Web usability guidelines(userfocus.co.uk)
userfocus.co.uk
Web usability guidelines
http://www.userfocus.co.uk/resources/guidelines.html
6 comments
On the very first page that was linked, all of those headings are expanded, including: "Navigation and IA: 29 guidelines to evaluate navigation and information architecture.". This is further used as tooltip text when you point at the actual link with the abbreviation.
As for scroll stoppers...it is very clear to me that the page's main content has ended when I reach even the "first" footer. It hardly seems like a principle violation.
"Usability Training" might be a subtlety in the footer, but it is also one of the major headings (which are obviously buttons).
And while I'd agree that browser widths shouldn't be assumed, their advice in #29 is with respect to reading, and there is definitely research to suggest that there is a maximum useful width for a column of text, ~60-70 characters. [See for instance, "Readability of Print" (H. Spencer, 1968).]
As for scroll stoppers...it is very clear to me that the page's main content has ended when I reach even the "first" footer. It hardly seems like a principle violation.
"Usability Training" might be a subtlety in the footer, but it is also one of the major headings (which are obviously buttons).
And while I'd agree that browser widths shouldn't be assumed, their advice in #29 is with respect to reading, and there is definitely research to suggest that there is a maximum useful width for a column of text, ~60-70 characters. [See for instance, "Readability of Print" (H. Spencer, 1968).]
And this is just inexcusable. Horizontal scrollbar comes up when I resize below 975px wide. In other words, if by some freak chance you aren't using 1024x768 with your browser maximized (because like... everyone does that, right?), you get a less-than-optimal view of their website. Wow. Usability.
That's exactly what I thought. It took me a while to understand how their information was organized...
I guess they don't take their own advice :)
I guess they don't take their own advice :)
As an fun exercise, go to
http://www.aa.com
and watch as they break every single one of these guidelines. I use aa.com as an example of crappy usability so often that my definition of "good web development" is becoming "the opposite of whatever aa.com is doing".
http://www.aa.com
and watch as they break every single one of these guidelines. I use aa.com as an example of crappy usability so often that my definition of "good web development" is becoming "the opposite of whatever aa.com is doing".
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On the menu:
"Navigation and IA"
But...
Under "Writing and content quality":
"Acronyms and abbreviations are defined when first used."
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They say "Pages are free of 'scroll stoppers' (headings or page elements that create the illusion that users have reached the top or bottom of a page when they have not)." But the site has THREE footers, any one of which could be the end of the page.
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They say "Things that are clickable (like buttons) are obviously pressable." But the text "Usability Training" in the third footer is inexplicably clickable.
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One that counts as an epic fail... they believe there is such a thing as a "standard browser width window."