WEB USABILITY

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WEB USABILITY
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• PAGE PROBLEMS
• SITE PROBLEMS

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USING FRAMES

• OLD
• BACK BUTTON
• BOOKMARK
• PRINTING
• NEW
• BACK BUTTON FIXED
• CAN BE BOOKMARKED
• PRINTING LESS DIFFICULT

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STATUS

• MEDIUM
• 11

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BLEEDING EDGE TECHNOLOGY

• DONT USE BETA (SITE CRASH WILL CHASE AWAY USERS)
• USE APPROPRIATE TECH
• DONT ANIMATE JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN
• USE VRML, WHEN APPROPRIATE
• STILL A PROBLEM?

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CURRENT STATUS

• VERY SEVERE
• 7

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SCROLLING TEXT, MARQUEES, ANIMATION

• ANIMATION OVERPOWERS PERIPHERAL VISION -
  DISTRACTING
• ltBLINKgt IS EVIL.
• NOW-
• MORE PROBLEMATIC
• THOUGHT OF AS ADVERTISING

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CURRENT STATUS

• VERY SEVERE
• 12

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COMPLEX URLs
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COMPLEX URLs

• NO MACHINE LEVEL ADDRESSING
• USE HUMAN READABLE DIRECTORY
• FILE NAMES REFLECTING CONTENT
• DONT USE

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COMPLEX URLs

• NOW --
• NOT MUCH OF A PROBLEM, NAVIGATION HAS IMPROVED
• BUT LONG NAMES STILL A PROBLEM.

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CURRENT STATUS

• SEVERE
• 6

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ORPHAN PAGES

• EACH PAGE
• WHAT SITE VIEWER IS IN
• LINK TO HOME PAGE
• WHERE IN STRUCTURE
• NOW -
• USERS KNOW HOW TO REACH A HOME PAGE
• NOVICES STRUGGLE

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CURRENT STATUS

• MEDIUM
• 10

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LONG SCROLLING PAGES

• EARLY
• ONLY 10 WILLING TO SCROLL PAST FIRST PAGE.
• NOW
• NOT SO MUCH OF A PROBLEM, PEOPLE WILLING TO
  SCROLL
• SMALLER PROBLEM
• 15

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LACK OF NAVIGATION SUPPORT

• EARLIER
• COMMUNICATE STRUCTURE
• PROVIDE SITE MAP
• WHERE ARE THEY? WHERE CAN THEY GO?
• SEARCH FEATURE

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CURRENT STATUS

• SEVERE
• 4

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NON-STANDARD LINK COLORS

• LINKS TO PAGES NOT SEEN BLUE
• LINKS TO PAGES SEEN PURPLE
• DONT MESS WITH IT
• UNDERLINING OF TEXT -- CONFUSING
• CURRENT STATUS
• SEVERE
• 17

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OUTDATED INFORMATION

• UPDATE
• ARCHIVE, DONT DELETE
• VERY SEVERE
• 1

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OVERLY LONG DOWNLOAD TIMES

• NOMINAL TIME 10 SECONDS
• (I HAVE SEEN A REPORT SAYING 8 SECONDS)
• 15 SECONDS?
• MORE USERS THAN INFRASTRUCTURE

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DOWNLOAD TIMES

• STILL A BIG PROBLEM

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DOWNLOAD TIMES

• VERY SEVERE
• 84 OF SITES

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BREAKING THE BACK BUTTON

• HOW TO BREAK
• NEW BROWSER WINDOW
• IMMEDIATE REDIRECT -- THAT IS YOU DONT LET THE
  USER GO BACK
• PREVENT CACHING (THIS WILL SLOW DOWN THE SYSTEM)

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OPENING NEW BROWSER WINDOW

• OPENING BROWSER WINDOW
• KEEPS USER ON SITE.
• (dont TAKE OVER CONTROL)

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NON-STANDARD USE OF GUI WIDGETS

• CONSISTENCY IN USAGE --
• RADIO BUTTONS, FOLLOWED BY OK.
• IF YOU CHANGE, THEN YOU CONFUSE THE USER.
• NEW PAGE REPLACES OLD PAGE
• NOT OPENS NEW WINDOW

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LACK OF BIOGRAPHIES

• USERS WANT TO KNOW ABOUT AUTHORS OF DOCUMENTS
• CONSISTENCY IN USAGE --
• DONT CHANGE LINK TO EMAIL.

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LACK OF ARCHIVES

• OLD INFORMATION IS GOOD INFORMATION.

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MOVING PAGES TO NEW URLs

• IF A PAGE IS MOVED, LINKS FROM OTHER SITES ARE
  BROKEN..
• (WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?)

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HEADLINES USED OUT OF CONTEXT

• HEADLINES MAKE SENSE IN CONTEXT
• BUT IF YOU USE THEM AS LINKS OUT OF CONTEXT, THEY
  MAKE NO SENSE.

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LATEST BUZZWORD

• CUSTOMER SERVICE AN USABILITY IS GOAL --
• NOT LATEST BUZZWORD

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(No Transcript)
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SLOW SERVER RESPONSE TIMES

• BLOATED GRAPHIC DESIGN -- ORIGINAL OFFENDER
• PERSONALIZATION -- EACH PAGE HAS TO BE COMPUTED
  ON THE FLY
• CONNECTIONS TO DATABASES

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LOOKS LIKE ADVERTISING

• WEB ADVERTISEMENTS DONT WORK.
• CLICK-THROUGH RATES ARE BEING CUT IN HALF
• ANIMATION
• BANNERS
• POP-UP WINDOWS

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CHANGING PHILOSOPHY

• SUCKING THEM IN WITH FREE EMAIL
• THEN CHANGING SITE SO THAT USER HAS TO GO THROUGH
  MANY PAGES TO GET TO EMAIL.

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AUDIO IS INTRUSIVE

• WHAT IF I AM IN MY OFFICE

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SPLASH PAGE

• PAGE INDICATING ALL THE SERVICES?

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PAGES WITH NO URL

• CAN GO ONLY TO THE HOME URL NOT TO SPECIFIC
  PAGES.

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MISNAMED BOOKMARKS

• BOOKMARK MUST BE SPECIFIC

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NON-STANDARD FILES

• IF ITS NOT HTML, SAY SO.

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DYNAMIC PAGES

• TAKES TIME TO CREATE
• CANNOT BE CACHED.
• (SO SLOW DOWNLOAD TIME).

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CONTACT INFO

• CONTACT INFO ON ALL PAGES?

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??KEYBOARD EFFICIENCY

• EXPECTING SAME FEATURES ON THE WEB AS REGULAR
  APPLICATIONS
• USERID (TAB)
• PASSWORD(TAB)
• LOGIN

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HTML TABLES

• WHOLE TABLE HAS TO BE LOADED -- SO USER ENDS UP
  WAITING