Usability for the Web: Designing Web Sites that Work (Interactive Technologies)

Introduction......Page 16
 What is usability?......Page 17
 Why is usability important for web sites?......Page 18
 Web usability problems......Page 19
1 Pervasive Usability: Usability throughout the design process......Page 27
 Usability methods......Page 29
 The design process......Page 30
 Project management......Page 35
 Resources: budget, staff and schedule......Page 36
 How to succeed at project management......Page 44
 Comparing usability methods......Page 45
 Pervasive usability......Page 50
2 Requirements Anaylsis: Target audience and target platforms......Page 51
 Understanding your audience......Page 53
 Scenarios......Page 54
 Design for diversity......Page 57
 Individual differences......Page 60
 Differences in user preference settings......Page 64
 International differences......Page 66
 Hardware and software differences......Page 70
 Walking in someone else\'s boots......Page 76
3 Requirements Analysis: User needs analysis......Page 77
 The objectives of user needs analysis......Page 79
 Setting your objectives......Page 80
 Surveys......Page 87
 Competitive analysis......Page 98
 Interviews and focus groups......Page 100
 Informed project objectives......Page 108
4 Conceptual Design: Task analysis......Page 109
 What is task analysis?......Page 111
 Use cases......Page 114
 Hierarchical task analysis......Page 116
 A hybrid approach to task analysis......Page 123
 Performance improvements......Page 125
 Human-error-tolerant design......Page 130
5 Conceptual Design: Information architecture......Page 133
 How people navigate......Page 135
 The process of developing an architecture......Page 145
 Maintenance and expansion......Page 157
 Organization schemes......Page 161
 Ways to present navigation to the user......Page 170
 Labeling and orientation cues......Page 179
 Search techniques and search engine design......Page 184
 Embedding your site within the framework of the rest of the web......Page 190
 Conceptual design......Page 192
6 Mockups and Prototypes: Page layout......Page 193
 The goals of your layout......Page 195
 Page components and basic page layout......Page 197
 Some common page structures......Page 198
 Page layout techniques......Page 199
 Page layout constraints, common pitfalls and solutions......Page 212
 How does page layout affect usability?......Page 225
7 Mockups and Prototypes: Envisioning design......Page 227
 The goals of envisioning design......Page 229
 Mockups......Page 231
 The mockup creation process......Page 235
 The mockup review process......Page 247
 Prototypes......Page 253
8 Production: Writing for the web......Page 259
 Writing to communication......Page 261
 How people read......Page 271
 What to write about......Page 279
 Writing style......Page 291
 How writing for the web differs from writing for print......Page 296
 Text formatting......Page 309
 Getting your message across......Page 316
9 Production: Design elements......Page 317
 Goals of graphic design for the web......Page 319
 Establishing the design parameters......Page 320
 Color......Page 324
 Typography as a design technique......Page 325
 Icon design......Page 329
 Designing online forms......Page 333
 Navigation......Page 340
 Interactivity and multimedia......Page 349
 Effectively integrating visual design elements......Page 352
10 Production: Usability in software development......Page 353
 Usability problems......Page 355
 Web site engineering techniques......Page 358
 Engineering web site components......Page 368
 Usability of web technologies......Page 376
 Principled software development......Page 379
11 Launch: Pre-launch and post-launch......Page 381
 In the months before the launch......Page 383
 THe challenge of quality assurance testing......Page 384
 Quality assurance testing before the site is lunched......Page 388
 The final hurdles before going live......Page 398
 Taking the site up......Page 402
 Immediately after the site is up......Page 403
 Post-launch testing analysis......Page 408
 Launch as a process......Page 417
12 Evaluation: Usability evaluation......Page 419
 Types of evaluation......Page 421
 Usability inspection......Page 423
 Group walkthroughs......Page 434
 User testing......Page 438
 Evaluation through out the design process......Page 456
Appendix......Page 458
 Usability inspection of www.whitehouse.gov......Page 459
References......Page 466
Index......Page 474
About the authors......Page 497