007 drives fast, while also evading bad guys. In practice, there’s a reason we use steering wheels to drive cars instead of joysticks, touchpads, or push-buttons. The steering wheel is an excellent input device for fast and accurate specification of directionality. Designing good input devices is a tricky human factors problem.

You’ve Got Mail is Always Good News
In the movies, checking your mail is a matter of picking out the one or two messages that are important to the plot. No information pollution or swamp of spam.

“This is Unix, It’s Easy"
In the film Jurassic Park, a 12-year-old girl has to use the park’s security system to keep everyone from being eaten by dinosaurs. She walks up to the control terminal and utters the immortal words, “This is a Unix system. I know this." And proceeds to (temporarily) save the day.
Simply knowing Unix is not enough to immediately use any application running on the system.

Week 7: Essential Web Site Components

The moment your site loads, your visitors will have an instant reaction. Your site will either convey your professionalism or your amateurism. If your site doesn’t look professional, your visitors may leave your site prematurely and never return. In addition to having a professional appearance, a professional web site should possess the following essential components:

Domain Name

In order to establish credibility, you must be willing to invest in your own domain name and professional web hosting. Web sites hosted on free servers are not taken seriously and will suffer a serious loss of business. Your visitors may feel that if you don’t have your own domain, you may not be a credible company. They’ll simply take their business elsewhere.

Professional Logo

A professional looking logo is an absolute must. Not only will it give your site a more professional appearance, but it will also enable your visitors to recognize your brand. It is suggested that your logo should be displayed in the top left corner of each page of your web site.

About Page

An “About" page is an essential part of a professional web site. Your potential customers want to know exactly who you are. Create a page to add to your web site called “About" and include all of the following:
1. A personal or professional biography
2. A photograph of yourself
3. A complete description of you and/or your company
4. Your web site and/or company objectives
5. Your name, address, phone number and email address

Feedback

Many times, potential customers will have questions about your products and services. Instead of displaying an email address on your web site, consider using a feedback form. Create a page on your web site called feedback and place a form on this page to enable your visitors to contact you.

Copyrights

Display your copyright information at the bottom of each page. It’s best to include both the word Copyright and the © symbol, as some countries don’t recognize one or the other.