Un-usability

I created this menu as a digital illustration of what NOT to do when designing a useful site for your readers or customers. Remind you of anything?
(least usable menu system ever created)

Usability As it Relates to Web Design

Whether you can get through the menu or not, we learn a valuable lesson. Keep the answers to the questions your readers are searching for in easy to find, easy to see places. Use search and browse techniques for sites with a large volume of information. Properly label your web pages for easy searching. Don't loose site of design fundamentals when designing complex layouts or user interfaces. Use common sense!

What is usability? Most people, when walking down the hallway, pass the usability person, or the usability department and they think, "Whatever the hell that is..." or "how much are we paying those people".

Well let me explain: A usability specialist is a facilitator for unbiased testing. To properly function usability needs to meet certain criteria. Usability testing must:

• be unbiased
• be properly facilitated
• attended by the hidden core project team
• be non-aesthetic based
• and must have a specific task to accomplish

The project team is usually hidden behind a 2-way mirror in a sound-proofed room so they don't scream and jump out of their chairs with "THE BUTTON IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FAAAAACE." Because they will, no joke. And the whole team has to see the results first hand -everyone on the same page. When you see your first study, you'll instantly realize the value.

For example if you want to test a mortgage calculator, you have to get somebody out there from the public who generally represents your target market, who may be eligible for owning a home, or at least be in the ballpark "a typical user". And you take this person into a room and have a non-project-related unbiased person say, "here's our mortgage calculator", can you tell me how much you can borrow?

Then you watch.

You watch closely and you don't answer any of their questions. You answer their questions with questions: What would you expect it to do? How would you proceed if you can't continue? What do you think it means?

And the you do it again with 5-X other users, as many as your budget can afford.

These tests provide remarkable feedback almost 100% of the time. You learn about people's behavior towards your end product. If you find patterns of behavior you can alter your information design to reflect people's mental model. If you find nothing you're product is ready to release. If you find no one can figure out how much they can borrow, or that they don't trust the answers they got because they weren't clear about some of the questions, CHANGE, RETEST, REPEAT.



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