The document discusses best practices for writing usable usability reports. It recommends including an engaging title, organizing issues by priority and type of problem, using consistent terminology, highlighting both positives and negatives found, and making the report easy to navigate with visuals and hyperlinks. File names should be descriptive and versioned so the purpose and history are clear to future readers.
Web 2.0 Business Websites And Inbound MarketingGems Solutions
In an environment that blocks traditional marketing techniques, inbound marketing and web 2.0 websites are a great option for businesses. What is Web 2.0 and how can inbound marketing be used to drive business and growth?
A framework for building web sites that are friendly to visually impairedDileepa Jayathilake
Proper access to World Wide Web has emerged as an essential need for all kinds of groups in society. There is no apparent alternative to it in most disciplines where it is highly involved. Therefore it is crucial to make the World Wide Web accessible for every person regardless of his or her capabilities, social status, purchasing power, etc. One potential group that can be discriminated with regards to web accessibility is visually impaired because of the strong tendency of web sites and applications towards visual consumption. In recent years various bodies have been emphasizing the need for making web friendlier to visually impaired people, which resulted in generating a significant pressure on web content providers. On one side, laws are being imposed that strengthen visually impaired people to prompt legal action against organizations that ignore them. On the other hand social value systems have changed so that the value of a business can depend on the degree of support offered towards differently abled people.
The challenge in making web content more accessible for visually impaired have been attacked in different fronts. Major software platform providers have included lot of supportive features such as voice capabilities in their products. Web development agencies also have started paying attention on accessibility during the development process. This paper includes a study on different types of visual impairments and recommended means of addressing them. It also sheds light on guidelines for developing web sites and applications that are friendly to visually impaired. Output of the research also includes a framework and a convenience tool that can be immensely useful during implementation of accessible web sites and applications.
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By creating true standards surrounding a lending format, communication, and security of credit union and partner data can be significantly improved, allowing for a similar improvement in services offered. This thought-provoking presentation will educate you on the importance of developing standard protocols for lending data, how it benefits all stakeholders, and also how to go about creating these standards. Learn more at: www.nafcu.org/allied
Web 2.0 Business Websites And Inbound MarketingGems Solutions
In an environment that blocks traditional marketing techniques, inbound marketing and web 2.0 websites are a great option for businesses. What is Web 2.0 and how can inbound marketing be used to drive business and growth?
A framework for building web sites that are friendly to visually impairedDileepa Jayathilake
Proper access to World Wide Web has emerged as an essential need for all kinds of groups in society. There is no apparent alternative to it in most disciplines where it is highly involved. Therefore it is crucial to make the World Wide Web accessible for every person regardless of his or her capabilities, social status, purchasing power, etc. One potential group that can be discriminated with regards to web accessibility is visually impaired because of the strong tendency of web sites and applications towards visual consumption. In recent years various bodies have been emphasizing the need for making web friendlier to visually impaired people, which resulted in generating a significant pressure on web content providers. On one side, laws are being imposed that strengthen visually impaired people to prompt legal action against organizations that ignore them. On the other hand social value systems have changed so that the value of a business can depend on the degree of support offered towards differently abled people.
The challenge in making web content more accessible for visually impaired have been attacked in different fronts. Major software platform providers have included lot of supportive features such as voice capabilities in their products. Web development agencies also have started paying attention on accessibility during the development process. This paper includes a study on different types of visual impairments and recommended means of addressing them. It also sheds light on guidelines for developing web sites and applications that are friendly to visually impaired. Output of the research also includes a framework and a convenience tool that can be immensely useful during implementation of accessible web sites and applications.
Lean + UX + Agile: Putting It All TogetherOrthogonal
Lean Startup, Pragmatic Marketing, User Experience Design and Agile Development are all approaches to improve your odds of creating successful products.
Are they mutually exclusive, or can you assemble them together to make a lean, mean product success machine?
Pathfinder Software's Amy Willis (UX) Bernhard Kappe (Products Strategy) and Reid MacTavish (Agile Development) share their lessons learned in making lean+ux+agile work.
By creating true standards surrounding a lending format, communication, and security of credit union and partner data can be significantly improved, allowing for a similar improvement in services offered. This thought-provoking presentation will educate you on the importance of developing standard protocols for lending data, how it benefits all stakeholders, and also how to go about creating these standards. Learn more at: www.nafcu.org/allied
Lead Generation and Marketing Automation, Featuring MarketoMediative
In this webinar presentation, Marketo’s VP, Marketing Content and Strategy, Jon Miller and Mediative’s Senior Manager, Direct Marketing, Angie Dzwonkiewicz cover the following topics:
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Licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA - feel free to share, embed and re-use in your presentations, please give attribution. Thanks!
Similar to Usable Usability Reports (Dick Horst) (20)
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Usable Usability Reports (Dick Horst)
1. Usable Usability Reports
That Will Delight Your Customers
and Amaze Your Colleagues
User Focus 2012
October 19, 2012
www.userworks.com
(301) 431-0500
Dick Horst
2. Usable Usability Reports – Who Cares?
Whether writing for clients or colleagues, the report
communicates not only the substance of what you have to
say but:
• Your style of communicating
• Your care in constructing deliverables
“Cobbler’s children have no shoes” problem?
• No time
• No budget
• That’s why we have technical writers and editors
Report design, format, style, quality of writing may
influence reader’s view as much as the quality of thinking
that went into the design recommendations that are the
subject of the report
Usable Usability Reports That Will Delight Your Customers and Amaze Your Colleagues
User Focus 2012
Dick Horst - UserWorks, Inc. 2
3. What I DON’T Want to Talk About
Writing composition
Grammar per se
Spelling
Visual document design; report’s look and feel
Tables and graphs
Specific business domains, particular types of user research
reports
All of these are “givens,” they have to be well-done, and there
are generic style guides and other resource materials readily
available (e.g., new edition of APA Style Guide)
Usable Usability Reports That Will Delight Your Customers and Amaze Your Colleagues
User Focus 2012
Dick Horst - UserWorks, Inc. 3
4. What I DO Want to Talk About
Issues that are largely specific to “usability” reports
Strategies, approaches, rules of thumb
Not only report structure and text, but tone
Not only report composition, but file naming
Issues that should apply to everyone on the team, not just
the technical writer or editor
Issues that would apply not only to technical reports, but
proposals, planning documents, research papers, etc.
Largely based on my pet peeves (and I’d like to hear yours)
Usable Usability Reports That Will Delight Your Customers and Amaze Your Colleagues
User Focus 2012
Dick Horst - UserWorks, Inc. 4
5. Pizazz-iness of the Title
Creating Usable Usability Reports (2011)
vs
Usable Usability Reports That Will Delight Your Customers
and Amaze Your Colleagues (2012)
Usable Usability Reports That Will Delight Your Customers and Amaze Your Colleagues
User Focus 2012
Dick Horst - UserWorks, Inc. 5
6. A Recurring Theme Here
Consistency is King!
Hard for the reader to accept your critiques of
product design inconsistencies if the report itself
is riddled with inconsistencies
Doesn’t much matter which of several alternative
schemes you choose, but use it consistently
Usable Usability Reports That Will Delight Your Customers and Amaze Your Colleagues
User Focus 2012
Dick Horst - UserWorks, Inc. 6
7. How to Refer to Web Pages, Menus, Menu
Items, Links
Usable Usability Reports That Will Delight Your Customers and Amaze Your Colleagues
User Focus 2012
Dick Horst - UserWorks, Inc. 7
8. How to Refer to Web Pages, Menus, Menu
Items, Links
Some participants had difficulty beginning the customization process
For this scenario, participants were brought to the home page of the site and asked to
modify the home page of the site to include highlights from NewsEdge and a link to the
Rapid Reduction Technology Office Web site. No other information was given, and
participants were free to explore whatever area of the site or process would accomplish
the task. Four participants (33%) had to be guided by the moderator to the “Customize
Your Home Page” box and/or category links in order to begin the customization
process. Had the moderator not drawn their attention to that section of the site, it is
likely that more participants would have abandoned this task.
Many participants were confused by the home page customization
categories
Five participants (42%) expressed confusion with the category options on the home
page for “Customize Your Home Page” and indicated that they were not sure which
box would be most appropriate for the resource for which they were looking. In fact,
two participants said that they would prefer to have a keyword search box to locate the
resources rather than having to scan through each category to determine which one was
correct.
Usable Usability Reports That Will Delight Your Customers and Amaze Your Colleagues
User Focus 2012
Dick Horst - UserWorks, Inc. 8
9. How to Order and Prioritize the Issues
Addressed
By tasks given the participants
By audience group
By severity of the problem (high, medium, low)
(catastrophes, important, nice to have)
By nature of the problem (e.g., navigation, labeling, content,
search, visual design, accessibility, system performance)
By nature of the solution (e.g., reorganize site architecture,
streamline transactional workflow, create controlled
vocabulary, rewrite content, introduce new content
management, improve tagging of content for search,
remediate accessibility non-compliance, improve online
Help)
Usable Usability Reports That Will Delight Your Customers and Amaze Your Colleagues
User Focus 2012
Dick Horst - UserWorks, Inc. 9
10. Two Sample Organizational Schemes
Task 1 Navigation problems
• High severity problems • Home page
Navigation High severity
Labeling Medium severity
… Low severity
• Medium severity problems • Registration process
Navigation High severity
Labeling Medium severity
… Low severity
• Low severity problems • Checkout process
Navigation High severity
Medium severity
Labeling
Low severity
…
Task 2 Labeling problems
• High severity problems • Home page
Navigation High severity
Medium severity
Labeling
Low severity
…
• Medium severity problems • Registration process
High severity
• Navigation
Medium severity
Labeling Low severity
…
• Checkout process
• Low severity problems High severity
Navigation Medium severity
Labeling Low severity
…
Usable Usability Reports That Will Delight Your Customers and Amaze Your Colleagues
User Focus 2012
Dick Horst - UserWorks, Inc. 10
11. Some Rules of Thumb
“Participants” rather than “Subjects” when talking about
usability studies
“Participants” when referring to those individuals you
observed in the study; “Users” when referring to the broader
population of site visitors or product users
Past tense when discussing what happened in the study;
present or future tense when referring to what users can do
now or speculating about what they may do in the future
Write for your main point-of-contact’s boss, not your main
point-of-contact. Who knows who all might see your report!
Usable Usability Reports That Will Delight Your Customers and Amaze Your Colleagues
User Focus 2012
Dick Horst - UserWorks, Inc. 11
12. Make it Easy to Navigate the Report
Include an Executive Summary, Table of Contents,
Appendices
Accommodate both the casual reader who just
wants the big picture and those who want the
gory details
Embed video clips in report?
Hyperlink among related sections of the report?
Usable Usability Reports That Will Delight Your Customers and Amaze Your Colleagues
User Focus 2012
Dick Horst - UserWorks, Inc. 12
13. Make it Highly Visual
Usable Usability Reports That Will Delight Your Customers and Amaze Your Colleagues
User Focus 2012
Dick Horst - UserWorks, Inc. 13
14. “A spoonful of sugar …”
Before delivering the bad news, write about some
positive aspects of the design or test results
• What worked well
• Participants had no problems using the following
• Participants appreciated the following
• Overall user satisfaction was rated highly
Usable Usability Reports That Will Delight Your Customers and Amaze Your Colleagues
User Focus 2012
Dick Horst - UserWorks, Inc. 14
15. Naming the Electronic File That Contains the
Report
Name the file so it is recognizable to the recipient,
not to you; and not next week, but next year
• “Usability test report for XXX” may not jog XXX’s memory when
they see it in their file system a year from now
• “UserWorks’ report of XXX usability test, 10-19-2012.pdf” would
be better
It’s never “final”
• UserWorks’ report of XXX usability test -- final.pdf
• UserWorks’ report of XXX usability test – final, v2.pdf
• UserWorks’ report of XXX usability test – final, v2b.pdf
• UserWorks’ report of XXX usability test – final, v2b2.pdf
Usable Usability Reports That Will Delight Your Customers and Amaze Your Colleagues
User Focus 2012
Dick Horst - UserWorks, Inc. 15
16. Questions?
What are your pet peeves regarding usability
reports?
What are some of your best practices in report
writing?
Usable Usability Reports That Will Delight Your Customers and Amaze Your Colleagues
User Focus 2012
Dick Horst - UserWorks, Inc. 16