24 Usability Testing Tools In the past few years, there has been massive growth in new and exciting cheap or free web site usability testing tools, so here’s my list of 24 tools you may need to use from time to time. Gone are the days of using expensive recruitment firms, labs and massive amounts of time to create, deploy and report on usability tests. By using these usability testing tools and others like them, you have for the first time a complete set of tools designed to tackle almost any usability research job. From recruiting real users (with tools such as Ethnio) to conducting live one on one remote moderated tests (UserVue) to analyzing results of usability changes using A/B testing (Google Website Optimizer), there is a plethora of useful and usable tools to conduct usability testing. Why usability testing helps: But what good is conducting usability testing, how can it help? Caution! Of course, just because the tool is free, or practically free, doesn’t mean just anyone can and should use the tool. 1. 2. 3.
User Interface Design Pattern Library Four Key Principles of Mobile User Experience Design Prior to becoming a senior UX designer at Popular Front Interactive, I spent two years as a mobile UX researcher within the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Mobile Technologies Group – a lab tasked with both future-casting and then rapidly prototyping innovative mobile experiences. As I transitioned from academia to industry, I discovered that while mobile UX was discussed, it wasn’t discussed from the same broad frame of reference that I was used to within the confines of a research-based institution. Although more recent mobile UX conversations I have found myself in have undoubtedly benefited from the ongoing smart phone revolution, overall I still find these conversations to be needlessly driven by tactical adoration and lacking a conscious consensus regarding the fundamental principles of the mobile-user experience. PRINCIPLE #1: There is an intimate relationship between a user and their mobile device. PRINCIPLE #2: Screen size implies a user’s state. Voice Messaging The Internet
Mouse Tracking is better than Eye Tracking « Open Web Analytics The good folks over at ClickTake have posted a great piece on how eye tracking compares to mouse tracking in terms of analyzing web page usability. Mouse tracking differs from eye tracking in that a user’s mouse movements are recorded instead of their eye movements as they interact with a web page. The best way to think about mouse tracking is that it turns your web pages into a one way mirror through which you can literally watch how your users interact with the page. When it comes to usability work, mouse tracking often times is far more effective than eye-tracking because: It can be performed on live users of your site, instead of simulated in a lab.It doesn’t require specialized/expensive labs, recruitment efforts, consultants, or equipmentIf you use Open Web Analytics you can do it for FREE and get started immediately. Have you ever debated a design decision with a client or colleague only to wind up agreeing to disagree? Do users ever scroll the web page?
Form Tester | Tools overview | UsabilityTools - Remote User Experience Testing Improve your online forms’ performance. Learn how visitors interact with each field and find out which steps in the process cause dropouts. Minimize users’ effort and increase conversion rates. Sign Up Get 10,000 pageviews for free! Go into details Find out which elements of your online forms keep people from converting. Test every form Increase conversion from every type of online form. Get to know the user perspective See multi-step forms like your users do. Instant Collaboration Share a link to the data gathered with Form Tester and collaborate with your team or clients. No coding All you need to do is copy and paste a short JS script inside the website and you can start your study. Fast page load The installed script will not noticeably impact your page load time. Unlimited projects Launch as many studies as you need. Unlimited websites Track unlimited amount of websites. Control your expenses Schedule the study to finish after a certain number of pageviews or on a given date.
Designing Social Interfaces The myth of the page fold: evidence from user testing | cxpartners As web professionals, we all know that the concept of the page fold being an impenetrable barrier for users is a myth. Over the last 6 years we’ve watched over 800 user testing sessions between us and on only 3 occasions have we seen the page fold as a barrier to users getting to the content they want. In this article we’re going to break down the page fold myth and give some tips to ensure content below the fold gets seen. What is the fold? Above the fold is a graphic design term that refers to important content being on the upper half of the front page of a newspaper. Why we don’t worry about the fold People tell us that they don’t mind scrolling and the behaviour we see in user testing backs that up. BBC, Play, Amazon.co.uk and the New York Times websites showing the position of the page fold Adding evidence from user testing When we user test here at cxpartners we use an eye tracker. Scrollbars are used to assess page length and to indicate content below the fold Just some clarification.
John Dyer | Mouse Tracking: Beyond Analytics The next big thing after website traffic reports appears to be mouse tracking. There are several services popping up that use JavaScript to track a user's mouse movements and clicks. When you login to the service you can watch movies of exactly how a user explored a webpage using their mouse. This is a much cheaper alternative to a full-blown eyetracking system. Here are some of the major players so far (note all of them have nice real-word names instead of "web 2.0" meaningless madeup names): "Heatmaps" MapSurface.com – Based on his orginal AJAX Link Tracker, Glenn Jones' service overlays graphical click data on top of your site. "Mouse Movements" OpenCube.com – OpenCube has been known for it's nice DHTML/JavaScript/CSS widgets and menus, but it has also developed a product that goes a heatmap and actually tracks the mouse movements of users. "Free" MIT Labs – MIT's Media Lab has released a PHP-based tool that does some pretty powerful mouse tracking.
Formulaires « Ergonomie web illustrée Fig 32-2 SeLoger Parcours oculaires individuels de 4 participants, 5 premières secondes Dans l’ordre de haut en bas: Julien, 34 ans Myrtille, 28 ans Annabelle, 27 ans Florence, 28 ans à retrouver en page 180 du livre Fig 32-3 SeLoger Carte de chaleur des 10 participants confondus, 2 premières secondes (durée absolue) ; carte de chaleur et carte d’occultation des 10 participants confondus, de la première seconde aux 5 premières secondes (durée absolue). (Éliminer la première seconde permet d’observer plus attentivement la zone du formulaire en tant que telle.) à retrouver en page 182 du livre Fig 37-2 PriceMinister Carte de chaleur et carte d’occultation des neuf participants confondus, 20 premières secondes (critère : durée absolue). à retrouver en page 202 du livre Fig 37-5 PriceMinister Carte de chaleur des trois participants ayant confondu les deux zones, 20 premières secondes (durée absolue). à retrouver en page 204 du livre Voir les compléments aux autres parties :
Get Wireframing: The All-In-One Guide Wireframing is a great tool to incorporate into your projects as it allows for rapid prototyping and helps to pinpoint any potential problems. I personally find it invaluable on projects to have a visual representation of content, hierarchy and layout. Overall it’s an excellent step to incorporate into your project before the design process begins for both you and your clients. I am continually intrigued about how other firms and individuals incorporate the wireframing stage into their process. I know i’m not the only one, so this list aims to group together some of the best techniques, tools and resources to help you create effective wireframes. Techniques Building a Wireframe in Illustrator – From AiBurn – a step by step tutorial. Tools Omnigraffle – Create diagrams, process charts, quick page layouts and website mockups Visio – Visualize, explore, and communicate complex information. Wireframe Examples Wireframing Articles of Interest Paper Prototyping Useful Wireframing Resources
Essential Books for User Interface Designers If you are looking to stock your library, you can’t go wrong with this list of books. These are the books that are literally on my desk, listed in order from top of the stack to the bottom. The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide to the World’s Most Consequential Trivia By David Mccandless If you are a fan of Edward Tufte, you need this book. . Prototyping: A Practitioner’s Guide By Todd Warfel. These concepts completely changed the way we do business. Smashing Book The book is available exclusively from Smashing Magazine. Designing Web Interfaces: Principles and Patterns for Rich Interactions By Bill Scott and Theresa Neil. Yeah, I know this is our book, but it really is on my desk. Designing for the Social Web By Joshua Porter. Great, great read. Designing Social Interfaces: Principles, Patterns, and Practices for Improving the User Experience By Christian Crumlish, Erin Malone. Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks By Luke Wroblewski. by Matthew Linderman and Jason Fried By Alan Cooper.
How to prioritise usability problems Drinking from a fire hydrant Running a usability test has been compared with taking a drink from a fire hydrant: you get swamped with data in the form of usability issues that need to be organised, prioritised and (hopefully) fixed. Although it's tempting to use your own judgement in determining severity, this causes a difficulty when a developer challenges your decision: "How did you make that issue critical? I think it's more of a medium problem". Having a standard process for defining severity means that you can be consistent in the way you assign severity and means that you provide the transparency needed for people to check your work. In fact, by asking just 3 questions, we can classify any usability problem. Does the problem occur on a red route? Red routes — frequent or critical tasks — are the most important tasks that the system needs to support, by definition. Is the problem difficult for users to overcome? Some usability problems are show-stoppers: users just can't proceed. Medium
30 concepts-clés de l'utilisabilité Dans un article intitulé "30 Usability Issues To Be Aware Of", Smashing Magazine recense 30 concepts et définitions que toute personne s'intéressant à l'ergonomie et à l'utilisabilité devrait connaître. Ce billet en est une adaptation en français : Le principe des 7±2 éléments Le cerveau humain étant limité dans sa capacité à traiter l'information, celui-ci aborde la complexité en traitant l'information par blocs. La règle des 2 secondes En vertu de ce principe, un utilisateur ne devrait pas avoir à attendre plus de 2 secondes certaines réponses du système, comme le passage d'une application à une autre, ou le lancement d'un programme. La règle des 3 clics Selon cette régle, les utilisateurs tendent à abandonner un site lorsqu'ils ne sont pas capables d'accéder à l'information ou au service en l'espace de 3 clics. Le chiffre de 3 clics n'est cependant pas critique : le plus important est que l'utilisateur sache où il en est, et qu'il n'ait pas l'impression de perdre le contrôle.