video of user confused with the word 'form' User is asked to 'fill out the form below' but fails to find the form. Name/email text input fields are in plain sight. (tags: usability testing microcopy)
Author Archives: marielle
links for 2011-07-20
Jon A. Krosnick Page of Jon A Krosnick, who does research on attitude formation, change and effects, on the psychology of political behavior and on survey research methods. (tags: survey research)
Communities: places for conversations among people, not silent libraries
When working on online communities, it’s deceptively easy to get lost in the numbers and statistics. You’re keeping track of conversion rates, signups, all kinds of activity measures, retention rates and maybe a net promotor score or satisfaction rating. While all these statistics are certainly valuable, they’re still ‘just’ numbers, and what you really should …
Tips for a great creative portfolio
Whether you’re an artist, visual designer, photographer or another creative professional, if you’re taking yourself and your clients/audience seriously you absolutely need to have a place to show some of your work online. It helps inform the people who care about you and your work, and with a good online portfolio you can share your …
An overview of UX techniques
There are many different techniques and methods that can be used in UX research, design and testing. Where to go if you want an overview of techniques, for exploring new methods, or for reference? Some resources are: The methods section of the Usability body of knowledge. It presents benefits, disadvantages, descriptions, and links to further …
Getting more information from a physical card sort
Card sorts are usually used for gathering quantitative data. But they can be valuable as well as a knowledge elicitation technique for qualitative data, especially when you’re working in domains outside your expertise. The main benefit is that in addition to the categories, you get to know a bit more about the criteria that your …
The prototypical portfolio site
An older (2009) but still nice to read case study on portfolio websites (especially design portfolios): Portfolio Design Study: Design Patterns and Current Practices – Smashing Magazine How does the typical portfolio site look? Prototypical portfolio site: light design, with neutral, calm colors in a horizontally centered layouts with two to three columns and a simple …
Return on investment for user testing
It is not always easy to quantify what you can gain by a good user experience. Content customers, higher satisfaction, more loyalty, fewer complaints all need to be factored in, and not only in the short term. A great example of the effects that user testing can have is this case study: The $300 Million …
A keyboard with haptic feedback
It’s funny to see that nowadays we rely very much on vision for input devices for our computers/phones. Touch screens have become very common, with a good reason. They are easy to use, easy to learn, and when you don’t need the keyboard you can use the same screen estate for other purposes (such as …
links for 2011-03-17
Webopedia: Online Computer Dictionary for Computer and Internet Terms and Definitions Webopedia is an online dictionary for words, phrases and abbreviations that are related to computer and Internet technology. (tags: dictionary internet reference)