JBot Mania

I say “lite” here because any serious usability expert (those guys with the eye ball tracking devices and data sheets that involve decimals and not various fractions of a stick figure) would take serious issue with idea that their entire curriculum could be summed up in a list of 30 terms. Why do I care? I care because I used to work with these nerds and there’s something to be said for having good hard science to backup the proliferation of generalizations about “the user” and their fantastic voyage called their “experience”.

I was reading through this week’s Web Dev Newsletter some more and I came upon two interesting articles about usability. The first, much closer to actual science than the second (it involves decimals), is called Landing Page Confusion. It discusses the effect on user performance of having multiple objectives on a page. They provide examples of successful changes they made to some unnamed web sites and the effect this had on conversion rates. It provides some convincing evidence for keeping it simple… because we’re stupid.

The second article is a great synopsis of major usability principles, notable theories, and relevant terminology. If you read this, you will definitely be more comfortable at your next usability meeting. It’s also a great jumping off point to go more in depth into any of the 30 concepts. Brought to you by good old Smashing Magazine (the King or Queen of Lists), this article is entitled 30 Usability Issues To Be Aware Of. Heck, print it out even and hide it in the back of your desk drawer. I won’t tell anyone.