This document is divided into the following categories:
Special Topics
See also the
HCI OverSite
Web Usability OverSite
Web site development is beginning to get tricky, as users inundated with sites become pickier about what they'll put up with in an interface. To maximize your site's user-friendliness, study what others have learned and find out what your audience wants.
This site seeks to collect information produced by those in the field of human-computer interaction on usability issues surrounding Web site development.
If you are new to the examination of usability, Paul Helinski's Web-Site Usability Engineering article serves as a good introduction.
Send comments to John Cady
Starting Points and Indices
Usable Web: Keith Instone's guide to user interface, usability and human factors aspects of the Web
Jakob Nielsen's Home Page, filled with usability info, including:
- Recommended Other Websites: Jakob's recommendations
Ask Tog from Bruce Tognazzini, designer of Apple's user interface
WWW-related issues from the Human-Computer Interaction Resources on the Net site (mirror page here)
Case Studies and Reviews
Design-Research for the Indiana University Bloomington World Wide Web: a report prepared in August of '95
Interface Design for Sun's WWW Site
Slate Magazine - An Early Review (Jakob Nielsen's review of the site's usability) from July of '96
A Heuristic Evaluation of a World Wide Web Prototype -- a report on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' prototype for a public access system to be distributed over the World Wide Web
Conferences and Events
Calendar of Events: upcoming events from Keith Instone's fine Usable Web site
Past Conferences and Events
Past Events from '99 | '98 | Pre-'98, compliments of Usable Web
Hypermedia Research and the World Wide Web workshop held at Hypertext '96 in March of '96
HCI and the Web, A CHI 96 workshop
Proceedings of the Designing for the Web Conference held October '96
The Missing Link: Hypermedia Usability Research & The Web held in May of '96
3rd Conference on Human Factors and the Web (June 1997)
Papers and Essays
Alertbox: Current Issues in Web Usability a semi-monthly column by Sun usability expert Jakob Nielsen. Some notable columns:
Other Papers and Essays by Jakob Nielsen
Utility, Usability and Likeability: Dimensions of the Net and Web
Web-Site Usability Engineering, Part 1 -- A WebTechniques article by Paul Helinski (part two has been published in the June '97 issue and is expected to be online by July)
What Is Good Design? Mary Morris discusses the different takes on this question
Research Findings
Prototype of a method for a user-friendly compilation of test findings; subject areas are grouped, with finding statements juxtaposed so as to give an at-a-glance view of corroboration on any topic. This method is similar to that used for movie reviews at Rotten Tomatoes.
Findings from the Usable Web site
User Interface Design for Web Pages -- a brief summary of usability study of the SunWeb site
Student HCI Online Research Experiments from a Ben Shneiderman University of Maryland course (see Web Related HCI Experiments section), including:
- Depth vs. Breadth in the Arrangement of Web Links
- Effects of Link Arrangement on Search Efficiency
- Screen Size and Web Browsing
Designing a User Interface: Results of Web usability tests from the U.S. Naval Academy
User Interface Engineering -- main page includes results from their Web usability testing
Characterizing Browsing Strategies in the World-Wide Web a paper by Lara D. Catledge at Georgia Institute of Technology
WWW User Surveys from the Georgia Institute of Technology's Graphics, Visualization & Usability Center
Style Guides
General User-Centered Design: this collection, from the Usable Web, is the place to start
Sun Microsystems' Guide to Web Style
The Yale C/AIM Web Style Guide
IBM's Ease of Use Design section
Looks Count: Eight Web-Design Tips -- not by a pro, but includes some discussion of usability
Designing for Alternative Browsers
(WebTV, PDAs, etc. See the Users with Diabilities section for accessibility resources)
Designing Your Site for WebTV, an interview with the manager of WebTV Networks developer support
Designing For The WebTV: A WebWeek article from February '97
Various Testing Tips from Jared Spool's User Interface Engineering firm
For more sites, see also the Human-Computer Interaction OverSite
Graphics Optimization
(Resources in this section are obviously produced by graphic designers and not usability folks per se)
Designer Lynda Weinman's Site, including:
Creating Effective Graphics, interview with Lynda Weinman
The Bandwidth Conservation Society
On the Web, Size Does Matter from Builder.Com
Optimizing Graphics for the Web a Websmith article by Jonathan Gross
Proper Gamma (Brightness) for Cross Platform WWW Images
Shades of Success - discusses emotions that various colors evoke
Colormix, a tool for making new Websafe color combinations by dithering 2 or 3 browser safe colors
Web Fonts section from Web Review
Web Graphics & Design section of Netscape Netcenter
WebMonkey's Graphics and Fonts section
Builder.Com's Graphics section
Navigation
Enabling Extremely Rapid Navigation in Your Web or Document
Uncover the Path to Success on your Site, an interview with Jennifer Fleming
Spotlight on Navigation Design from Builder.com
Text Readability
I haven't really seen much of this sort on the Web yet by usability professionals. Anyone?
Making Web Text Easy on the Eyes: Advice from graphic and Web designer Erik Goetze (not in the usability field per se)
Color and Type in Information Design: presented at CHI '97
Designing Usable & Visually Appealing Web Sites: presented at CHI '97, it contains sections on backgrounds, typography, etc.
Typofile Magazine: Essays on onscreen typefaces and information on Web fonts
Readability of Fonts in the Windows Environment: Study presented at CHI '95. Not Web-specific.
A Comparison of Reading Paper and On-Line Documents: presented at CHI '97
"The effects of luminance contrast, raster modulation, and ambient illumination on text readability and subjective image quality": abstract of a paper by Emily J. Wells
"Effects of color CRT misconvergence and font type on text readability and subjective preference": abstract of a paper by Angelia L. Sebok
"An evaluation of methods of indicating active words in hypertext documents": abstract of a paper by Rani L. Watkins
Cornix, the Power Web Reading Tool: Actually a product, this Java applet displays the text of a Web page one word at a time, at a preset number of words per minute. It's amazingly effective at getting you to read faster.
Usability Testing
"User Test Your Web Site": An April '97 Web Review article by Keith Instone
Usability Testing of WWW Designs from Sun Microsystems
Usability Testing World Wide Web Sites from the ACM SIGCHI's WebHCI site
Testing for Usability - geared to Web sites
Usability: Testing Sites With Prospective Users from Indiana University
Usability Testing for Web Sites
Effective Web Usability Techniques -- session paper from the STC Region 5 Conference
(in PDF format; download the free Acrobat reader)
Usability Testing of World Wide Web Sites -- 1996 paper submitted to Software Development Magazine
Users With Disabilities
Accessible Design for Users With Disabilities: Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox column from October of '96
Designing More Usable Web Sites
Accessible HTML Hotlist of the Adaptive Technology Site at the University of Michigan
Graphic User Interface Concerns for the Blind Computer User
Web Page Accessibility
Self-Evaluation Test: a test you can take to analyze your Web site's disability access
Universal Accessibility Policy for the State of Connecticut: a good summary of design guidelines and an index of other sites
Writing for the Web
Writing for the Web, Jakob Nielsen's advice
In Web Writing, Little Things Mean a Lot, an article on microcontent
Web Writing Style Resources from Webmaster magazine