Web usability
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Web usability is the application of usability in those domains where web browsing can be considered as a general paradigm (or "metaphor") for constructing a GUI.
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[edit] General
Web usability is a general approach: it is as much about the effectiveness of transferring information via the Internet, as it is about the smooth interaction of an end-user with online (and offline) software.
With web browsers becoming a greater part of the interaction between humans and electronic devices, the terms "usability" and "web usability" overlap in numerous ways.
[edit] Methodology
As more research results about usability become available, this leads to the development of methodologies for enhancing web-usability.
[edit] E-commerce
In some contexts the meaning of web-usability is narrowed down to efficiency for e-commerce websites (i.e. the efficiency in triggering sales and/or performing other business-like transactions). This probably historically derives from the renewed attention web usability received at the time many early 21st century web commerces started to fail.
Where during the emergence of internet in the last decades of the 20th century fancy graphical design had been regarded as indispensable for a successful e-business application, web-usability protagonists said quite the reverse was true: the KISS principle, for example (from the end-user's viewpoint) had proven to be much more indispensable for such success.
[edit] Related Topics
Multivariate testing - Statistical testing of user responses to web content
[edit] External links
See also external links for usability.
- Usability.gov — usability basics with focus on web usability
- Evaluating Web Sites for Accessibility — accessibility is a crucial subset of usability for people with disabilities. This W3C/WAI suite includes a section on involving users in testing for accessibility.
- Optimal Web Design from the Software Usability Research Laboratory at Wichita State University
- About.com's Usability on the Web
- Usability Professionals' Association — Organization for people practicing and promoting usability
- James Horn's Usability Methods Toolbox
- The (Usable) Web Style Guide
- Jeff Glover's Sucky to Savvy Web Pages
- User In Your Face — A free, online book about user interface design, written in installments
- 10 tips to improve website usability testing
- EServer TC Library: Web Usability
