World Usability Day 2007
November 9th, 2007 : Annie Picken
Across the world on Thursday, people learned how to “make life easy.” Yes, there is an entire day devoted to ensure that the services and products important to life are easier to access and simpler to use. While this year’s theme was healthcare, we are going to focus specifically on the Internet, or as some of us like to call it, the Global InterWeb.
The University of Minnesota Office of Information Technology and Digital Technology Center celebrated the day by organizing a free event in the Walter Library on campus with the help of the UMN Usability Services Laboratory. Yesterday’s event included guided tours of the state-of-the-art usability lab, a presentation discussing practical usability practices and a professional panel discussing an overview of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
So what does all of this mean and why is it important?
Web sites that follow good usability practices and accessibility standards will benefit both the economy and our health. After all, the easier it is for us to find and potentially purchase what we are looking for Online, the lower our blood pressure is and better the economy. The equation is simple:
Usability and Accessibility Planning (>) Well Designed Web Site (>) User Productivity (>) User Satisfaction.
But Carrie’s post about Architect Web sites, shows how hard it can be to develop good design. Usability.gov says “people cannot find the information they seek on Web sites about 60 percent of the time.” In fact, designers - did you know that screen readers do not read hyper-text link titles by default? This should make you think twice about adding a link to the words “click here”, or “read more”.
- Usability, like traditional marketing, forces us to research and understand who we are building our Web sites for. What is our desired user experience and how do we accomplish it? A.K.A User Centered Design.
- Accessibility forces us to make sure we create equal opportunity Web sites. We need to make sure any and all users, including users with disabilities can easily and equally receive our Online message(s).
How do we do this?
My suggestions are to …
- Review on the Usability Basics and step-by-step visual usability guide on Usability.gov.
- Read up on the latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) The real Web 2.0.
- Download a screen reader and see how accessible your Web site really is. You may find out that what you see is not always what you get.
- You can also network with other Usability Professionals by joining the UPA. It’s always good to have a lot of friends when your doing your own usability testing.
- Finally, as my track coach once told me, “practice makes permanent, not perfect.” The more you implement smart Web design practices, the sooner you’ll develop your own processes and successful user-centered Web sites.
