Research (35 links)
More General Topic(s): Profession (13)
Related Destination: HCI Bibliography (2)
Results of other people's web usability work.
Exploring Users' Experiences of the Web
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_9/brown/index.html
Qualitative in-depth interview study of how users browse the Web.
Problems identified:
- Hierarchical favorites
- Combining information across different Web sites
- Security and privacy
Authors:
Brown, Barry (1);
Sellen, Abigail (1)
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September 16, 2001
Web Site Usability, Usefulness, and Visit Frequency
http://www.beta-research.com/150998abstract.html
Abstract of usability survey report.
July 20, 2000
Information Seeking on the Web
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_2/choo/index.html
An Integrated Model of Browsing and Searching.
Study that presents findings in terms of 4 ways to seek information:
- undirected viewing
- conditioned viewing
- informal search
- formal search
and 6 activities:
- starting
- chaining
- browsing
- differentiating
- monitoring
- extracting
By Chun Wei Choo, Brian Detlor and Don Turnbull. From First Monday, February 7, 2000.
February 14, 2000
Banner Blindness: Web Searchers Often Miss 'Obvious' Links
http://internettg.org/newsletter/dec98/banner_blindness.html
Experiments demonstrating how users can tune out online advertisements.
Topic:
Advertising (4)
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August 21, 1999
HCI Bibliography
http://www.hcibib.org/
Human-computer interaction resources.
See Destination HCI Bibliography (2)
Author:
Perlman, Gary (7)
August 8, 1999
Web Research: Believe the Data
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990711.html
Destination: Alertbox (101)
Author:
Nielsen, Jakob (116)
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July 11, 1999
Comparative Evaluation of Usability Tests 2
http://www.dialogdesign.dk/cue.html
Research reports comparing multiple teams testing of the same product.
In this research study, nine teams of usability engineers tested Hotmail.com and the results were compared to see what was similar and what was different.
Some of the results:
- 75% of the errors were found by only 1 team
- "If Hotmail is typical, then the total number of usability problems for a typical web-site is huge, much larger than you can hope to find in one series of usability tests"
The details are in the form of Word, PDF and PowerPoint files, largely from a CHI 99 panel.
Topic:
User Testing (17)
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June 22, 1999
UIML: An Appliance-Independent XML User Interface Language
http://www8.org/w8-papers/5b-hypertext-media/uiml/uiml.html
Topic:
Platforms (4)
Destination: WWW Proceedings (11)
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June 18, 1999
Improving Web Interaction on Small Displays
http://www8.org/w8-papers/1b-multimedia/improving/improving.html
Topic:
Platforms (4)
Destination: WWW Proceedings (11)
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June 18, 1999
Surfing the Web Backwards
http://www8.org/w8-papers/5b-hypertext-media/surfing/surfing.html
Destination: WWW Proceedings (11)
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June 18, 1999
Improving Web Information Systems with Navigational Patterns
http://www8.org/w8-papers/5b-h ... media/improving/improving.html
Destination: WWW Proceedings (11)
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June 18, 1999
Integrated multimedia publishing - combining TV and newspaper content on personal channels
http://www8.org/w8-papers/1b-m ... dia/integrated/integrated.html
Destination: WWW Proceedings (11)
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June 18, 1999
Grouper: A Dynamic Clustering Interface to Web Search Results
http://www8.org/w8-papers/3a-search-query/dynamic/dynamic.html
Destination: WWW Proceedings (11)
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June 18, 1999
Annotations for Streaming Video on the Web: System Design and Usage Studies
http://www8.org/w8-papers/1b-multimedia/annotations/index.html
Destination: WWW Proceedings (11)
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June 18, 1999
User Adaptable Multimedia Presentations for the WWW
http://www8.org/w8-papers/2b-customizing/user/user.html
Destination: WWW Proceedings (11)
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June 18, 1999
Towards Adaptive Web Sites: Conceptual Framework and Case Study
http://www8.org/w8-papers/2b-customizing/towards/towards.html
Destination: WWW Proceedings (11)
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June 18, 1999
Readability of Websites with Various Colors, Fonts, Styles
http://hubel.sfasu.edu/research/AHNCUR.html
Topic:
Content (15)
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November 11, 1998
Trials and Tribulations of Web Application Design
http://www.asktog.com/columns/000maxscrns.html
Iterations on a single, simple web page.
Bruce Tognazzini's story of the problems encountered designing and building a simple introductory screen for Healtheon. With a lot of user testing, they went through these iterations:
- Too many choices: open up another browser window to eliminate distractions
- No more scroll bars: helping new and experienced users max the window
- Wheezing windows: users caught in an infinite loop
- Parker the Prairie Dog: distracting animation to the rescue
- Parker the Permissive Prairie Dog: telling some to look away is OK
Then a new browser feature solves many of their problems...
Topic:
Animation (3)
Destination: Ask Tog (12)
Author:
Tognazzini, Bruce (11)
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May 30, 1998
Changes in Web Usability Since 1994
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9712a.html
After 3 years, most aspects of Web usability remain the same.
Still the same: users scan and are impatient. New things to worry about: animation, applets, frames and colors.
Scrolling and image maps are less of a problem now, but users now expect a comprehensive site.
December 1, 1997, Alertbox by Jakob Nielsen.
Destination: Alertbox (101)
Author:
Nielsen, Jakob (116)
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December 1, 1997
Writing for the Web
http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/index.html
How users read on the Web, how authors should write their Web pages.
Conclusion: "Our study suggests that scannable, concise, and objective writing styles each make a positive difference in Web users' performance and subjective satisfaction."
Full paper, shorter report, and detailed study materials available.
Research project by John Morkes and Jakob Nielsen.
Topic:
Content (15)
Destination: useit.com (9)
Author:
Nielsen, Jakob (116)
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October 1, 1997
Improving Web Site Usability and Appeal
http://msdn.microsoft.com/libr ... plan/html/improvingsiteusa.asp
Research findings on increasing the usability and appeal of Web sites.
Kevin Keeker's compilation from more than a year's worth of usability and marketing research on MSN. Compiled by MSN Usability Research.
"...most of the tips will not surprise experienced designers or producers..."
Major sections:
- Content Quality
- Ease of Use
- Promoting Content
- Made-for-the-Medium Content
- Emotional Response
Topic:
Comprehensive Guidelines (7)
Destination: MSDN (4)
Author:
Keeker, Kevin (1)
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July 24, 1997
Web Usability Study from 1994
http://www.useit.com/papers/1994_web_usability_report.html
Results of a 1994 usability test.
Jakob Nielsen studied the Sun, HP, IBM, Microsoft and Time-Warner sites. Users were not patient with things that did not work, they wanted search but were not good at it, and liked the human side of the sites.
The screen snapshots from 1994 are also interesting to look at.
Destination: useit.com (9)
Author:
Nielsen, Jakob (116)
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July 20, 1997
Revisitation Patterns in World Wide Web Navigation
http://www.sigchi.org/chi97/proceedings/paper/sg.htm
Empirical study of Web usage and how people go "back".
Patterns found: revisit pages just visited, access only a few pages frequently, and browse in very small clusters of related pages.
Results suggest new approaches to managing history in browsers.
Topic:
Navigation (14)
Destination: CHI Proceedings (10)
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July 16, 1997
How People Use WWW Bookmarks
http://www.sigchi.org/chi97/proceedings/short-talk/da.htm
Empirical study leads to 5 properties of personal information spaces.
Users: start small and build incrementally, select only useful items, add value through organization, structure for retrieval, establish a personal view.
These 5 are tied to problems with the Web as a complex information space.
Topic:
Browsers (15)
Destination: CHI Proceedings (10)
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July 16, 1997
Age Group Differences in World Wide Web Navigation
http://www.sigchi.org/chi97/proceedings/short-talk/bm.htm
Effects of age and training on efficiency and preferences in searching.
Results: older users took longer because they liked to start over again at the home page and they often revisited pages already seen.
Topic:
Navigation (14)
Destination: CHI Proceedings (10)
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July 16, 1997
Internet Delay Effects
http://www.sigchi.org/chi97/proceedings/short-talk/als2.htm
Effects of Internet delays on various users perceptions.
Perceptions studied: locating information, organization of information, quality of information, and navigation problems
General results: shorter delay, happier users.
Topic:
Speed (10)
Destination: CHI Proceedings (10)
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June 16, 1997
Measuring User Motivation from Server Log Files
http://www.microsoft.com/usability/webconf/fuller/fuller.htm
Measures of how much time users spend looking at a page proposed.
Rather than counting page hits, the authors calculate time between page access coming from each domain.
Topic:
Log Analysis (4)
Destination: HFWeb Proceedings (13)
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September 16, 1996
Examining World Wide Web Designs
http://www.microsoft.com/usability/webconf/zimmerman.htm
Pilot studies to test effectiveness of sites for education and information delivery.
Summarizes several education-oriented comparisons, such as gohper vs. Web and multimedia vs Web.
Destination: HFWeb Proceedings (13)
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September 16, 1996
Silk from a Sow's Ear: Extracting Usable Structures from the Web
http://www.sigchi.org/chi96/proceedings/papers/Pirolli_2/pp2.html
Grouping pages based on several criteria.
Topology, textual similarity, usage data and meta-information used to group pages into functional categories, node types, and on relevancy.
Topic:
(27)
Destination: CHI Proceedings (10)
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September 16, 1996
Guidelines for Designing Usable World Wide Web Pages
http://www.sigchi.org/chi96/pr ... /shortpap/Rodriguez/rn_txt.htm
Guidelines compiled from a heuristic evaluation of existing sites.
Derived guidelines from Nielsen's heuristics were given to students to follow while redesigning.
Topic:
Comprehensive Guidelines (7)
Destination: CHI Proceedings (10)
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September 16, 1996
Characterization and Assessment of HTML Style Guides
http://www.sigchi.org/chi96/proceedings/intpost/Ratner/rj_txt.htm
Web guidelines compared with established HCI guidelines.
HTML style guides emphasized common look and feel, information display, and navigation issues. They do not cover application-type advice well.
One conclusion: development of HTML style guides has been less rigorous than others in HCI.
Topic:
Design Tips (41)
Destination: CHI Proceedings (10)
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September 16, 1996
A New Paradigm for Browsing the Web
http://www.sigchi.org/chi95/proceedings/shortppr/mhb2_bdy.htm
Pages organized into decks.
An attempt to address organization and navigation weaknesses in current browsers
Topic:
Browsers (15)
Destination: CHI Proceedings (10)
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September 16, 1995
Showing the Context of Nodes in the World-Wide Web
http://www.sigchi.org/chi95/proceedings/shortppr/sm2bdy.htm
Algorithm to discover landmark nodes and show current location among them.
Node importance based on in/out links up to two levels away. Noted enhancement could be to use access data instead of just presence of the link.
Topic:
(27)
Destination: CHI Proceedings (10)
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September 16, 1995
The Audible Web: Auditory Enhancements for Mosaic
http://www.sigchi.org/chi95/proceedings/shortppr/mca_bdy.htm
Making a browser more usable with sound additions.
Audible enhancements made to aid user monitoring of data transfer progress, provide feedback for user actions, and to provide content feedback to aid navigation.
Topic:
Multimedia (12)
Destination: CHI Proceedings (10)
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September 16, 1995
Design-Research for the Indiana University Bloomington WWW
http://education.indiana.edu/ist/faculty/iuwebrep.html
August 22, 1995
