Importance of Usability

[Constance Petersen]

Hi All,

Usability is absolutely critical when it comes to web design. There are a lot
of great web sites for learning about web usability, but the two highest on my
list are:

Keith Instone's UsableWeb.com
http://www.usableweb.com

and

Jakob Nielsen's UseIt.com--home of the AlertBox
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/

How about posting your favorites!

--
Constance Petersen
SoftMedia Artisans, Inc.
For useful, usable software and Web sites
http://www.smartisans.com/
ConstanceCAM: Images from the Keweenaw and Beyond
http://www.smartisans.com/personal/ccam_all.htm

[Richard Curzon]

Great references, and usability does interest me of course.

But I see a strong trend of specialization.

Typical corporate desktop apps we've been building for years may be very
usable to their users, but they are not mass market.

But Web applications are mass market. That explains why already, the
propeller heads are not in control in the big sites.

Like the car industry, the web site / web application work is going to be
(by rank by money, glamor, remuneration)

1 80% Marketing and Design (images and presentation is what that means now,
interestingly)
2 15% Usability and flow
3. 5% Mechanics
( warning: no facts, just gut feel! )

Of course some of us erstwhile desktop programmers may chose to jump on this
opportunity to get into more graphical stuff... but not me.

So I figure on being relegated to behind the #3 scenes, "your job is to make
our ideas work". I'm okay with that so far as it's shaping up, and I'll
start a tangent in a separate note here.

In the last big web application, a few programmers were called into meetings
on #2 "usability and flow", and did have some input. But far less than
you'd have in a desktop app, and that's probably the way of the future IMO.
What do you think?

regards
Richard.

[JasonL]

Richard Curzon <richardcurzon@home.com> wrote
> In the last big web application, a few programmers were called into
meetings
> on #2 "usability and flow", and did have some input. But far less than
> you'd have in a desktop app, and that's probably the way of the future
IMO.
> What do you think?

I think eventually (yeah, I'm being vague) that us developer types will
eventually have a greater say in "usability and flow". I agree that largely
on the WWW the images and presentation will have the largest say, but I'm
envisioning a not-too-distant future when "usability" becomes the catch
phrase for web design.

[Constance Petersen]

Hi Richard,

"Richard Curzon" <richardcurzon@home.com> wrote in message
news:394e5416$1@news.devx.com...
> Typical corporate desktop apps we've been building for years may be very
> usable to their users, but they are not mass market.

In my experience, these apps are often less usable than they should be. That's
because they play to a captive audience. IT creates these custom apps, and
users are stuck with using them no matter how horrendous they may be to use.

> Like the car industry, the web site / web application work is going to be
> (by rank by money, glamor, remuneration)
>
> 1 80% Marketing and Design (images and presentation is what that means now,
> interestingly)
> 2 15% Usability and flow
> 3. 5% Mechanics
> ( warning: no facts, just gut feel! )

I can't say I agree for the future, although that may be close to what you see
now. Usability and flow seem to be getting much more attention among those in
the know, and the limitations of just-a-pretty-face designs are being
recognized. Good code is critical to support at-your-service, usable web
design. So I see these skills moving to a much more balanced ratio--say 33
1/3% each.

> Of course some of us erstwhile desktop programmers may chose to jump on this
> opportunity to get into more graphical stuff... but not me.

If it's not your thing, you're better off just recognizing the need and
helping those holding the purse strings to do likewise.

> So I figure on being relegated to behind the #3 scenes, "your job is to make
> our ideas work". I'm okay with that so far as it's shaping up, and I'll
> start a tangent in a separate note here.

Makes sense to me.

> In the last big web application, a few programmers were called into meetings
> on #2 "usability and flow", and did have some input. But far less than
> you'd have in a desktop app, and that's probably the way of the future IMO.
> What do you think?

As you can see, I agree that this takes a lot of specialized knowledge.
Usability in web design is a topic in which I'm deeply interested, at least
for now. Unfortunately because of this, I find myself not having the time to
keep up with programming the way I used to.

--
Constance Petersen
SoftMedia Artisans, Inc.
For useful, usable software and Web sites
http://www.smartisans.com/
ConstanceCAM: Images from the Keweenaw and Beyond
http://www.smartisans.com/personal/ccam_all.htm

[Richard Curzon]

Constance Petersen <constance@smartisans.com> wrote in message
news:3951338f@news.devx.com...
> Hi Richard,

> As you can see, I agree that this takes a lot of specialized knowledge.
> Usability in web design is a topic in which I'm deeply interested, at
least
> for now. Unfortunately because of this, I find myself not having the time
to
> keep up with programming the way I used to.

By my calculation, you'll be making 3 times as much money as me doing that
just kidding... ). Who said you got to stay a coding expert, everything
changes.

But that specialization happening in browser based apps will no doubt bleed
across to desktop apps that use SOAP to hit the internet, but still look the
same as they used to. Likely usability people will be advising more on
these apps the same as they do on browser based apps.

And of course there'll be crossbreeds. Already I have done some apps where
you raise can raise a form that contains IE5, the webbrowser control. There
are great possibilities via the DHTML object model.

Richard.