Archive for the ‘Usability’ Category
Jun
17
2010
at 9:58am
If you’re like me, you may find the default content, comment, and admin pages in Drupal to be somewhat inadequate. For example, the default content admin page (for nodes) does not allow you to filter by author name, keywords in the title, taxonomy, or publish date. The comments page does not have filtering options at all. The users page does not allow you to search for a user name or join date (you can search for users using Drupal search, but this does not allow you to perform bulk operations on them).
I have created some views to replicate these pages with more filtering options. View Bulk Operations does come with a sample view for content, but I found that this view didn’t contain the options I wanted. Each view comes with two pages: one to replace the default admin pages (admin/content/node, admin/content/comment, and admin/user/user) and one for a tabbed interface of all three views. It would be nice if these could be the same page but you can’t have more than one URL for a page. Read more…
Posted in Drupal, Usability | No Comments »
Jan
06
2010
at 9:00am
This website seems to proclaim that in web design, there is no “fold”. Okay, I do get the point. People do scroll and you don’t need to fuss about exactly how much a visitor sees at first glance, or try to cram all your links into that space. However, I do think there are some things you need to consider about what people first see when a page loads. At first glance a user needs to answer a few key questions. As Steve Krug advises in Don’t Make me Think:
- What is this?
- What do they have here?
- What can I do here?
- Why should I be here – and not somewhere else?
The user needs to have some clue as to whether this page or website will give them what they want (have the information they need, the products they want to buy etc.). In that sense, what appears in the fold – whatever size that is for them – is crucially important.
You also need to make sure that it’s evident that there is more content further down to scroll to. I recently visited this page on the Exercise TV site (screenshot). On my screen the fold ends around Jillian’s mid-thigh. With the blue background, the text ending where it does, and the visual focus on the photo, it wasn’t apparent to me that there is more content further down. I actually didn’t realize it until I clicked on the link to browse videos and realized that it pointed further down on the same page. With widescreen monitors the scrollbar may be out of direct view, so conscious design is needed to tell the viewer that they should scroll to see more.
Via For a Beautiful Web, where Stephen Frein has a useful comment.
Posted in Design, Usability | 2 Comments »
Dec
30
2009
at 8:22pm
The Huffington Post has an article on the “Most Innovative Web Site Designs Of All Time” which is kind of a joke. Hello, mystery meat!
There is a reason why most websites have similar basic elements. It’s called usability. When users are trying to accomplish a task (find information, buy something etc.) they don’t need to figure out an entirely new navigation structure and page layout. They need sites to behave in relatively similar ways so they know what to expect and how to accomplish their tasks.
The Web can be a repetitive and boring place. Many Web sites look the same or are created based on the same basic principles.
That’s actually a good thing 
There is a time and a place for trying something new, and that’s valid, it’s just not something that’s appropriate for most websites.
So, the question is, what are the most innovative web designs of all time? I’ll have to give that some thought.
Posted in Design, Usability | No Comments »
Jan
10
2009
at 12:52pm
I meant to post this at the time but never did. Why do I never finish my drafts???
On Wednesday, October 8th our websites suddenly disappeared. Our VPS (virtual private server), hosted by VPSville, was completely unavailable. There was no explanation on their website. Our only information came from a thread at Web Hosting Talk.
The VPSville site was still live, but their forum was no longer active. Supposedly they did post something on their forums early on, but quickly took the forums completely offline. Over 24 hours passed before VPSville let their customers know what was going on.
The original announcement was vague. In light of later news that some of their servers had been hacked and all the data erased, this announcement was outright misleading. Needless to say, this was completely unacceptable. Not just that they lost the data. No, the worst part was that they didn’t tell their customers what was happening.
What do do when things go wrong (revised)
- Find out what actually happened.
- Fess up. Admit that your systems weren’t able to handle the traffic (or whatever the problem was). Do not blame the users.
- Make sure this information is published and availble to clients.
- Ensure that communication channels are open. Make every attempt to respond to customer questions.
- Do not attempt to cover up the problem.
- If you don’t know all the details, that’s okay. Tell people what you do know.
- Promise to get things working ASAP.
- Do get things working ASAP.
- Give paying customers a refund for services lost.
- In the future, make sure your servers can handle the traffic, or plan other ways to avoid the problem.
Posted in Usability | 4 Comments »
Sep
30
2008
at 10:57am
This morning the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) launched a “do not call” service. Within hours the website was not available. The explaination:
“A spokesperson for the CRTC said the site ‘worked fine’ when it launched at midnight, and said she didn’t know what had caused it to freeze up.
She speculated that the number of people trying to access the site may have blocked access to some users
‘Try it later and cross your fingers,’ she said.”
They don’t know what happened???? “Cross your fingers”?? Did they not realize that when they announced this they’d be getting a flood of traffic? Had their web developers never heard of the Digg effect? Similar problem when you’re announcing a very attractive service in media outlets across the country.
What do do when things go wrong
- Find out what actually happened.
- Fess up. Admit that your systems weren’t able to handle the traffic (or whatever the problem was). Do not blame the users.
- Promise to get the site working ASAP.
- Do get the site working ASAP.
- In the future, make sure your servers can handle the traffic, or plan other ways to avoid the problem.
Posted in Usability | 6 Comments »
Sep
12
2008
at 1:56pm
The “chunky footer” is becoming a big trend in web design. This is a footer that is much bigger than what was traditionally used, often containing several sets of links and other information. Take a look at this flikr set for some examples.
Do you find these to be effective? I think from a design perspective they solve a lot of problems. Get a lot of links on the home page without cluttering the main interface.
The problem I find is that as a user I often miss them entirely. On Jason Santa Maria’s site it took me several visits before I even noticed it was there. Why? Because I didn’t scroll that far (on the actual articles there are often many comments, making the pages quite long. Most users wouldn’t read all those comments.)
What about my home page? Will people notice the Recent Posts block at the bottom? Will they think to scroll past the white? Granted, I was intentional in what I put there vs. what I put on the sidebar. It’s not exactly essential stuff.
Usability experts have found that users have learned to scroll (early usability research found that users wouldn’t scroll past the fold). But, do they scroll the whole page? Prioritizing Web Usability, Jacob Nielsen points out that users often won’t scroll further if they get the visual impression that there is no more content on the page. If users assume that the navigation ends with the top or left navigation bar, will they try looking further down for more links?
What do you think?
Posted in Design, Usability | 2 Comments »
