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.
101
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 ...
48
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 ...
39
votes
7answers
2k views
How do you prevent scope creep in agile projects when usability testing?
I have a client who recently asked me about this problem. I was wondering how you'd handle it?
They are new to UX and to Agile methods, so they are struggling in interesting ways.
As part of a ...
38
votes
20answers
3k views
Do I really need a login button?
We've been having a discussion in the office surrounding a login page we're developing for a new web application. The web application is in intranet-based application, and is mainly used by users who ...
24
votes
2answers
1k views
What objective qualities make a user interface intuitive?
How is intuitive defined in terms of UI? Are there any studies about what objective and measurable qualities make a user interface intuitive? What design principles, patterns, or approaches are most ...
23
votes
4answers
2k views
Studies showing that the more form fields there are the less conversions you will get
Same old story really; another client is requesting that they need x number of fields on their Contact Us form, and no amount of explaining that less=more will suffice without providing objective ...
20
votes
6answers
2k views
Why does the golden ratio work? Or does it?
This is just one example of an article promoting use of the golden ratio in design. Over the past few years I've seen quite a few similar articles, but none of them really seem to go into depth beyond ...
18
votes
7answers
229 views
What's the biggest surprise you've had in a usability test? [closed]
Usability tests often present some real surprises where the participant's mental model does not match what they're presented with.
What are the biggest or most interesting surprises you've come ...
16
votes
5answers
493 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 ...
15
votes
5answers
404 views
SUS Scores and Doubts
My team just started using the SUS to baseline our applications against each other. There are some doubts regarding the relation of the questions to web applications and web sites. At times study ...
14
votes
6answers
372 views
Correct terminology for “please the interviewer” bias?
I'm pushing usability testing within my workplace by performing some Steve Krug style usability tests, which have gone down so well that the product owner now wants me to add some marketing questions.
...
14
votes
5answers
577 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 ...
14
votes
5answers
1k 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" ...
14
votes
1answer
334 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 ...
13
votes
2answers
445 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 ...
12
votes
11answers
408 views
If people don't know what they like, how do we make things that they will like? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How to discover what users NEED and not what they WANT?
The question "What are your favorite counter-intuitive principles or ideas within UX?" has interesting responses ...
12
votes
11answers
420 views
How do you take notes at speed?
One of the things that I've quickly found out when doing usability testing and field studies is that it's hard to keep up with the pace of what's going on and take sufficient notes.
How do you cope ...
12
votes
9answers
154 views
How do you ensure that you've covered the whole site in your work?
I'm a relatively recent practitioner, and although my work's quality is pretty good, I still have one big back-draw (in my opinion): I always miss something or two when making or fixing a web site.
...
11
votes
6answers
877 views
full-color icons vs. greyed-out icons in menus
Icons in menus are often full-color. Even though the page an icon/menu item controls is not active, the icon still appears in its normal hues. To distinguish the icon which is active, a designer will ...
10
votes
5answers
182 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 ...
9
votes
5answers
630 views
UI Lag: What's considered “smooth”?
I'm building a drawing application that let's users annotate images and diagrams in a freehand style.
Not unlike a glorified MS Paint program, but there is heavy background processing going on.
...
9
votes
7answers
453 views
Simplified facts or casual talk, which makes a better UX?
Which makes for a better User Experience: using copy that states the facts as simply as possible, or copy that speaks in casual language. (Context: a Web App )
Here are 3 examples as the answer may ...
9
votes
5answers
170 views
How can I produce an insightful, quick 'n' dirty usability report?
I was asked by the company I work at to make a usability report in a few days that shows the state of the current site under the following limitations:
I don't have any budget or gifts to give to ...
9
votes
3answers
97 views
How to rescue a usability test whose participant is lacking confidence?
Last night, I was conducting a usability test with a participant who was very uncertain of his actions. Before the test, I said all of the usual stuff about it being a test of the software and not ...
9
votes
5answers
365 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. ...
9
votes
5answers
283 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 ...
9
votes
4answers
425 views
Paying test subjects for user testing/beta testing
I've read that focus groups are a poor way of conducting user research as it attracts professional focus groupers who work the focus group "circuit" for a living. This obviously has major drawbacks as ...
9
votes
6answers
1k views
Open source / free screen capture tools for user testing [closed]
What free tools are there on the Windows platform that I can use to capture what mouse movements and clicks a user makes during an evaluation?
Ideal product would:
Not be likely to crash and freak ...
9
votes
3answers
124 views
How can I structure a usability study to produce findings that relate to the long-term use of a tool by an expert user?
I am building a tool that will be used in a call center. The users range from part-time temps to 5 year veterans. I have personas that reflect these.
I have two (quite different) prototypes of a ...
9
votes
3answers
553 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 ...
8
votes
4answers
338 views
While establishing Heuristics for usability testing,do you advise using your own heuristics or pre defined ones
I am conducting a usability study of medical content delivery systems and I was planning to use some heuristics present in a CHI paper for my Heuristic evaluation.However since the area of focus is ...
8
votes
3answers
490 views
How do you teach basic usability concepts to people who don't know anything about usability?
At the company I work for I'm the specialist in usability, we produce a lot of work and I try to get involved in the design as much as I can. However I do not have the time to work on every project ...
7
votes
6answers
477 views
How do approaches for UX differ between intranets and normal websites?
I have been asked to offer advice for the development of an intranet for a large international company.
The client will be developing the intranet in Sharepoint and is keen to use a user-centric ...
7
votes
4answers
357 views
Usability testing for open-source projects?
I'm working (slowly) on an open-source project, and I was hoping to do some usability testing once it's a bit further along. Also, hopefully the GIMP devs will notice this question ;-). I'm not sure ...
7
votes
4answers
387 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 ...
7
votes
1answer
195 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 ...
7
votes
2answers
218 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 ...
7
votes
4answers
553 views
Is it good to hide url bar from Mobile websites?
Is it good to hide url bar from Mobile websites?
By default it shows. but there are some JavaScript tricks which can hide the bar on page load. but user can get back by dragging from top.
For a ...
6
votes
9answers
393 views
Isn't all user testing essentially a way of gathering how people think things should work?
When user testing is performed, users are often presented with a serious of variations of a product and observed to see where they excelled and where they had trouble. People will often click in areas ...
6
votes
4answers
826 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 ...
6
votes
5answers
393 views
How do you recruit users for usability evaluation?
Pick random people? Use a service like usertesting.com? What do you do?
6
votes
4answers
464 views
Software to record a user completing a task
We are building a survey/testing website and one feature we would like to include is asking a user to research something on the internet. Give them a "fake" address bar to put the first URL they want ...
6
votes
4answers
143 views
What are factors to take into account when evaluating the effectiveness of symbols?
I'm mainly looking for referrals to studies that were objective in evaluating the effectiveness of a series of symbols, but open to opinions based on anecdotal experience too.
6
votes
4answers
435 views
What objective qualities or elements of a website design can help build trust with users?
I've seen some anecdotal evidence of trust seals or security badge helping improve conversions on ecommerce sites by boosting the user's confidence in the site. Companies like Verisign, TrustGuard, ...
6
votes
4answers
143 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 ...
6
votes
2answers
613 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 ...
6
votes
1answer
226 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.
6
votes
0answers
73 views
How do people react to voice commands in AI?
I couldn't find a similar question, please let me know if there is.
I'm looking for documentation on how people react to talking to an artifical intelligence system like, say, Siri (especially now ...
5
votes
3answers
628 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 ...
5
votes
4answers
255 views
Is it effective to ask users which design they prefer and why?
I have a few different options for the UX of a tool. Each is quite different from the other.
They are currently represented as lo-fi wireframes. I would like to get feedback on them to decide which ...
