Readings:
“Usability” from Wikipedia
“Jakob Nielsen” from Wikipedia
Use It: Jakob Nielsen’s Website. (Browse this site; you are not required to follow all the links or read extensively.)
Vincent Flanders’ Web Pages That Suck
Smashing Magazine’s “9 Common Usability Blunders”
Ten Principles of Effective Web Design
50 Questions to Evaluate the Quality of Your Web Site
“How to Drive Traffic to your Website” by Aaron Schmidt and Sarah Houghton-Jan: http://www.infotoday.com/mls/nov08/Schmidt_Houghton-Jan.shtml
“Ten Essentials for Any Library Site” by Brian Mathews: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6634712.html
Writing for the Web
Nielsen, Jakob. “Concise, SCANNABLE, and Objective: How to Write for the Web.” Available online at http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html
Nielsen, Jakob. “How Users Read on the Web. ” Available online at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html
Cardsorting
What is Cardsorting? A definition from the wiki below: “Card Sorting is a method or technique for discovering how website users categorize information so that you can design your information structure in a way which is navigable and findable by your users. The method involves asking participants to sort sets of cards which have items, names, pages, or sections of your website printed on them into groups that make sense to them, and sometimes to assign labels to those groups.”
Browse these sites:
http://cardsorting.pbwiki.com created by Ellyssa Kroski
http://websort.net/go/LibraryCardSort
- Explore:
NYPL’s new Drupal-based design was the result of user interviews.
Blog Usability is a Conversation