a technique used to evaluate a product by testing it on users. This can be seen as an irreplaceable usability practice, since it gives direct input on how real users use the system.
-1
votes
3answers
73 views
A/B or multi-variate testing as replacement for UX design?
It seems like in a business-driven organization (i.e. where the sales and marketing team has a bigger say) that offer software products or services, A/B testing is used as a way to improve and measure ...
4
votes
1answer
79 views
How to study competitive/equivalent interfaces efficiently?
Before starting designing a new interface, I usually study equivalent/competitive UIs to come up with some ideas in terms of functionalities and layout.
I would like to conduct this kind of study in ...
16
votes
5answers
487 views
Usability results: 5 users fly through UI, 1 user fails. What to do?
Which approach do you usually take when a majority (5 of 6) of users can easily complete a task during usability testing while one user fails? I cannot really describe the task exactly but it would be ...
1
vote
1answer
74 views
Looking for best practice, articles, tests or studies on video placement on websites.
We are a publisher of many special interest (that doesn't mean x-rated! ;) news websites (tech, music, sport etc). The majority of our content is editorial but we obviously have a growing amount of ...
4
votes
4answers
199 views
How do I justify a “friendly view” when a department head is adding “table view” as a requirement?
So in the web app I'm currently working on, I need to display a list of objects. I opted for a "friendly" view, with each object being a div. StackExchange's question list layout is actually a good ...
3
votes
2answers
297 views
Enterprise Social User Interview Questions?
I am in the process of creating a questionnaire for user interviews for a HUGE Enterprise Social Initiative where the end product is going to be an Intranet/ESocial application.I am trying to get some ...
3
votes
6answers
155 views
What's the best way to conduct user research at a trade show?
I've tried a couple of times to perform usability studies at an industry-specific trade show, and it's been largely awkward. In my experience, people are milling around and love to chat, but don't ...
4
votes
2answers
162 views
Opens in a new window icon placement
When using an icon to represent a link I believe the standard convention is [icon] [Link].
A colleague has raised the point that for links that open in a new window, the icon should appear after the ...
7
votes
4answers
381 views
How usable are digital whiteboards?
I am building a whiteboard that records what is written to it and that is connected to the internet. One of my primary focus is usability.
The whiteboard is not like standard digital whiteboards. It ...
6
votes
4answers
136 views
Conveying that usability problems exist to developers, cheaply!
I'm a developer transitioning towards design/usability.
I'm giving a talk to the devs at my workplace on design basics and guidelines with a little sneaky UX teaching on the side.
My goal is to work ...
9
votes
3answers
507 views
Usability testing and responsive web design
What are your take on usability testing and responsive web sites? The flow of page objects, hiding and showing different types of menus or the resizing of objects could have a big impact on ...
3
votes
0answers
27 views
Looking for any studies OR anecdotal stories on the usability of lightweight markup languages (like Markdown, MediaWiki or BBCode) [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Is Markdown Friendly Enough for Non-Technical Users?
I need to create a simple markup language (none of the ones out there quite fit the bill). However, I'd really like ...
9
votes
5answers
352 views
How should I introduce participants to a usability test?
I've been conducting usability tests for a few years now for a variety of products and interfaces. These have been in-person and remote, high-fidelity and low-fidelity, structured and unstructured. ...
1
vote
4answers
103 views
questions at the end of a user study (an online simple game) to see if they enjoyed the study or not [closed]
I have a question.
I am running a user study which is a simple online game. I am looking for a set of standard questions to ask the users at the end of the study to see if they enjoyed the study or ...
9
votes
5answers
261 views
Research on Walk-up-and-use systems
I am interested in research on Walk-up-and-use systems.
From what I found so far, Walk-up-and-use systems are described as
"system that requires no explicit user training" (hci-hub, FH ...
3
votes
3answers
197 views
Are “view more” links still being used?
Some years ago, it was usual to see a list of articles in the homepage of any website with a link often called "View more".
Nowadays it's difficult to find a website using this link, I noticed that ...
3
votes
3answers
257 views
Can web analytic tools track user's behavior across tabs?
I'm curious about logging user actions across multiple tabs; is a user's actions across multiple tabs within a browser trackable? So from user's point of view is there an additional element of privacy ...
3
votes
2answers
143 views
Cultural differences while usability testing
As a Briton, I realise there are cultural differences that I need to consider while testing. For example I have found that citizens from the Indian subcontinent are less likely to directly criticise ...
3
votes
3answers
201 views
What is the best way to approach usability testing an intranet?
In my mind, the biggest difference between testing an intranet and a public website are the users. You know exactly who will be using the intranet, because they have to. The roles and tasks are ...
47
votes
13answers
5k views
What is best practice for designing form error messages?
I've seen quite a lot of research on form design, but so far, I haven't come across any studies on error message design best practices. The only piece of advice seems to be that each error should ...
14
votes
1answer
314 views
Tufte's data density, readability and comparison
I'm intrigued by Tufte's data density. While I love his definition of data / ink ratio which can be easily measured, I have hard time measuring data density.
He defines data density in a graphic as a ...
5
votes
5answers
229 views
How can I measure why users never return to a web app?
I'm working on an application that's been in use for the past 3 years. It's a web-based product and we have been tracking its usage using Google analytics for the past 6 months (since the time I ...
0
votes
1answer
118 views
Mouse heatmaps in desktop applications [closed]
Do you any good software that can create mouse move/click/right click heatmaps in a desktop application like a game, office suite etc.? Preferably including key detection, heatmap image saving etc. I ...
3
votes
6answers
188 views
Is a usability study on just a newsletter effective?
I'm doing a usability study in our lab next month to test a newsletter for a client. It will be my first test with only an email (instead of a website). I'll only have 3/4 tasks (open email, choose ...
1
vote
1answer
158 views
How to measure the user experience?
recently I had the joy to be part of a new department in our company, the user experience department.
I'm really happy with my new work,but recently my bosses started to do some changes in our ...
7
votes
1answer
188 views
Applicability of Fitts law in expert user scenarios
Fitts law states that "the time required to rapidly move to a target area is a function of the distance to the target and the size of the target.".
Simply put, if user is about to click/tap/press a ...
14
votes
5answers
994 views
Do we really need a “Remember me” option on a Login page?
I'm wondering why do we need to ask user to make a decision, for how long he want to be authenticated? This is done by having "keep me signed in" option login page:
Why can't we simply "predict" ...
1
vote
2answers
312 views
Where can I find existing System Usability Scale (SUS) results to compare against?
I'm looking for a resource of existing System Usability Scale (SUS) study results to compare against.
I've read in a few papers/webpages that plenty of such data is available, unfortunately I can't ...
2
votes
1answer
101 views
Testing with new vs. experienced users
A bit of backstory first: I'm setting up a usability test involving electronic medical records (EMRs). The test has to follow some draft testing guidelines (long pdf) set up by the National Institute ...
2
votes
2answers
295 views
What is a good method/formula for estimating how much time a usability test will require?
I was setting up a usability test at my office where we have never done much formal usability testing. One of management's first questions was, "How long will this take?" I didn't have a good answer ...
1
vote
4answers
252 views
A/B testing VS UX usability enhancement by UX guy?
What us the point behind A/B testing if everything will be decided by the users inputs of websites then Is there any role for UX guy in this case?
Should we give preferences the results of A/B ...
10
votes
5answers
179 views
Helping participants in usability tests
I've just completed a round of lab-based, co-present usability tests as part of a usability audit for a web-based map application. I have ten tasks for the participants that require them to perform ...
0
votes
2answers
384 views
Questions to ask in a comparative usability study
As I mentioned in this question, I've been working on proof-of-concept applications for social network privacy and running usability studies to evaluate them for publication. I'm a beginner to user ...
3
votes
2answers
417 views
Framework or plugin for tracking user actions on a web application
I've been working for a while on various proof-of-concept applications for social network privacy, which I've evaluated for publication with various user studies.
Is there a useful, free, framework ...
13
votes
2answers
436 views
Have usability studies been conducted on the use of alphanumeric characters as labels for controller buttons?
Controller Question
Over the years there have been a wide variety of home consoles each with their own (mostly) unique controller designs1. One thing that most consoles have in common is their use of ...
5
votes
3answers
152 views
What benefits will a professional usability study give me over a guerilla one?
By 'professional' study, I mean hiring an outside company to run the test (typically $10k+). By 'guerilla' I mean hallway testing, or 'Rocket Surgery made easy' style testing.
What is the benefit of ...
5
votes
1answer
138 views
When conducting an heuristic evaluation, do you also make note of conforming elements?
When conducting an heuristic evaluation, do you you also make note of the elements that conform, or do you only look for elements that do not conform to the heuristics?
6
votes
2answers
591 views
Conducting a competitive analysis
What are the questions you need to ask or the methods you perform when you're doing a competitive web site analysis from a UX perspective? How do you gather the facts? When in the project process do ...
5
votes
3answers
609 views
How to get stakeholder buy-in for proposed UX research initiatives?
Undertaking usability studies often requires selling them first. What methods have you found effective for getting your plans approved?
One example: I've used short project overview plans in the ...
6
votes
1answer
224 views
How can I convey the results of UX research to stakeholders?
How can I go about getting stakeholders to understand and "buy into" the results derived from UX research? For example, I ran across this great UX research plan by a Google UX researcher today.
1
vote
2answers
258 views
Examples of data collection methods about users and context in hospitals? [closed]
Can someone provide examples of field data collection methods about users and context in the health care domain more precisely in hospitals? And if possible what are the results of the research?
7
votes
2answers
214 views
Where can I find usage Heatmaps of common user interfaces?
I found this amazing Mozilla Firefox usage Heatmap and find it a great insight into the usage of Firefox and browsers in general.
Are there other resources which have similar heatmaps for use of ...
1
vote
4answers
305 views
Looking to create a good user interface to ask 4 questions to users in the best possible way?
I am trying to create a good UI for the main page of my website.
I need to ask 4 questions to users in easiest possible way-
Query terms - e.g toyota Corola
Category (optional) - e.g. Cars
Location ...
0
votes
0answers
125 views
Awesome sources to see great UIs and usability [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Must-read User Interface Book?
As an outsider (aka. not a designer) and due to the lack of time to innovate, I want to create great UIs and great usability by example, ...
2
votes
3answers
4k views
What should be maximum and minimum length of persons User Name & Password?
I am wondering because I am trying to make sure that person have right amount of spaces for their user name.
User Name and Password are security measures and should not be easy to guess. I have fixed ...
4
votes
2answers
651 views
Does it matter if Pagination controls are Left, Centered, or Right-Justified?
Should Pagination Be Left, Centered, or Right-Justified? Does it matter? Any usability studies?
We are redesigning our pagination to be more usable. In the process a question came up of where to ...
6
votes
4answers
810 views
Any usability studies on password strength meters?
I put together a password strength meter for a signup form, and overall it works very well. It hooks into our DB for the "rules" (number of characters required, mix of letters and numbers, etc.), and ...
4
votes
3answers
293 views
Any evidence of increased click through rates on blue underlined links in html emails?
I'm redesigning our company email template. At the moment links are grey, bold and not underlined. I don't think this makes it very clear that it is a link. My gut instinct tells me that I should make ...
98
votes
16answers
4k views
How to discover what users NEED and not what they WANT?
I have been thinking a lot about my favorite quote from Henry Ford:
If I asked people what they wanted, they would have said 'Faster Horses'. -Henry Ford
The trouble I have been having is that ...
14
votes
5answers
563 views
UX impact of standard stock photos
It's pretty clear to me that standard stock images (examples 1 / examples 2) don't help to build a brand or identity. Are there any studies about the impact of stock images? Any other thoughts?
In ...
