Web Usability OverSite
This site seeks to collect information produced by those in the field of human-computer interaction (except for the section on Graphics Optimization) on usability issues surrounding Web site development.
(As the name implies, I may have missed some sites ;-) If you know of sites that could be added, please send them to John Cady.
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
The Good, bad and ugly: an index from the ACM SIGCHI's WebHCI site
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
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Conferences and Events
Where to go to learn more: upcoming events from the ACM SIGCHI's WebHCI site
3rd Conference on Human Factors and the Web
Past Conferences and Events
What you might have missed from the ACM SIGCHI's WebHCI site
HRWeb Related Events
Proceedings of the Designing for the Web Conference held October '96
The Missing Link: Hypermedia Usability Research & The Web held in May of '96
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Graphics Optimization
The Bandwidth Conservation Society
Designer Lynda Weinman's Site, including:
Optimizing Graphics for the Web a Websmith article by Jonathan Gross
Effective Web Graphics: a quick guide from the Access to computing at Swarthmore newsletter
Proper Gamma (Brightness) for Cross Platform WWW Images
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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
Designing Information-Abundant Websites: Issues and Recommendations
The Graphical User Interface
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
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Research Findings
The very beginnings of an attempt to compile test findings
How about some research from the ACM SIGCHI's WebHCI 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)
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
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Style Guides
Sun Microsystems' Guide to Web Style
The Yale C/AIM Web Style Guide
Apple's Web Design Guide
IBM Web Design Guidelines
Design, design, design: an index from the ACM SIGCHI's WebHCI site
Enabling Extremely Rapid Navigation in Your Web or Document
What Makes a Great Web Site?
Web Writing Style Resources from Webmaster magazine
Designing For The WebTV: A WebWeek article from February '97
Looks Count: Eight Web-Design Tips -- not by a pro, but includes some discussion of usability
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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
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Users With Disabilities
Accessible HTML Hotlist of the Adaptive Technology Site at the University of Michigan
Accessible Design for Users With Disabilities: Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox column from October of '96
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
Design of HTML Pages to Increase Their Accessibility to Users With Disabilities
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Other Indices
WebHCI: A guide to HCI issues of the Web
Usable Web: Keith Instone's guide to user interface, usability and human factors aspects of the Web
Recommended Other Websites: Jakob Nielsen's recommendations
WWW-related issues from the Human-Computer Interaction Resources on the Net site (mirror page here)
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For more sites, see also the Human-Computer Interaction OverSite