I admire more and more the interface subtleties of the Wordpress admin interface. Overall, I would simplify the pages for faster management of posts and comments, but I’m sure there’s some plugins for that.

Specifically I like the flash-and-fade error and confirmation message after an action is taken.

Big, bold, and then it becomes unintrusive all by itself. (Did you miss it? Refresh this blog to see it again.) Note that I’ve changed the colors to match my blog to demonstrate the change from sparkling to faded. I’ll be recommending this type of message styling for many web sites in the future.

Filed under: Design, Usability, User Experience by Craig Ritchie
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Tags: css, sparkle and fade, Usability, User Experience, wordpress

This great usablility checklist comes from Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Design and Refine User Interfaces (Interactive Technologies) by Carolyn Snyder. Published in 2003, and pertaining to many types of interfaces, I am starting to use it for all of my web projects.

One other question I’ve been asking a lot lately is “Why would anyone want to use this?”

Somewhat surprisingly, many people on many projects don’t have a quick answer.

Usability Checklist

Concepts & Terminology

• Do users understand the terms used in the interface?
• Are there concepts they gloss over or misconstrue?
• For new concepts, is the user able to figure them out?

Navigation, Work Flow & Task Flow

• Are users able to find their way around?
• Will they search, use links, or both?
• If there’s a work flow or sequence of steps, does it match what users expect?
• Do they have to keep flipping back and forth between screens?
• Does the interface ask for inputs that the users don’t have, or don’t want to enter?

Content

• Does the site/interface provide the right information for users to make decisions? What things do they look for?
• Is it useful and/or interesting to them?
• Is ther extra content that they don’t need or that annoys them?

Documentation, Help

• What assistance does the user need to successfully complete tasks?
• What’s the best way to provide that information?
• Can users quickly find the information they need, and make sense of it?

Requirements & Functionality

• Does the interface do the right set of things for its target audience?
• Do users have additional needs that aren’t being satisfied?
• Is there anything you could do to make the user’s life easier?
• Are you planning to implement something that users don’t really need?

Screen Layout

• Is the amount of information per screen overwhelming, not enough, or about right?
• Do users miss seeing something that’s important?
• Are there elements that need to be brought out more in the visual design? Any that distract the user?
• Has white space been used effectively? Images?
• Do we have the right stuff “above the fold?”

Brand

• Does the interface reflect the qualities that the company wants to convey?
• Does the user experience match what the designer intended?
• Are there frustrations or obstacles that can be removed?
• Do users like it?

Colors, Fonts and Other Graphic Elements

• Can users see/read everything well enough?
• Do the most important elements stand out?
• Are there any considerations pertaining to lighting vision difficulties, or color blindness?
• Is the interface aesthetically pleasing?
• Do users understand what the icons mean?

Widgets & Controls

• Do the rollover menus work for users or do they have trouble?
• Do users notice the status line message?
• Can they figure out what the cursor changes mean?
• Will multiple windows be a problem?
• Do the slider controls have the right granularity?
• Did we pick the best keyboard shortcuts?

Response Time & Performance Metrics

• Does the system respond quickly enough to satisfy users?
• Do the pages load fast enough?
• Does the display change quickly enough when the user manipulates a control?
• Are there any download or processing delays that users might find annoying or unacceptable?
• How quickly can users complete this task?

Real-world Use

• How does this tool fit with others that users have?
• What things will annoy power users after 6 months?
• Which of these function are people really going to use?
• What happens when the user is interrupted mid task?

Paper Prototyping also has good techniques to shorten development times and sell ideas to Internet non-experts. Buy it here at Amazon.

Filed under: Usability by Craig Ritchie
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