Web Design Blog by Smiley Cat Web Design. Brand vs. Usability - ClickZ. Which is more important: brand or usability? Does there have to be a conflict between the two? Today, we'll tackle the subject and try to find a middle ground between form and function. On one hand, best practices enable better usability. But adhering to them too much stymies innovation and possibly brand differentiation. Does your site represent a strong brand?
If not, you've probably built one that looks like every other site on the Web. If your brand doesn't have a strong voice, your site's voice is generic. On the other hand, maybe your brand is carefully guarded and has very clear style guides and rules about its look, voice, and feel. A Strong Brand Equals Loyal Customers First things first: if you want to have loyal customers, you need a strong brand. The online equivalent of the supermarket test is similar. For most sites, the answer is probably no to both questions. The difficult part is the fact that commonality improves usability. Web best practices do something similar. Jack. Top-10 Application-Design Mistakes (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbo. Usability Posters - Help Motivate Your Team - Experience Dynamic.
Usability Posters - Help Motivate Your Team - Experience Dynamic. Evangelize usability and inspire your peers! Our most popular poster, The Importance of User Experience, is ideal for team building, educating or evangelizing usability. The poster illustrates usability metrics illustrating the positive and/or negative impact of user experience execution. Metrics include: Loyalty; Trust; Perceived Credibility; Profitability; Intent to Return; Intent to Purchase; User Satisfaction; Word of Mouth). Currently hanging on walls at over 800 corporate and academic organizations throughout the world! Details: Special Offer: Order a 5-pack for your design room and save 40%Size: 18 inches X 22 inchesIdeal for your cube, office wall, office break room, team design room.In English and shipped in cardboard tube.
Related Resources: See the related blog post with the research behind the contents of the posterTranslation offer: translate this poster into your language and receive a free English version. Usability/User-Centered Design Methodologies. There are many published methodologies for usability or user-centered design (UCD). All of these methodologies focus on the people who will use a product and the purpose for which they use it, but they also vary in emphasis and approach. Designing the User Experience This UPA poster shows a general UCD methodology, with typical activities and definitions of key terminology. Usage Centered Design Constantine & Lockwood's approach focuses on usage rather than users and abstract rather than realistic models. It is closely associated with object-oriented approaches and UML. For a book on the subject, see Software for Use, Addison-Wesley, 1999. TRUMP (TRrial Usability Maturity Process) This EU-funded project looked at ways to raise the "usability maturity" of organizations and recommends an approach to defining a UCD methodology for a variety of projects The Usability Engineering Lifecycle Dr.
Demystifying Usability : Methodology or Mythology? Methodology Madness: or "caveat emptor" (buyer beware) What you buy or "buy into" influences how you think about something and how you represent that information in your mind is what cognitive scientists refer to as an "internal representation". Whether you buy usability services or not, at some point along the way I am sure you will or have encountered "methodology madness", and maybe you don't even know it. What is "methodology madness"? Methodology madness in the usability services and products area refers to the espousing of convenient beliefs, "truths" and proclamations about the right way or new way to do things.
The methodology is typically proprietary or masked and is typically part of some form of a sales pitch- either for a report or a "customer experience management" solution. The "right or new way" implies that the approach is more refined, more advanced or a best practice. Methodology madness is not new to usability consulting; in fact it exists in many industries.
Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) User-Centered Design and Web Development. User Centered-Design (UCD) is a philosophy and a process. It is a philosophy that places the person (as opposed to the 'thing') at the center; it is a process that focuses on cognitive factors (such as perception, memory, learning, problem-solving, etc.) as they come into play during peoples' interactions with things. UCD can improve the usability and usefulness of everything from "everyday things" (D. Norman) to software to information systems to processes. . . anything with which people interact. As such, User-Centered Design concerns itself with both usefulness and usability. Usefulness relates to relevance; do the functions, information, etc., match what the user actually needs? Usability relates to ease-of-use—a simple concept, but not always easy or intuitive to implement.
Usability Guidelines There are certain global usability principles, or guidelines. Memory Load The site should reduce user memory load. FeedbackWhen a user performs an action, she should receive immediate feedback.