De gebruiker is bezig aan een opmars. Niet alleen als actieve participant op het web, maar ook in de hoofden van de bedenkers en eigenaren van websites, portals en webapplicaties.

Waar men jarenlang tevreden was met een gebruiksvriendelijke website, zien we de laatste tijd een steeds breder draagvlak voor het centraal stellen van het gebruikersbelang bij het ontwikkelen van een site. En nu Web 2.0 in alle directiekamers is doorgedrongen, wordt er ook volop gesproken over ‘user experience’.

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Veel websites hebben hem, iedereen kent hem: de FAQ, wat staat voor ‘Frequently Asked Questions’, of gewoon ’Veelgestelde vragen’. Sommige FAQ’s slagen er uitstekend in snel goede antwoorden te verschaffen. Andere zorgen voor veel frustraties bij gebruikers.

Waar gaat het vaak fout? En hoe creëer je wel een goede, bruikbare FAQ? Vandaag enkele do’s & don’ts op een rijtje. (more…)

Today’s full-day workshop at UI11 Conference is an in-depth course by Rolf Molich on all aspects regarding usability testing. Naturally I can’t give all Rolfs tips and tricks; it’s his course after all. But I will share some of the highlights. (more…)

Tomorrow, the User Interface 11 Conference kicks off. I have already checked in and strolled through Boston, where I enjoyed my lunch in the one and only Cheers pub.

During the next days, I’ll do my best to share my experiences from the conference. I had already put together my personal conference program and I’m still planning to stick to it.

Continued:

• UI11 day 1: A dive into Rich Internet Applications (9 October)
• UI11 day 2: Featured talks (10 October)
• UI11 day 3: Advanced Methods for Usability Testing (11 October)
• UI11 day 4 - part 1: Why Less Is More (12 October)
• UI11 day 4 - part 2: Social Design (12 October)

Yesterday, Christine Perfetti (UIE) held a talk on ‘Adventurous Usability Techniques’ for an audience that wasn’t physically there, but comfortably at their homes and offices. Four of Tam Tam’s interaction designers also gathered to attend this virtual seminar, to see if there are usability techniques that we are not yet familiar with but might prove to be valuable. (more…)

Last week I read Jared Spool’s richly illustrated article on the ever-returning question: “Do links need underlines?”.

Spool’s analysis is on point, but too subtle for some. He concludes: “When the designers switch back and forth, between having some links underlined but others not be underlined, that makes even more work for users. Work that doesn’t add any real value. We think the visual design element of the underline is not required, but it is cruel to make users work extra hard because you can’t decide.” (more…)

Next October, I will be attending the User Interface 11 Conference (UI11) in Cambridge MA. Yesterday I received the request to sign up for the sessions I plan to attend.

So this will be my personal conference program: (more…)

Discovered on GUUUI.com: a Dutch research reveils that 50% of all returned electronic devices claimed to be malfunctioning, is not due to a malfunction, but to bad usability. According to Den Ouden most of the flaws found their origin in the first phase of the design process: product definition.

Today, my colleagues Annelies, Gert, Pascal and I attended the annual conference of SIGCHI.nl, who seized the opportunity to announce its new name: Chi Nederland.

The conference was held in the beautiful Tuschinski theater in Amsterdam. This year’s theme: “The Web and Beyond” (or in short: Web 2.0*). An impressive 650 (roughly) people were present, a record for this conference. (more…)

“To truly become a user-centered organization, companies almost always progress through the same sequence of steps, gradually increasing their levels of commitment to usability.”

Jakob Nielsen, UseIt

In short, these are the 8 stages of Corporate Usability Maturity*: (more…)