[CLUE-Talk] Books on software usability

[jbrockmeier at earthlink.net]

On Sat, 20 Apr 2002, Sean LeBlanc wrote:

* Lots of good stuff snipped here *

> So if you have any insights to offer in this realm - books to read, people
> who are respected in the usability field, please let me know.

First - the comment about Flash. For claiming that "engineers" (read: geeks)
like to throw in Flash the author should be beaten, clubbed, whipped, 
made to swim through a swimming pool filled with iodine and double-edged
razor blades, shot and then severely punished. I'm not in favor of banning
books, but that one comes close. I've never met a true geek who liked 
Flash. If I can't view it in Lynx, it shouldn't be a necessary part of a 
Web page. If you want to create an animated short in Flash, fine and dandy,
but don't make me use Flash just so I can find out basic information.

On usability... when I worked for LinuxMall.com we went through several
site designs and redesigns. The original site was the product of an 
engineer and it did its job just fine, though it was a little homely.

In subsequent redesigns we suffered input from graphic artists, so-called
usability experts and a number of hired hands that supposedly knew
their stuff in this brand-new field of Web usability. We tried to make it
look clean, we tried to make it look like Amazon without looking like
we were trying to look like Amazon - in short, pursing usability as a 
primary goal quickly had the effect of the tail wagging the dog. Instead
of focusing on improving our product line and sales processes, we
were jumping through hoops for the investors who didn't know the first
damn thing about online commerce - but sure as hell had plenty of 
opinions about what a profitable site should be, even though no one
could point to a site that was actually making a profit at the time.  

There are a few guidelines that I would propose: 

1. Simple is best. 
2. A comprehensive site map is mandatory.
3. When all else fails, a user should be able to find any information
they want or that you want them to have using a search function. 
4. Every page should have a "help" link or email address.
5. The more complicated the design, the more likely it is that it
will not work or display properly with one or more browsers. The
majority of your users might use IE, but your best customer might
be using Netscape 3.0.1 Gold on Mac OS 7.5.1. Since you cannot 
possibly test all browsers and all conditions, avoid bells and
whistles like the plague that they are.

My final piece of advice is this: Site overhauls are for Webmasters
with too much time on their hands and companies with too much money.
If you're not in one or both of those categories, concentrate on 
directly addressing any/all user complaints instead of chasing the
grail of usability. Since usability is such an objective and 
nebulous thing, you can waste a lot of time and money on trying
to achieve something that isn't well-defined in the first place 
instead of focusing on more productive and concrete goals. 

If your users aren't complaining, that either means that 

1. They're happy with your site.
2. They hate the site, but can't find an email address to
send a complaint to.
3. Your products and/or services  aren't desirable anyway so it 
doesn't matter if the site is usable or not. 
4. You're Microsoft and it really doesn't matter what
your customers think, they will be assimilated. (Sorry,
couldn't resist...) 

If they are complaining, try to address their concerns and
thank them for their commentary and ask for feedback on
the changes when implemented. If the feedback is too vague,
ask them to clarify. Just responding to an email about a 
usability problem will usually boost that customer's opinion
of your company.   

If you'd like further details of the horror stories of 
Web usability consultants, feel free to email me off-list. 
Hope that this helps a little, even though it's not quite
what you asked for. 

Take care,

Zonker
-- 
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier -=- jbrockmeier at earthlink.net
http://www.DissociatedPress.net/
ymessenger: jbrockmeier / AIM: ZonkerJoe
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