usability research update darlene fichter university of saskatchewan november 15, 2004

Usability Research Update

Darlene FichterUniversity of Saskatchewan

November 15, 2004

Overview

Usability recapResearch methodsResearch findings

– Usability – Credibility– Library jargon– Library subject pages

Usability Research

Ever growing body of knowledgeUsed to develop design guidelines, but these

should not be construed as rulesDesign guidelines should be specific

– Measurable and testableKnow how and why the guidelines were created

– Is it the same task-design context as yours?

Ease of use

Ease of learning

Fitness for purpose

What is Usability?

Effective Product

Dorothy Kushner

3 More Factors

MemorabilityMinimize errors Pleasing - subjective satisfaction

Jakob Neilsen

Strive to Be Ordinary

UnexceptionalInvisibleDoor knob is a door

knob (exit)

On the Web, follow conventions.

What is Ordinary?

Users expect to find:

Help/Assistance

Home

Users Expect To Find

Home

Help/Assistance

Usability Research Methods

Focus groups are:a) Useful for gathering user ideas and opinions

about a web site b) An effective usability research methodc) A useful technique for finding out what people

do on a web site

Techniques and Tests

Expert review or heuristic evaluation and task based usability testing do NOT uncover the same sets of problems

Heuristic review tends to uncover usability issues related to presentation

Usability testing tends to uncover issues related to domain-specific knowledge or interaction

Usability is Becoming Institutionalized

User-centered design and development - a routine practice within an enterprise

Slowly becoming true, too, of library’sStages of “institutionalization” are defined in

Eric Schaffer’s new book, “Institutionalization of Usability: A Step-by-Step Guide”

Some Research Findings

Poynter Eyetrack III study– Preliminary– 43 people on news sites

Encouraging Reading

Smaller type encourages focused viewing behaviour

Larger type promotes scanningIf a headline was the same size as the blurb,

bold and positioned on the same line the whole enchilada was more likely read

www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=70472

Where Do People Look?

Studies have shown that people start scanning in the main area of a Web page and initially ignore the logo, tabs, and left-hand navigation [Schroeder 1998] and that people's eyes are drawn first to areas that have saturated colors (pure bright colors), darker areas, and areas of visual complexity [Najjar 1990]. Eric Schaffer. Institutionalization of Usability. 2004

Poynter Eyetrack III Study

Participants tended to focus on the dominant headline of a homepage first, not the main photograph or image

Move in a S like pattern down the page

http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/viewing.htm#1.2

First Words are Critical

Participants' eyes tended to fix more often and longer on the first word or two of headline links.


What Helps Recall?

White space directs attention and enhances recallAnimation captures attention, but does not increase

recall– Increases perceived workload and frustration of users

www.humanfactors.com/downloads/dec03.asp

Use Multimedia Graphics for Unfamiliar Concepts

People were more likely to recall facts, names, and places correctly from text format

Unfamiliar conceptual information was recalled more accurately when participants viewed in multimedia format


Users Attend to ONLY TWO Forms of Media at the Same Time

When users had audio, still media and written captions, they only attended to two: audio and images. Captions were not read by many.

Text First, But Images are Viewed

People look at peoplePeople are more likely to look at bigger

images

http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/photos.htm

Poynter study showed:*– Eyetrack III participants noticed and fixated on top nav menus more

often than other placements. And they checked right nav menus more often than left.

Sounds better. Higher clicks are do to its placement next to the scroll bar.

Is this what we want – people staring at the nav menu bar? Is this a good thing or is an effective nav menu quick to peruse?

“Having users spend more time on a task is not an indication of a better design, it's an indication of a worse design” Jakob Neilsen

Great at Gathering Data – Be Cautious in our Interpretations

http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/jaysmall.htm

Web Site's Credibility

How Do People Evaluate a Web Site's Credibility? Results from a Large Study– B.J. Fogg, Cathy Soohoo, David Danielson,

Leslie Marable, Julianne Stanford and Ellen R. Tauber

www.webcredibility.org

Branding and Credibility

Users do not evaluate credibility by checking site author or credentials

Users who do not have in-depth domain knowledge evaluate credibility based on– Design look– Information design and structure– Information focus

Domain experts use domain specific criteria

Prominence-Interpretation Theory

P-I Theory posits that two things happen when people assess credibility:

1. A person first notices something: Prominence; and next,

2. Then, makes a judgment about it: Interpretation

If one or the other does not happen, then there is no credibility assessment

Fogg et all. Web Credibility

10 Categories of Web SitesE-Commerce Entertainment Finance Health News Nonprofit Opinion or Review Search Engines Sports Travel

Demographic

Who participated?– 2,684 people completed the study – Demographic information was optional, but

60.1% of the participants provided it Female: 58.1%; Male: 41.9% Average age: 39.9 Average use of Web: 19.6 hours/week

The Design

Look and perceived credibility suggests that creating Web sites with quality information alone is not enough to win credibility in users' minds

Sites must have a "a polished, professional look" But not be too slick!

“It looks like it's designed by a marketing team, and not by people who want to get you the information that you need."

Why is Design Important?

Cockburn and McKenzie, 2001 describe typical Web-navigation behavior as "rapidly interactive," meaning that Web users typically spend small amounts of time at any given page

Overall

“Are people really so influenced by design look and not by more substantial issues?” The answer appears to be yes — at least in this setting

According to Elaboration Likelihood Model ELM (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986), without deep motivation, people will rely on peripheral cues, such as appearance, for making assessments

Navigation


NavigationDeep sites are more challenging to navigate

– There is a tradeoff between depth and breadth in speed of finding– 3 click rule is a myth

Sites with multiple levels should concentrate on the first level and the level closest to the ultimate content


Navigation - MenusExpandable menus are slower to navigateSequential menus help users develop a better sense

of orientationVertical menus are preferred over horizontal menusIndexed menus are preferred over vertical menus

– Users scan group labels within indexed content

Cascading versus Indexed Menu Design by Michael Bernard & Chris Hamblin. Usability News. http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/51/menu.htm

Index Menu Layout

Horizontal Menu Layout

Vertical Menu Layout

3 Click Rule is Dead

Xerox Park's work on designing for scent has clearly demonstrated that 3 click rule is not valid.

Users will happily click through several screens as long as the navigational path has strong scent and is becoming increasing specific.

Spool, Perfetti and Brittan. Designing the Scent of Information, User Interface Engineering : 2004

Scent Works When

Designs communicate "scent" via linksLinks need to have a strong scent by

containing "trigger words" that relate to the content that lies beyond

Links between 7-12 produce the best resultsUsers go to search when they don't find their

trigger words on the pageSpool, Perfetti and Brittan. Designing the Scent of Information, 2004

Scent Blocking Actions

Iceberg syndromeCamouflaged linksBanner blindnessMissing wordsInformation masking

Spool, Perfetti and Brittan. Designing the Scent of Information, 2004

Iceberg Syndrome

You can place links beneath the fold, provided that the page doesn't look like it stops

What above the fold is interesting and relevant. Marketing fluff above the fold leads people to believe what is below is more of the same


Camouflaged Links

Links need to look like links. If you have a secondary navigational menu, make sure it looks clickable


Banner Blindness

Top 60 pixels of home pages - users typical ignore information in this area


Missing Words

Scent drops off. Words that were leading you closer to your goal disappear


Information Masking

Users have an expectation about what part of the screen will change, and look at that section of the page

If the page changes somewhere, they will usually miss relevant links in other areas


Presentation & Organization

Jargon is alive and well on library web pages

Lists of terms library users don’t understand

http://www.jkup.net/terms.html

Wall of text

IntimidatingBoringPainful

Top Ten Web-Design Mistakes of 2002 http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20021223.html

Ohio Study – 6 High School Students“In terms of content layout, we noticed that bulleted

information, information contained in tables, and information presented in short chunks with bold sub-heads grabbed this group's attention.

When the students hit a page that had paragraphs of information not broken up or bulleted, the students would move on to another page, even if the information contained the answer they were seeking.”

http://www.ohiou.edu/mediapros/web/user_test.html

Effective Library Subject Pages

Users found a higher quality of information more frequently when using highlighted resources

Users more likely to use “Best Bets” then “Core Resources”

Experienced researchers were not distracted by highlighted resources

When outside of their field, experienced researchers found the highlighted resources to be helpful

http://www.lib.washington.edu/usability/archive/bysubjectsvideosummary

Usability Research Recap

A lot we can learn and useFocus our study on the tough problemsGives us a place to startNeed to carefully consider the context of the

research and sample of participants – Do they match yours?

Questions

usability research update darlene fichter university of saskatchewan november 15, 2004

Documents

interaction slide

web site slide

helpassistance home

home helpassistance

usability issues

usability research methods

stepbystep guide slide

presentation usability