Usability / Architecture for Web, Mobile & more...

Remote Control Devices Usability

2008-06-03T22:16:00.000-07:00

Recently, I had been to my relatives' place & was watching television for some time. As I took up the remote control to change the channels, increase-decrease the volume, I was irritated as the remote control designed in such a way that probably the end-user was not considered while designing it. I think this might be an issue which many remote control gadgets faces.

As I was thinking a on it from the usability point, I had something in mind, which I have tried to jot down here. I may be wrong somewhere, but I am sure that any device & the way it gets operated needs to be designed while keeping the end user in the mind. That's what we are supposed to do!!!

As I visualize easy-to-use, usable remote control device design:
To make it best usable, fundamental thing to start was to "keep minimum". I have considered the minimum but core functions for a remote control for a television. Respective changes needs to be considered while designing a device-specific control gadget.

Power button on extreme top left becomes handy & allows quick-use.
Mute on extreme right stands out & allows users to use it instantly when it really needs to be. Generally, users keep finding the 'Mute' button when actually users need it quickly most of the time.
Volume & Channels should be navigational with UP & Down arrows, rather then back & forward arrows. For users, it is easy-to-understand & becomes usable.
Channel numbers should be clean & preferably with no other key combinations (for example, a key assigned to some other functionality by pressing an additional key like “Function” , etc; which many a times confuses users who are not so tech-savvy.
A remote control device should have minimal buttons on; so that it can make the users life better, not worst. If advanced functions are on it, they can be used the bottom part of the remote device; which is ‘not-so-prominent’ area & as well as comforts the user by not mixing the ‘regular-use’ functionality with some ‘rare-use advanced functions’.
Preferably, a brand name should be followed by the model no of the remote device; which helps the user to buy the same in the future by simply referring that device / model id; in case the device is not working properly or broken. This really helps a lot, when it comes to buying a new similar remote control device.

Please post your feedback / suggestions on this; which will help me a lot. Thanks.

No Gyan! Some Fun!!!

2008-04-30T05:46:00.000-07:00

I am planning to put some goodies like wallpapers, etc. on this blog, featuring & explained some Usability, IA concepts wherever possible; whenever possible. :)

The below one is the first one in the series. Do download it.

The resolution is 1024 x 768 px. If you want this stuff in different resolution to suit your system's display resolution, do comment here or e-mail me. Thanks for your support.

Looking for navigation?

2008-04-30T04:19:00.000-07:00

I have seen lot of websites, portals & enterprise applications in the past years; with different kinds of navigations & the way those have been placed in the design.

I have seen a few things common in most of them. This is not something new I am telling; which is already been stated several times on various forums & knowledge-based sites, but this is what I have experienced while designing information architecture & wire-frame designs for several clients.

This is a generalization, though recommended for the ease of use to the end-user; which is most important goal of an Information Architect. Below given are 2 observations for the same:

The user behavior is generally intended to find a site navigation, by starting on the top left & then using the menus places on horizontal right or vertical left (downwards).

Also, most of these sites had the search functionality, placed on the top-right corner of the web-page. Even the research has proved this technically.

Due to conventions that gets followed by the several existing sites, such things become 'kinda' thumb-rule when it comes to designing usable websites, even though it is not mandatory for anybody. I will try to put in more information on the same in the next part of this.

Do you differ with these ones or have some more serious thoughts? Please do provide your valuable comments here.

Navigation Design (Part 2)

2008-02-12T21:33:00.000-08:00

Navigation design guidelines (continued...)

Keep the navigational elements consistent across the website: Make sure that all the links & navigational elements are kept consistently on the same place as there have been anywhere else, in terms of links, styles, etc. User can find them easily anywhere in the site.
Design it to ‘load fast’: Do all your design & development by considering a user having low-speed internet connections. Make sure that your all your site HTML, CSS, Flash components (if any) loads faster, so that users do not get bothered by the in-essential time it takes to load the whole stuff.
Quality as against to Quantity: Internet users like minimum options & clicks to get the desired information. CREATE sub-sections & sub-categories to help the user to “navigate easily & locate the required content easily & quickly”.
Browser-Compatibility: There is multi-browser application environment. Do compatibility tests for your website before it goes live on major browsers like “MS Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape Navigator, and Opera” & check if the look & feel as well functionality of JavaScript used in the site is working well.
No un-essential stuff in the navigation: Non-core Information like “Privacy Policy, Terms of use, even Contact Us (in most cases)” should not bein the main navigation & can be placed in the “bottom menus” zone.

Navigation Design (Part 1)

2008-02-12T21:15:00.000-08:00

Navigation plays a 'core' role' in case of any kind of product development, whether a corporate website, a portal or an intra-net application that's designed to cater internal as well as external users based on certain security policies.

These guidelines are basically for those sites who wants to deliver a "usable" interface, unlike graphics & animation rich websites who are visually appealing but sometimes lacks ease of use, due to unclear navigation systems.

Following are the few points which serve as a generic guideline while designing a navigation.

Navigation Placement: Make sure that the navigation is placed at an easily visible location, so that the users don’t have to“guess” or “search” for it.
Place important things on high: Keep the important things on the top area of the page, preferably in the first half of the page. Such significant information should get displayed first to the user.
Banner Blindness: Make sure that you don’t put any content above the ad. Banners as users are tend to ignore all the content that’s displayed above ad banners. Make sure especially that navigation is not placed above such banners, as ‘navigation’ is very important & should not be ‘lost’.
Avoid being unconventional: Designing website navigation in an ‘unconventional’ way to make the site stand out from the crowd is NOT a good method of navigation design. It becomes difficult for the users who are now quite used to the general web design practices of designs, navigations & such other generic functionalities.
Home link should always be there: Homepage being core of any website, a back-link to the homepage should always be there. Also, it is very much possible that user might have landed up on your website through some search engine or have come directly to your sub-page / inner page, a “home“ link always helps them to come back to the homepage of your website.

Feasibility Document

2008-01-20T21:57:00.000-08:00

As I was working on a pre-design analysis of a project for an 'x' company, I realized that I need to organize all the thoughts into a document which will have all the possible information related to the client, their needs for developing an application or product, targeted users & their needs, branding, possible outcomes of this project, etc. I generally named this document as "feasibility study" as it gives us a preview-kind-of-thing to the possible development & outcomes as well.

Below, I have given the structure of the document I started using wherever possible, to have a concrete information in place for referring it across the product development.

Kindly comment on it, to help improve this document as well as myself.

Feasibility Study:

Abstract / Executive Summary:
This will be a brief summarizing statement, usually between 75 and 150 words long, providing the reader a synopsis of the problem, method, results, and conclusions of your document.

This should ideally consist:

Problems: Identify the key topic or problems in the client’s website, if any or suggest viable ways to design new web application / product by demonstrating the problem in other websites / products.
Method: Specify main approach to solving the mentioned problems
Results: Describe possible outcomes for the methods applied.
Conclusion: Detail the conclusion you derive from the overall effort.

Contents:

The target market / audience

purpose of the organization
short and long-term goals of the site
Intended audiences
Why will people come to your site?
Business goals
Competitive websites / references

Problems in the existing website

The existing business processes (wherever applicable)
Processes which can be refined or redesigned
The brand identity issues (lack of powerful branding)

New design strategy

New Information Design
Information Architecture & wire-frame designs
Usability & Accessibility Strategy
Visual Design strategy

Application Development

New front-end development
Optimized for User-ease
More accessible & usable

Feasibility Conclusions

How new website will help rebranding
How it is more usable than the existing website (Usability & Accessibility issues)
How it is technically better (in terms of loading time, frontend & database design, etc.)
How it is better for search engineso How it more “Usable & accessible”

Designing Banking Application

2007-12-02T22:50:00.000-08:00

Internet banking in India as well globally is gaining faster acceptance. An estimated 4.6 million users transfer funds online and this number (includes mobile banking figures), according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India, is expected to increase to 16 million by 2007-08.

There are some basic principles while designing a banking website or an internet banking application (though there are few more rules when it comes to designing an ‘online banking’ application). I have listed some of my learnings below, (which I had while I was working on a banking website for a reputed multinational bank in India, as well as its internet banking application interface also).

Following are some basic rules / principles which you should understand & put into practice while designing websites specially for banking domain.

Know everything possible about ‘end-user’:
Before you start on anything, you should know about the end user; all the demographics like who? Why they are here? What they want to do with this website. All this information will help you to structure your website / application in accordance to it, in terms of information design, content structuring, content prioritization, visual design & much more; which will lead to a usable website for the target users, being a site based & focused to their needs.
Good ‘aesthetic’ design:
Designing a banking website is slightly a difficult task, as you have to balance the website design from being too much corporate as well as being too loud or casual.Users coming here are not looking for ‘fun’ stuff but want to perform a specific task & has not time to go through lot of content or don’t want to loose himself in the design itself. So, the banking website design has to be very balanced & powerful enough to do the bank’s branding as well.
Content Relativity:
Users come to banking websites to get some ‘specific’ information or to do some ‘transaction’. Unfortunately, many banks assumes their websites as a sales & promotion way, in which, they load up their websites with such not-crucial content. Most importantly, as banking users likes facts about the banks such as interest rates, service charges, etc., that content should get a highlight on the homepage also. Also, content related to quick access, bank tools, support information should get prominence.
Easy to use:
Banking sites are supposed to be “easy to access” because end-users coming to such sites are there with specific intentions & may not have much time to spend. Don’t make a user learn your website. Make it easy & lucid enough that all the critical components & facts related to showed upfront & are easily accessible.

For example, you can use a ‘quick access menu’ so that he can access all the core sections of the website at a single click & is available on every page. Also, usage of “breadcrumbs” & consistent navigation zone as well as “login” space will make it easy for the site user, along with ‘links which are easy to understand being underlined’.
Most important thing – Security:
Online banking users are ‘very’ conscious about the “security”. They need to feel secure while using a banking website, by making the user ‘feel secure’ by placing ‘security information, alerts about the encrypted sections, and fraudulent e-mails about banks, etc. Information such as “128 bit SSL security” & such information should be visible clearly making a user relax about the transaction security as well as while submitting any kind information over the internet.

For example, while logging in to an internet banking application, a user can be provided with a graphical keypad which changes its character placement on each refresh of the page, which avoids the keyboard usage & makes it difficult to track by the hackers online.

Why 'Usability' is so important?

2007-11-23T09:17:00.001-08:00

We are living in a virtual world where there are millions of websites offering different kinds of applications / products & information services featuring business, education, entertainment, community sites & much more than one can think of. These several websites offering almost same kinds of services, etc. are making it more difficult to survive in such a complex business scenario.

Being very competitive market, one needs a solid product / services strategy & business model. But, one also needs good "usability" strategies & practices to make his/her website better than others, to make users keep coming back to the website; as there are several other sites which offers almost same kind of content / services.

Several studies & research of user behavior have clearly shown that users are impatient & have really low level of tolerance for difficult or sluggish websites, which takes more than required time. Being with such intolerant approaches, users are not willing to come back to sites which have very poor usability features. If they don't get what they want quickly, they will stop coming to your website in the future.

These bad usability elements of a website leads to time wastage, productivity losses, frustrated user base who are hardly willing to come back to this "non-usable" website; which automatically leads to different kinds of losses being an unsuccessful web application that fails to attract users or to serve the target audience of the website or application.

As against this, websites or application which makes a users life easy by allowing him to get what he wants in minimum clicks or in a hassle free way, developed using good usability strategies & practices always makes a user happy & attracts him to the website or to use the application. This loyalty increases the value of the website or the application, which gives good returns being a valuable website or application for its loyal users. Usage of Usability methods in the website or application development helps you to develop the best of the breed 'usable' application.

Usability is an "investment". You should invest into Usability irrespective of whether it is a new website development or a revamp of an existing website, as the money invested in Usability always pays off, as it saves lot of learning time for your target user base as your application is developed keeping the end-user at the core of all the development & have "usability" to develop the application at its best.

For example, IBM estimates that every dollar spent on the Usability will return $ 10 to $ 100.

Isn't it worth investing in Usability, which wins users, their satisfaction by making you "out-of-the-crowd" website with loyal customer base / users as well as business goals also?

What's User-Centered Design?

2007-11-18T21:33:00.000-08:00

"User Centered Design" (UCD) is an approach used in the project, where the end-user or target audience is at the center of the design & development of an application or product development.

This approach makes sure that all the design & development is done based on the end-user inputs, their requirement & feedbacks taken into account while researching, using either of the popular user-centered design methods ; to make sure that the application-in-the-make meets all or maximum possible expectations of the end-user from the respective product / application intended at the specific target user group.

ISO 13407:1999 - a section for Human-centered design processes for interactive systems, specifies the steps for an ideal UCD process which actually begins at the very early stage of the project / product design & development. This stages are inter-dependent & their usage in the actual practice varies based on the project it applies to, as well as the amount of efforts that has been put in.

These steps can be briefed as follows:

Understand and specify the context of use
Specify the user and organizational requirements
Produce product design / solutions
Evaluate designs against requirements

This also can be explained with the help of below-given graphics:

If this product design meets the user requirements, this leads to the final product development.

We will discuss more about the "User-centered design" in the part 2 of this article.

Web Application UIs for Desktop / Mobile

2007-10-18T04:27:00.000-07:00

As the "web" is moving very fast to mobile devices following the new-age mobile devices revolution which is enabling users to access websites & rich media content on their devices very easily making us re-think about the user interface designing & accessibility strategies from different perspectives when compared the conventional desktop-based web access.

As I always , the "end-user" is always at the core of all the development that happens on and off the web, the fundamental of any such product or application development is to create a product that's easily accessible & usable to him / her. But, being developers, the responsibility increases when it comes to 'mobile web applications' & the strategies changes from the conventional ones.

Unlike desktops, mobile phones are not powered by high-end processors, RAM or even storage capacity (as in most cases); which makes them far less capable when compared to desktop computers. And, this is where the need of the sensible web application design comes in to the picture at a critical level.

As mobile application UI designers / developers, one 'really' needs to understand the requirements of the end-users. An application which is going to be specifically for mobile devices needs to keep lot things like "display & such hardware capability limits, bandwidth / data usage limits & cost constraints & user demographics". The typical desktop-based web application user interface (UI) approach can NOT be fully applied for mobile-specific web application development. The below given image explains the same, about how both of them have different UI approaches:

Unlike desktop-based web application development where an UI uses 'horizontal' approach & splits into several areas like header, footer, left navigation, right navigation, etc. ; though the mobile application interface has only vertical approach as the ideal one & is not recommended to use a horizontal split approach until the application is targeted at a specific user segment with a specific device which is known to developers about it's capabilities, like hardware configurations; i.e. screen / display sizes, RAM, etc. In the absence of such information or business scenario, such split approach in UI development for mobile application is not fruitful & rather may land up the application in trouble.

I will add some more thoughts on this in my next article, where I will post some of my learning from my experience as well from others also.

What's 'Accessibility'?

2007-10-18T03:19:00.000-07:00

Accessibility, here in respect to "web" as a medium, has crucial role to play when offering information / content / multi-media content to end-users of all kinds.

"Web Accessibility " can be described as "a practice of creating usable websites for people with all kinds of abilities and 'disabilities'. When websites are created with all such aspects where the core concern is the end-user, the site can be made more better. This includes several aspects like 'usability, user experience (UX) & accessibility.

How a site can be made to get considered as "accessible"?

A website can be made accessible if the site is completely coded with sensible HTML where are the images have proper, descriptive 'alt' tags which, in case blind people, reads out the content with "text-to-speech" softwares or text-to-Braille applications built to aid them to understand the content available on the respective site.
If the website has the capability of increasing the font-size or are made flexible enough to increase or decrease the font size using built-in capabilities of a browser, it helps people with poor sight to read the content they need.
Also, if the website has all the links in colors (as most of them are using CSS nowadays) as well as 'underlined'; they can be quite easily understood by the people who are 'color-blind'; where these links can be seen very easily being 'underlined'.
If a website is defined as accessible when they are designed in such as fashion that they can be easily accessed by the disabled user, using only a single device like 'keyboard' or even a 'single switch device' which is designed for an person who can not use even a keyboard or mouse.

Some basic guidelines from W3C website will take you quickly through this "to-dos" to build an accessible 'website'. (ref: http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/#Guidelines )

Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content.
Don't rely on color alone.
Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.
Clarify natural language usage
Create tables that transform gracefully.
Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully.
Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes.
Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces.
Design for device-independence.
Use interim solutions.
Use W3C technologies and guidelines.
Provide context and orientation information.
Provide clear navigation mechanisms.
Ensure that documents are clear and simple.

You can go through "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT)" to get more insight on the same.

What's user experience (UX)?

2007-10-13T11:16:00.000-07:00

"User Experience" (often abbreviated as UX) is another core element of all the product development that happens on the web or mobile & other day-to-day life applications / product where the goal is to "satisfy the end-user's needs at its best level attainable".

User Experience (UX here onwards) includes all the aspects of the end-user's interaction with any products / services. UX can be briefly described as the "overall experience a user has when using a particular product / application or any system. UX is a subset of "experience design" which is related to architecture and interaction models which impacts a particular system's or product's end-user.

To create a best user experience, designers or developers should keep the end-user at the core of its product development & should make sure the product or system has the features easily accessible which the end-users are looking for, without any fuss & system meets the user goals & needs effectively.

An effective user experience strategy has many advantages, including the few ones mentioned below:

Easy to access applications/ systems
Due to exclusion of unnecessary functionality, exact user needs are understood & addressed.
Overall usability of the product or application increases dynamically.
Integration of business goals effectively as end-users needs are managed well.

Ensure Usability at every stage!

2007-10-12T06:41:00.001-07:00

The best way to get good usability & user experience in the product development, whether it's for web or for mobile or even hardware development, is to "keep the user at the core across the whole product development life-cycle".

As the end-user is the heart of all the development any company do, it needs to consider the uncompromisable role of the user in whose hand that product is going to land ultimately. So, ranging from Conceptualization / Ideation phase, till the continuous improvement phase (post product launch), one has to continuously interact with the end-users & need to understand their requirements to develop the best "usable" product.

The above image shows that all the stages of the product development should ensure that usability factor is kept at its heart.

To ensure better user experiences, make sure that the end-user is kept at the center of all the design / development that's happening & such end users are tested as well preferably; so that we get more realistic feedbacks & can improve the product at its best.

Usability and User Experience

2007-10-12T06:01:00.000-07:00

Usability refers to the product’s ability to fulfill target user’s goals and needs with effectiveness and efficiency in a specified context of use (ISO 9241-11). Usability is not only a property of the product itself: usability is a property of the entire system, which includes the product, the user, the user’s goals and the context of use. In the mobile environment, the changing context of use sets a demanding challenge for the development. In addition, the device limitations, such as input mechanisms and display size, make application development harder than in the PC world.

User experience (UE) aims for a more holistic view in which usability can be seen as a part of the user experience. UE emphasizes emotional aspects, such as the desirability, usage flow and impressiveness of the product. The ability to create a positive emotional impact on the user is a key factor in differentiating the product from the competition.

Investing in usability and UE work results in savings in overall application development costs. When the development is based on verified user needs and requirements, the development work can be prioritized and focused in the most important product features. Unnecessary work and re-work can be minimized. Satisfied customers boost the positive brand image and create customer loyalty.

(Article from Nokia Forum. Copyright with Nokia.) URL: http://www.forum.nokia.com/main/technical_services/usability/why_usability.html)

Usability! What's this? (Part -2)

2007-10-09T06:35:00.000-07:00

Nowadays, there are various product / applications in the market which makes the market competitive in various terms, including "usability" of the product. This ever-increasing competitiveness makes markets saturated & the need for best-of-the-breed products in terms of usability are required to developed.

These products needs to be more of "user-centered" than being "technology-oriented". An 'Usability' expert analyzes the interaction between the end user and the application or product developed. After carefully observing them, an "Usability expert" may find the functional or design flaws in the process by which the product or application is developed. Being an Usability person, one has to always keep in mind that the product has been designed / developed by keeping the end user in mind.

Also, 'usability testing' and 'usability engineering' are both different things. "Usability Testing" measures the ease of use of a given software / application or product. But, "Usability Engineering (UE)" is a scientific way of research & develop the processes which ensures the product / application developed is compliant to most usability parameters.

In the coming article, I will post some more stuff on "Usability".

Usability! What's this? (Part -1)

2007-09-30T21:25:00.000-07:00

How do we say that "this" particular thing is very "easy to use"? This ease of use can be defined loosely as the "usability" of that particular thing, which can a be a tool or any other human-made object which helps us in achieving a goal.

Especially in HCI (Human Computer Interaction) and CS (Computer Science), this term "Usability" generally refers to the "ease of use, clarity & elegance" of the particular software or website developed. In non-IT aspects, it can be even the efficient design of any mechanical objects such as door handle or any tool that we use in our home.

ISO standard:

The document ISO 9126 (1991) Software Engineering Product Quality, issued by the International Organization for Standardization, defines usability as:
"A set of attributes that bear on the effort needed for use, and on the individual assessment of such use, by a stated or implied set of users."

The document ISO 9241-11 (1998) Guidance on Usability, also issued by the International Organization for Standardization, defines usability as:
"The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use. "

[ ISO Standard Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability#ISO_standard ]

We will learn more about usability in the 2nd part of this article.

A starter on I.A.

2007-09-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

Let's have a brief introduction to Information Architecture (IA).

As Information Architecture Institute defines Information Architecture (abbreviated as IA), Information Architecture is:

The structural design of shared information environments.
The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability.
An emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.

Below given are some resources for the same:

The Information Architecture Institute
Information Architecture Summit
World Wide Web Consortium
IAwiki

More information on IA to be here in the coming days. So keep visiting & please post your feedbacks / suggestions.

Welcome to UsableArchitecture!

2007-09-26T05:48:00.000-07:00

You are invited to my blog-space where I am going to contribute some information about "Information Architecture, Usability, User Experience" & more things alike.

I would like to receive your feedback / suggestions , even corrections if I am wrong anywhere as you feel. Do let me know about whatever you feel I write about.

Please let us make this space more interactive to make ourselves better in these fields of knoweldge.

For any queries, do call me up on (+91) 9224-17-8084 / 9833-77-1173.