Web Site Usability: A Designer's Guide

Jared M. Spool

Morgan Kaufmann, 1999 - Computers - 157 pages

"Web Site Usability: A Designer's Guide" is a report that every person involved in Web design, commerce, or online marketing will want to have. This book is, undoubtedly, the most comprehensive data demonstrating how Web sites actually work when users need specific answers. Researched and compiled by User Interface Engineering, the results are written in an easy to understand style, illustrating the need to make Web sites useful, not complicated.
* Based on an extensive study of actual users -- not theory, not graphic design principles, and not new tricks to make a "cool" Web sites
* Demonstrates how people actually navigate and extract information on Web sites
* Offers guidance for evaluating and improving the usability of Web sites

Contents

• Research Results: 1
• Web Site Usability The Big Picture: 3
• The Sites We Tested: 4
• Scavenger Hunt Tests: 5
• The Results: 6
• The Rankings: 7
• Beyond the Rankings: 8
• Graphic Design Neither Helps Nor Hurts: 9
• Text Links Are Vital: 10
• Information Retrieval Is Different than Surfing: 12
• Web Sites Arent Like Software: 13
• Getting Around Navigation: 15
• Domain Knowledge and Navigation: 16
• The Investment Domain: 17
• Linking Content and Navigation: 18
• The Structure of Sites: 19
• Users Dont Form Mental Models of Sites: 20
• Subsites: 21
• Devices for Navigation: 22
• Table of Contents: 25
• Navigation Bars: 26
• Hierarchical Maps: 27
• You Are Here: 28
• Site Maps: 29
• Searching: 30
• Backing Up to Advance: 31
• Getting Around Links: 33
• A Comparison of Links: 34
• Descriptiveness Aids Prediction: 35
• Ambiguous Terms in Links: 38
• Dealing with Ambiguity: 40
• Number of Links: 42
• Link Layout: 43
• Wrapped Links: 44
• Link Destinations: 45
• WithinPage Links: 46
• Will Experience Help?: 47
• WithinSite Searching: 49
• Unclear Search Areas: 50
• Search Tar Pits: 51
• Confusing Search Areas: 52
• Search Results: 53
• Organization of Search Results: 54
• Not Enough Information: 55
• Redundant Information: 56
• Useless Information: 57
• The Difficulty of Comparisons: 59
• How Users Handled Comparisons: 60
• Opening Multiple Windows: 61
• Designs That Prevent PogoSticking: 63
• The Catalog Approach: 64
• Readability and Page Layout: 69
• Skimming Is In: 70
• Calculating the Fog Index: 72
• Scanability: 74
• WhiteSpace and Text Density: 75
• WhiteSpace and Skimming: 76
• Scrolling and the Fold: 77
• Rules as a Stopping Place: 78
• Button Gravity: 79
• Graphic Design on the Web: 83
• The Role of Graphic Design: 84
• Link Color: 85
• Download Time: 86
• To Wait or Not to Wait: 87
• Animation and Movement: 89
• Movement in Ads: 90
• User Preference: 93
• Success and User Likes: 94
• Success and User Dislikes: 95
• Site Scrapbook: 97
• Edmunds: 99
• Hewlett Packard: 103
• WebSaver: 109
• Travelocity: 113
• Inc: 119
• Cnet: 123
• Fidelity: 127
• Disney: 135
• Testing Sites: 141
• How We Tested Web Sites: 143
• Types of Questions: 144
• 3 Comparison of Fact Questions: 145
• 4 Comparison of Judgment Questions: 146
• Usability Testing Methodology: 147
• Data Collection: 148
• Calculating the Site Ratings: 150
• PostTest Questionnaire Results: 151
• How Good Is Good Enough?: 153
• User Interface Engineering: 155
• Additional Resources: 156
• UIEtips Email Publication: 157

Bibliographic information

• Title: Web Site Usability: A Designer's Guide; Interactive Technologies Series; Morgan Kaufmann series in interactive technologies
• Author: Jared M. Spool
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann, 1999
• ISBN: 155860569X, 9781558605695
• Length: 157 pages
• Subjects: Computers / Computer Science; Computers / Data Science / General; Computers / Human-Computer Interaction (HCI); Computers / Internet / Web Design; Computers / Networking / General