Archives for the category "usability"

Content Re-use and Narrative Flow

January 6, 2013 · Posted in Content development, Content management, Information design and usability, usability  

A response to a discussion about disruption of narrative flow, and the consequences of content re-use.

Content Inventories, Audits, and Analyses: All part of benchmarking

August 9, 2012 · Posted in Content strategy, Deliverables, Processes, usability, User experience, user-centered design, Web development  

An interesting discussion recently arose in a content strategy forum about content benchmarking, and this seemed an opportune time to discuss the topic. (Thanks to Destry Wion for suggesting I turn this into a blog post.) According to Wikipedia, the definition of benchmarking is “the process of comparing one’s business processes and performance metrics to [...]

If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention

June 15, 2011 · Posted in Content strategy, usability, User experience  

The signage in Vancouver’s transit system is an example of how small content problems can have a negative effect on the overall user experience.

World Usability Day: making the world a little better

November 13, 2006 · Posted in usability, User experience  

If you’ve ever wondered whether you were the only person in the world who couldn’t figure out how to use a product, open a package, follow instructions, World Usability Day is a little ray of hope in an otherwise generally unusable world. I’m one of those people; I assume that everyone else must have figured [...]

XM Radio User Experience Starts with its Web site

December 3, 2005 · Posted in usability, User experience, Web development  

Either I’ve just crossed the threshhold into “too old for new technologies” or I’ve become discerning enough that I expect a good user experience from start to finish. After buying an XM radio, I discovered that I needed to activate the radio service by going to the XM Radio website and entering my radio ID [...]

Off the Beaten Task Path

November 30, 2005 · Posted in usability  

On the one hand, users don’t like to feel pressured to act in a prescribed way. On the other hand, users don’t want to be led away from whatever task they set out to accomplish. For instance, when I go to Amazon.com, I want to shop for books. I don’t to be led down a [...]