Any UI/Usability Experts around...?

[Chopper]

Hi,

Been doing a lot of web application design lately, something that keeps coming up is "we need to send that out to be designed by the graphic designers, web designers, UI or usability experts etc". So my question is are there any such experts out there and what books, software tools etc should I be reading and using so that I myself may become said expert over time?

P.S. as an afterthought, I keep hearing the web app must work with JavaScript disabled, but that would stop things like Ajax based pop-ups etc, any good material out there explaining why and how to work around it?

Regards.

 

[gord]

When I did a module at uni on it this was a key text http://www.amazon.co.uk/Human-Computer-Interaction-3rd-Alan-Dix/dp/0130461091/ref=pd_sim_b_6

That said, UI design is principally common sense. Analysis of use cases and black box testing can usually highlight where a design issue is. Optimisation of a UI is the trick. It's very easy to make a functional UI that people can move through without issue. It's a lot more time consuming to develop a UI that maximises system use, speed, conversion ratios etc. That book won't give you the answers, but it does have the methodologies.

The requirement to have it work without JS is entirely dependant on your users. If your users are likely to not have JS enabled, e.g. some corporate environments, education, then it may be a valid part of the spec. But, JS gives vital freedom for designers to make something a lot easier to use.

 

[LazyManc]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Make-M...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295224613&sr=1-1

This is worth a read, mostly common sense but there is the occasional "aha!" moment that makes you think.

In general:
Follow conventions - people are used to web pages having certain layouts, and discarding those conventions for a unique design can be jarring to the user. (e.g. position nav at the top or left, call a shopping cart a "shopping cart" and not a "kit bag", underline links, etc).

Obviousness is king - if you need a line of text to explain how to use something, it's too complicated, re-think the UI.

If you're not sure about a particular interface, then take a look how other sites have done it - especially ones that will have spent big on UI testing (i.e. Amazon).

 

[8t10]

There are a few guys online who blog about it, check out Jakob Neilsen, he's popular.

 

[Vince]

There are a few guys online who blog about it, check out Jakob Neilsen, he's popular.

I am sad and have read both his books, ("designing web usability" and "prioritising web usability") Great books

 

[Chopper]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Going to spend some time looking at those books.

 

[numnutz]

Alan Dix used to be my mentor at university. I got a free copy of his HCI book

 

[triggerthat]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Make-M...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295224613&sr=1-1

This is worth a read, mostly common sense but there is the occasional "aha!" moment that makes you think.

In general:
Follow conventions - people are used to web pages having certain layouts, and discarding those conventions for a unique design can be jarring to the user. (e.g. position nav at the top or left, call a shopping cart a "shopping cart" and not a "kit bag", underline links, etc).

Obviousness is king - if you need a line of text to explain how to use something, it's too complicated, re-think the UI.

If you're not sure about a particular interface, then take a look how other sites have done it - especially ones that will have spent big on UI testing (i.e. Amazon).

Worth mentioning that 'Don't Make me Think' is a must read.

 

[drak3]

Read this: http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html

 

[Internaut]

I know a little bit about usability and user experience - I find it difficult to express in clear terms or rules, but most of it is about making the interface so simple and intuitive that you don't need to explain how things work (most of the time).

Ensuring your site works with javascript disabled is a good idea - site enhancements that degrade gracefully improves usability but also helps you with the search engine bots that want to crawl your site - if they can't get around or view content because of javascript blocks then you could potentially hurt your search engine rankings.

Build a bare bones site with the most basic functionality and which can be used to serve the sites main purpose using a text based browser - when you have the foundation for that in place, then look at the next layer and how you can improve the site experience using javascript and similar tools.