Web-based applications are different from content-based web sites because the users are involved in a transaction. In our work researching the usability of a content-based site, we focus on how users will find and react to the information. However, with web-based applications, there are many other considerations we account for.
In this week’s article for our [...]

A button is a button right? Move the mouse over it. Click. Not much to it, eh?

Well, when it’s a well-designed button, all the work your brain is doing to click the button is invisible to you. However, when it’s poorly designed, things start to become harder. Maybe you overshoot the target area? Or maybe you have trouble clicking because the button is too small. Often its not difficult to recover, but it costs attention and attention is expensive.

In this week’s podcast, we discuss the implications of Fitts’ Law. In short, the law states, “The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target.”

 

 Usability Tools Podcast: Applying Fitts’s Law [14:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this week’s podcast, Brian Christiansen and I continue exploring usability techniques for web-based applications.
This week, we explore the usability technique toolbox, focusing on those methods that help us with web-based applications.

 

 Usability Tools Podcast: Useful Web App Usability Techniques, Part 2 [21:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I just got off the phone (well, Skype, but it’s the same thing, sort of) with Steve Mulder. We were recording an interview, talking about his experiences with developing rich interactive applications at Molecular.
What really struck me about his experience was how much we can now do within a browser. Once folks figured out [...]

In this week’s podcast, Brian Christiansen and I explore usability techniques for web-based applications. Web-based applications are different from content-based web sites because the users are involved in a transaction. When we’re researching the usability of a content-based site, we’re focused on how users will find and react to the information. However, with web-based applications, there are many other considerations that we need to account for.

Because this is a big topic, we’ve divided it into two podcasts. In Part 1, Brian and I lay down the framework for what our usability research needs to tell us about our web-based application. In Part 2, will look at the techniques for finding that information.

 

 Usability Tools Podcast: Web App Testing, Part One [16:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Web App Summit 2008 is less than two months away. World-class speakers from organizations like The New York Times, Yahoo!, Netflix, 37signals, and Cooper will be attending and presenting on today’s most critical issues surrounding web applications.
Would you like to help us out? Web App Summit 2008 is being held from March 26 [...]

Almost every company has to struggle with the balance between customer needs and internal business objectives. In this episode the crew examines the recent situation at Facebook. While trying to please both users and build a business model, the fast moving organization has stepped on many toes.

 

 SpoolCast Crew Episode 7 - The Book of Face [01:18:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In my article, 8 More Design Mistakes with Account Sign-in, Mistake #13 said:
Mistake #13: Not Explaining If It’s The Username or Password They Got Wrong
Returning to an electronics site they hadn’t used since last holiday season, the user entered what they thought was their email address and password, but it didn’t work. The error message [...]

For today’s application designers, one of the biggest challenges is getting the vision implemented the way we imagined it. In our mind, we can clearly see the design in all of its interactive goodness. Yet, when it emerges from the development process, it doesn’t work the way we thought it would.
Unless you’re doing your own [...]

How do you communicate complex and interactive design ideas to the development team? To answer this question, I had a chance to speak with with D. Keith Robinson, the Creative Director of Blue Flavor.
We had a great discussion regarding the “backstage” portion of web app design.

 

 SpoolCast: Web App Deliverables with D. Keith Robinson [34:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download