Mobile Web 2009 = Desktop Web 1998 (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mobile-usability.html

Mobile phone users struggle mightily to use websites, even on high-end devices. To solve the problems, websites should provide special mobile versions.

Comparison of the mobile web to what we use(d in 1998).

Users often see online content out of context and read it with different goals than you envisioned. While you can't predict all such goals, you can plan for multiple uses of your text.

Un nuovo alertbox con i consigli del guru dell'usabilità

kindle usability useit.com kindlekindle

Summary: good for linear material, such as novels, not good for non-linear material such as journals, newspapers, encyclopaedias and recipe books

Summary: Amazon's new e-book reader offers print-level readability and shines for reading fiction, but it has awkward interaction design and poor support for non-linear content.

Jakob Nielsen's review of the Kindle 2. "Amazon's new e-book reader offers print-level readability and shines for reading fiction, but it has awkward interaction design and poor support for non-linear content."

A link's first 11 characters are the most important, their impact should not be squandered with bland, generic words.

... shows whether sites write for users, who typically scan rather than read lists of items.

This kind of information is useful to me as background to my understanding of digital literacy. Soon I can note it via Diigo, but not yet.

»Testing how well people understand a link's first 11 characters shows whether sites write for users, who typically scan rather than read lists of items.«

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Wherein we are told—or reminded—that the smallest amount of empirical data from real users quadruples the probability of being right.

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox

Enemies of usability claim that because "the experts disagree," they can safely ignore user advocates' expertise and run with whatever design they personally prefer.

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox - a good source for Social Networking on Intranets

Social software is not a trend that can be ignored. It's affecting fundamental change in how people expect to communicate, both with each other and the companies they do business with. And companies can't just draw a line in the sand and say it's okay for employees to use Web 2.0 to communicate with customers, but it's not okay to use it when communicating with each other; Philips case study...

uccessful social media initiatives at many companies emerged from underground, grassroots efforts

"Perhaps more than any other corporate intranet innovation, social software technologies are exposing the holes in corporate communication and collaboration — and at times filling them before the (usually slow-moving) enterprise can fully grasp (and control) the flow." Also as I've said main times "But in truth, social software isn't really about the tools. It's about what the tools let users do and the business problems the tools address."

Bad: We lost the sense of news that "announcing" implied in the previous version. Because many companies molest their poor followers with repeat postings about the same event, users have become somewhat hardened against event promotions.

A really awesome post about iterating a punchy, credible, and viral TWEET announcement.

NN Group on iterative design of Twitter posts. "The shorter [the text] is, the more important... to design text for usability."

Websites that let users customize the UI have the same measured usability as regular sites. Sites for customizing products, however, score substantially worse due to complex workflow.

It's easy to bias study participants, whether in user testing or in card sorting, if they focus on matching stimulus words instead of working on the underlying problem.

"I usually say user testing is easy: basically, you get some real customers and watch them use your site or app. But this article touches on one of the difficulties of running great studies: minimizing bias. To achieve this, you have to see how people behave on their own rather than impose your own thinking on them. In the latter case, they simply echo it back, and you don't learn how to improve your design for real-life use...."

how to (and how not to) pose the problem in useability testing

Users hate change, so it's usually best to stay with a familiar design and evolve it gradually. In the long run, however, incrementalism eventually destroys cohesiveness, calling for a new UI architecture.

to redesign or not to redesign...that is the question.

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox

Jakob Nielse advocates for design that relies on what you have.

Why it can be hard to incorporate material from social media sites on your web site.

Jakob discusses the best ways to organise multimedia content

From 0.1 seconds to 10 years or more, user interface design has many different timeframes, and each has its own particular usability issues.

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox

people can make rough decisions about a Web page's visual appeal after being exposed to it for as little as 50 ms, which is 1/20 of a second

tidsstudie over brug af website, 1 sek, 1 min. 10 min. osv.

AlertBox gives insight to how users interact with corporate streams. like Facebook, Twitter, and RSS.

According to a study of social networking postings, users like the simplicity of messages that pass into oblivion over time, but were frequently frustrated by unscannable writing, overly frequent postings, and their inability to locate companies on social networks.

Summary: Users like the simplicity of messages that pass into oblivion over time, but were frequently frustrated by unscannable writing, overly frequent postings, and their inability to locate companies on social networks.

The human brain is not optimized for the abstract thinking and data memorization that websites often demand. Many usability guidelines are dictated by cognitive limitations.

25 godina GUI interfejsa

The Macintosh was introduced January 24, 1984. In fact, the Mac was originally manufactured in the Fremont, California building that now houses Nielsen Norman Group.... Summary: Although its individual features weren't new, the Mac offered integration, the expectation of a GUI, and interface consistency.

"Although its individual features weren't new, the Mac offered integration, the expectation of a GUI, and interface consistency. " Nielsen kommenterer hva Mac har betydd for utviklingen av GUI, og hvor iPhone bør ta oss nå.

He points to "usability" as the great triumph of the Mac. Not only is the platform more successful than ever, but the computing world wouldn't even resemble the one we know without it.

Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen thinks your innovative iPad UI is too "weird." I think he should, just maybe, stop worrying about a "back" button.

"iPad apps are inconsistent and have low feature discoverability, with frequent user errors due to accidental gestures. An overly strong print metaphor and weird interaction styles cause further usability problems. "

iPad apps are inconsistent and have low feature discoverability, with frequent user errors due to accidental gestures. An overly strong print metaphor and weird interaction styles cause further usability problems.

Does SharePoint Destroy Intranet Design?

Great article on the difference between intranets and internet websites from the design standpoint.

"0.1 seconds gives the feeling of instantaneous response... 1 second keeps the user's flow of thought seamless... 10 seconds keeps the user's attention... After 10 seconds, they start thinking about other things..."

Свежий Alertbox от Jakob Nielsen’а. В общем, ничего нового, люди все еще не любят ждать, тем более ждать пока, загрузиться какой-то там сайт.

Website Response Times

Slow page rendering today is typically caused by server delays or overly fancy page widgets, not by big images. Users still hate slow sites and don't hesitate telling us.

0.1 sec 1 sec and 10 sec rules