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 Usability Testing |
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Usability
Testing
How do we really use the web? When it comes down to it, we don't have
time to muddle our way through masses of information. We've learned,
"If it's short, it's more likely to be used." Web Usability is not
about good or bad design; it is about effective use of the site by
your users, internal and external. A lot of designers for the web
think in terms of a paper brochure, read systematically from front
to back in an orderly fashion. Unfortunately, this does not translate
to the Internet and how people use it. Online we tend to scan pages,
as if we are reading a billboard going 60 miles per hour.
The usability of your site's design is one of the biggest keys to
your online success. The way to ensuring your site is usable is to
test and test frequently, starting early in the design and development
process. Testing is not just following your Use Cases and making sure
everything works as prescribed. It is putting the site in front of
people who don't know your business or a person from another department
who has never seen the site before. By seeing how others see your
site, you learn two things. The first, others don't see things the
way you do, and second, are they able to use the site and find the
information they need easily. |
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5 Usability
Principles
- if something requires a large investment of time, or looks
like it will, it's less likely to be used
- we don't read pages, we scan them
- we don't make optimal choices, we satisfice
- we don't figure out how things work, we muddle through
- focus groups are not usability testing
Source: Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach
to Web Usability ©2000 Steve Krug, Circle.com Library
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