Now, here onwards, this will be the place where I will post everything. Please feel free to post comments / suggestions & stuff that can help me improve my website. :)
URL: http://www.usabilityfactors.in/blog
See ya there!
Monday, April 13, 2009
My website is LIVE!
Hurray! I have got my own hosted blog LIVE today. You can check it out at "http://www.usabilityfactors.in/blog".
Now, here onwards, this will be the place where I will post everything. Please feel free to post comments / suggestions & stuff that can help me improve my website. :)
URL: http://www.usabilityfactors.in/blog
See ya there!
Now, here onwards, this will be the place where I will post everything. Please feel free to post comments / suggestions & stuff that can help me improve my website. :)
URL: http://www.usabilityfactors.in/blog
See ya there!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Mobile Usability PPT in SlideShare Spotlight
Yo! My recently added presentation "Mobile Web Application : Usability Factors" got featured in SlideShare.net SPOTLIGHT showcase by their editorial team. :)
URL: http://www.slideshare.net/category/design
You can view the presentation at: http://www.slideshare.net/vishalvaidya/usability-factors-mobile-web-apps-usability-factors-0209
Thanks a lot, SlideShare!
You can view the presentation at: http://www.slideshare.net/vishalvaidya/usability-factors-mobile-web-apps-usability-factors-0209
Thanks a lot, SlideShare!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Mobile Usability presentation
Please check this URL posted, a link to an presentation, related to post:Usability for Mobile Web Apps.
You can view the presentation at:
http://www.slideshare.net/vishalvaidya/usability-factors-mobile-web-apps-usability-factors-0209
Please provide your feedback / suggestions on the same.
Thanks a lot!
You can view the presentation at:
http://www.slideshare.net/vishalvaidya/usability-factors-mobile-web-apps-usability-factors-0209
Please provide your feedback / suggestions on the same.
Thanks a lot!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Usability for Mobile Web Apps
Unlike conventional desktop / notebook-based computing, Mobile browsers has greater limitations including screen / resolution, processor / hardware capabilities, user & environmental factors.
To overcome all these limitations to maximum possible extent, the application needs to follow certain guidelines while designing such applications. To start with, I am contributing some stuff what I have learned so far. I would like you all to contribute on 'important aspects' while start designing a mobile web / application.
Important factors while designing for mobile web / applications:
(I have referred the mobile web app which I have developed for my company, bcwebwise.)
1. Address Users' Requirements As Quickly As Possible:
Mobile web / application users are the ones who are using the web for their immediate needs, unlike desktop-users. For e.g. locating the nearest cafe or finding the closest Theater or for a short-spanned entertainment. For Such users, "quickness" makes a lot of difference, time being a critical factor. In such cases, understanding the users' immediate requirements & assisting them to fulfill them quickly enhance the experience of your application.
2. Navigation:
Screen "real estate" is very valuable & precious when it comes to mobile devices & so, needs to be used wisely. Mobile devices have varies screen sizes. For such limited screen sizes, what gets delivered upfront, "above the fold", does make a difference.
Ideally, DO NOT repeat the main navigation on every page, as it pushes the content down, generally "below the fold" making it inaccessible for the user. Also, make sure you place it on the homepage as that being an entry point to the site.
3. User Inputs:
Entering text on a mobile phone can be more painful than on a conventional desktop-based input mechanisms. Make sure your design allows the users to input the text in an easier way. For example, allow them to choose by selecting an item instead of manually entering the text (as it is even more error-prone). For example, a Telephone no. displayed can be used to call the particular no right from there itself, instead of copying the no or manually entering it on the dial pad.
(In this example, contact numbers displayed can be used to call the respective ones directly from the link.)
4. Only essential stuff:
Provide only essential & relevant information on every page. User's generally pay for all the content they see on their devices & so, for them, any inessential data shown is a pain, because THEY have to pay for the content they DON'T want & gets frustrated. Content designed for mobile web also needs to be crisp & to the point, as the users will not be interested in reading typical junk on their devices which they are not interested in & have to pay for it.
5. Basic controls
Make sure you place basic controls to navigate on the site, such as "back to home, back to search results" & relevant ones. Putting "Back" on every page is a good practice. Use contextual menus if required & only if they are assisting the user (preferably limited to 2-3 short links).
There is lot more when it comes to Usability for Mobile Applications, but I would prefer to put it in the next post & would cover as much I know. Please provide your feedback on this post. Your suggestions are welcome!
To overcome all these limitations to maximum possible extent, the application needs to follow certain guidelines while designing such applications. To start with, I am contributing some stuff what I have learned so far. I would like you all to contribute on 'important aspects' while start designing a mobile web / application.
Important factors while designing for mobile web / applications:
(I have referred the mobile web app which I have developed for my company, bcwebwise.)
1. Address Users' Requirements As Quickly As Possible:
Mobile web / application users are the ones who are using the web for their immediate needs, unlike desktop-users. For e.g. locating the nearest cafe or finding the closest Theater or for a short-spanned entertainment. For Such users, "quickness" makes a lot of difference, time being a critical factor. In such cases, understanding the users' immediate requirements & assisting them to fulfill them quickly enhance the experience of your application.
2. Navigation:
Screen "real estate" is very valuable & precious when it comes to mobile devices & so, needs to be used wisely. Mobile devices have varies screen sizes. For such limited screen sizes, what gets delivered upfront, "above the fold", does make a difference.
Ideally, DO NOT repeat the main navigation on every page, as it pushes the content down, generally "below the fold" making it inaccessible for the user. Also, make sure you place it on the homepage as that being an entry point to the site.
3. User Inputs:
Entering text on a mobile phone can be more painful than on a conventional desktop-based input mechanisms. Make sure your design allows the users to input the text in an easier way. For example, allow them to choose by selecting an item instead of manually entering the text (as it is even more error-prone). For example, a Telephone no. displayed can be used to call the particular no right from there itself, instead of copying the no or manually entering it on the dial pad.
(In this example, contact numbers displayed can be used to call the respective ones directly from the link.)
4. Only essential stuff:
Provide only essential & relevant information on every page. User's generally pay for all the content they see on their devices & so, for them, any inessential data shown is a pain, because THEY have to pay for the content they DON'T want & gets frustrated. Content designed for mobile web also needs to be crisp & to the point, as the users will not be interested in reading typical junk on their devices which they are not interested in & have to pay for it.
5. Basic controls
Make sure you place basic controls to navigate on the site, such as "back to home, back to search results" & relevant ones. Putting "Back" on every page is a good practice. Use contextual menus if required & only if they are assisting the user (preferably limited to 2-3 short links).
There is lot more when it comes to Usability for Mobile Applications, but I would prefer to put it in the next post & would cover as much I know. Please provide your feedback on this post. Your suggestions are welcome!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Why User-Centered Analysis (UCA)?
Most of us, from any kind product development field - software, web, mobile; being developers, feels that we know a lot about the “end-user” who is going to actually use the final product. But, such a perception of end-user is NOT ‘right’.
Rather, we may know really less when it comes to understanding the user before we start developing the product for a specific user group or TG. Websites / Products / Software developed without understanding the ‘end-user & their needs along with business goals’ will make less sense & the final product may not “usable" & will not achieve the business goals set by the stakeholders.
To minimize the failure & increase the product usability, we need to understand the ‘user group’, which can be done by using “User-Centered Analysis” (UCA) methods.
User-Centered Analysis is NOT a part of the ‘product development life cycle' or 'SDLC‘. It’s even before we get into the actual product development / detailed design & implementation.
UCA gives us a powerful understanding of the end-users' mental model'. These methods provides you a rich information, insights on “how a user will use your website or application“. This, if understood in a right manner, will definitely help you to build an application/ website that user will really find “easy-to-use”.
User-Centered Analysis (UCA) is a set of proven and objective data-gathering and analysis techniques, which enables you to understand the ‘end-user and his mental model‘ about your website / application.
We will discuss some of these methods in the coming posts. Do let me know if you have any suggestions. Provide your comments, if possible.
Rather, we may know really less when it comes to understanding the user before we start developing the product for a specific user group or TG. Websites / Products / Software developed without understanding the ‘end-user & their needs along with business goals’ will make less sense & the final product may not “usable" & will not achieve the business goals set by the stakeholders.
To minimize the failure & increase the product usability, we need to understand the ‘user group’, which can be done by using “User-Centered Analysis” (UCA) methods.
User-Centered Analysis is NOT a part of the ‘product development life cycle' or 'SDLC‘. It’s even before we get into the actual product development / detailed design & implementation.
UCA gives us a powerful understanding of the end-users' mental model'. These methods provides you a rich information, insights on “how a user will use your website or application“. This, if understood in a right manner, will definitely help you to build an application/ website that user will really find “easy-to-use”.
User-Centered Analysis (UCA) is a set of proven and objective data-gathering and analysis techniques, which enables you to understand the ‘end-user and his mental model‘ about your website / application.
We will discuss some of these methods in the coming posts. Do let me know if you have any suggestions. Provide your comments, if possible.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Why 'Usability' is so important?
We are living in a virtual world where there are millions of websites offering different kinds of applications / products & information services featuring business, education, entertainment, community sites & much more than one can think of. These several websites offering almost same kinds of services, etc. are making it more difficult to survive in such a complex business scenario.
Being very competitive market, one needs a solid product / services strategy & business model. But, one also needs good "usability" strategies & practices to make his/her website better than others, to make users keep coming back to the website; as there are several other sites which offers almost same kind of content / services.
Several studies & research of user behavior have clearly shown that users are impatient & have really low level of tolerance for difficult or sluggish websites, which takes more than required time. Being with such intolerant approaches, users are not willing to come back to sites which have very poor usability features. If they don't get what they want quickly, they will stop coming to your website in the future.
These bad usability elements of a website leads to time wastage, productivity losses, frustrated user base who are hardly willing to come back to this "non-usable" website; which automatically leads to different kinds of losses being an unsuccessful web application that fails to attract users or to serve the target audience of the website or application.
As against this, websites or application which makes a users life easy by allowing him to get what he wants in minimum clicks or in a hassle free way, developed using good usability strategies & practices always makes a user happy & attracts him to the website or to use the application. This loyalty increases the value of the website or the application, which gives good returns being a valuable website or application for its loyal users. Usage of Usability methods in the website or application development helps you to develop the best of the breed 'usable' application.
Usability is an "investment". You should invest into Usability irrespective of whether it is a new website development or a revamp of an existing website, as the money invested in Usability always pays off, as it saves lot of learning time for your target user base as your application is developed keeping the end-user at the core of all the development & have "usability" to develop the application at its best.
For example, IBM estimates that every dollar spent on the Usability will return $ 10 to $ 100.
Isn't it worth investing in Usability, which wins users, their satisfaction by making you "out-of-the-crowd" website with loyal customer base / users as well as business goals also?
(I had written this article on my old blog in year 2007. I am republishing it here because it always made sense, though figures mentioned may have changed. You can view the same at: http://usablearchitecture.blogspot.com/2007/11/why-usability-is-so-important.html)
Being very competitive market, one needs a solid product / services strategy & business model. But, one also needs good "usability" strategies & practices to make his/her website better than others, to make users keep coming back to the website; as there are several other sites which offers almost same kind of content / services.
Several studies & research of user behavior have clearly shown that users are impatient & have really low level of tolerance for difficult or sluggish websites, which takes more than required time. Being with such intolerant approaches, users are not willing to come back to sites which have very poor usability features. If they don't get what they want quickly, they will stop coming to your website in the future.
These bad usability elements of a website leads to time wastage, productivity losses, frustrated user base who are hardly willing to come back to this "non-usable" website; which automatically leads to different kinds of losses being an unsuccessful web application that fails to attract users or to serve the target audience of the website or application.
As against this, websites or application which makes a users life easy by allowing him to get what he wants in minimum clicks or in a hassle free way, developed using good usability strategies & practices always makes a user happy & attracts him to the website or to use the application. This loyalty increases the value of the website or the application, which gives good returns being a valuable website or application for its loyal users. Usage of Usability methods in the website or application development helps you to develop the best of the breed 'usable' application.
Usability is an "investment". You should invest into Usability irrespective of whether it is a new website development or a revamp of an existing website, as the money invested in Usability always pays off, as it saves lot of learning time for your target user base as your application is developed keeping the end-user at the core of all the development & have "usability" to develop the application at its best.
For example, IBM estimates that every dollar spent on the Usability will return $ 10 to $ 100.
Isn't it worth investing in Usability, which wins users, their satisfaction by making you "out-of-the-crowd" website with loyal customer base / users as well as business goals also?
(I had written this article on my old blog in year 2007. I am republishing it here because it always made sense, though figures mentioned may have changed. You can view the same at: http://usablearchitecture.blogspot.com/2007/11/why-usability-is-so-important.html)
Welcome to UsabilityFactors!
I am gonna write some stuff related to Usability, User-centered Analysis (UCA), User-Centered Design (UCD), User Experience (UE), Accessibility, Human Factors in Application Design & Development, as well everything that I can think of and write something sensible about. :)
Keep checking this space for more bytes added!!! Thanking you in advance for visiting my blog.
Cheers!
Vishal Vaidya
Keep checking this space for more bytes added!!! Thanking you in advance for visiting my blog.
Cheers!
Vishal Vaidya
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