When designing online experiences, it’s very tempting to ask the users what they would expect. Where would they expect the search box to be? Where would they expect a login element to appear? Where would they expect to find contact information?
Asking for their expectations makes sense: if we know what they are already preconditioned to [...]

In last week’s UIEtips email newsletter, I shared three challenges we’ve seen users encounter in our usability tests. These are challenges to look out for when users interact with your applications. In this week’s newsletter, I continue my commentary by discussing two more important challenges.
You can read my article here.
At UIE, a big [...]

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 [...]

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

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

While design teams add account registration and sign-in features to enhance the user’s experience, in doing so, they can create all manner of user experience problems. One of the most difficult things to get right is a good sign-in and registration process.
In a recent UIEtips article, I described eight common account sign-in mistakes that we [...]