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Web Site Usability

A Designer's Guide

  • 1st Edition - November 17, 1998
  • Latest edition
  • Authors: Jared Spool, Tara Scanlon, Carolyn Snyder, Terri DeAngelo
  • Language: English

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… Read more

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Description

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.

Key features

* 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

Readership

Anybody who is involved with designing efficient, usable, web sites such as user-interface designers, graphic designers, webmasters, human factor specialists, software engineers, copywriters, marketing and product management, marketing communication people.

Table of contents

ContentsForewordPurpose of this ReportAcknowledgmentsPart 1: Research Results1. Web Site Usability: The Big PictureWhat Is "Usability" on the Web?The Sites We Tested"Scavenger Hunt" TestsThe ResultsThe RankingsRoom for ImprovementBeyond the RankingsThe Major Implications1: Graphic Design Neither Helps Nor Hurts2: Text Links Are Vital3: Navigation and Content Are Inseparable4: Information Retrieval Is Different than Surfing5: Web Sites Aren't Like Software2. Getting Around: NavigationDomain Knowledge and NavigationThe Domain of TravelThe Investment DomainThe Automotive Domain: Linking Content and NavigationWeb Sites May Have Different UsersThe Structure of SitesUsers Don't Form Mental Models of SitesContent and

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: January 5, 1999
  • Language: English

About the authors

JS

Jared Spool

Jared M. Spool, Principal Investigator, is with User Interface Engineering, a consulting firm specializing in product usability and design. User Interface Engineering's mission is to empower product development teams to build applications that meet the needs of their users by providing critical data for creating designs and products that work.

Affiliations and expertise
User Interface Engineering, Bradford, MA, U.S.A.

CS

Carolyn Snyder

Carolyn Snyder is an internationally recognized usability consultant with 10 years of experience in usability and another 10 as a software engineer and project manager. She has taught usability testing and paper prototyping to development teams at dozens of companies. She is co-author of Web Site Usability: A Designer’s Guide and E-Commerce User Experience.
Affiliations and expertise
Snyder Consulting, Derry, NH, U.S.A.