usability reviews

Usability is simply about good customer service. Having a website that is usable will increase customer loyalty, reduce support costs and help increase sales.

Jakob Nielsen  claims “…with better usability, the average site could increase its current sales by 79%” 

Check out my new website www.usabilityreviews.co.uk/ I’m offering expert usability evaluations, which will:

• Provide a thorough analysis of your website’s usability strengths and weaknesses; and
• Offer specific recommendations on how to increase its usability.

card sorting

I guess I’m looking for some debate here, but how effective is card sorting in helping you to develop an IA.

Personally, I don’t find it that useful. Not as much as all the books and guidance would have you believe. Why? Because: 

• we rely on using small groups, which are not representative enough.
• an open card sort does not address any of the issues associated with seeking behaviours such as ‘I don’t know what I’m looking for?’
• if using this method for an Intranet, staff that took part expect their suggestions used and can affect their expectation when they’re not.

I think that Donna Maurer’s card-based validation technique is far more useful and works well.

Hello world!

Hello there,

This is my first post and yes this is just another wordpress blog!

I seem to come across at least one frustrating website per day, with nowhere to vent my frustration, because of course finding how to feedback on most of the offending websites takes longer than figuring out how to use it. So this will be my space for regular rantings about websites with poor usability. But,  don’t expect all doom and gloom, I will comment on things that are good as well  

I also see this as an opportunity to discuss and get feedback on my ideas about usability, information architecture, interface design, etc.