What is usability?

In the context of a website, usability refers to how well users can learn and use the site and how satisfied they are with the process. According to Jakob Nielsen, a web usability expert, usability consists of five quality components:

• Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the site?
• Efficiency: Once users have learned the site, how quickly can they perform tasks?
• Memorability: When users return to the site after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?
• Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?
• Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the site?

What is user-centered design?

In the early days of web development, websites were tested for usability at the end of the development phase. Usability testing consisted of a “validation” of the design. If all went well, the design was good. However, if there were usability issues, then the cost to correct was high.

User-centered design is a structured approach to producing a website that involves users throughout all stages of the website development. By incorporating user-centered design, the needs of the users are considered and the usability of the website is continually validated throughout the development process. This continual validation will ensure that the final website is usable and meets end users’ needs without incurring high redevelopment costs.

By incorporating user-centered design, you can improve the effectiveness of your website while reducing the cost of development. In the world of website development, it’s like eating your cake and having it too!!

He made an interesting comment about designing for different browsers.  J. advised that you really didn’t have to struggle so much to make sure every web page looked the same across every browser, just make sure the user had the best experience possible for the browser they used.

What makes each browser display the same html code differently? It is the rendering engine.

A rendering engine is the code that tells the browser how to display the html and available style information in the browser window. By paying attention to a browser’s underlying rendering engine, web developers can have a better understanding how their page will be displayed.

Released by Mozilla in 1998, Gecko was the first reusable-rendering engine [Source:  Web Design In A Nutshell]. It was soon followed by Microsoft’s Trident, Opera’s Presto and WebKit.

According the Wikipedia, Gecko is used by a variety of products derived from the Mozilla code base, including the Firefox web browser, the Thunderbird e-mail client, and SeaMonkey internet suite.

Trident, the web browser engine from Internet Explorer, is used by many applications on the Microsoft Windows platform, such as Outlook Express, some versions of Microsoft Outlook, and the mini-browsers in Winamp and RealPlayer.

Opera Software‘s proprietary Presto engine is licensed to a number of other software vendors, and is used in Opera’s own web browser.

KDE‘s open-source KHTML engine is used in KDE’s Konqueror web browser and was the basis for WebKit, the rendering engine in Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome web browsers.

For a look at the various engines and where they are used, check out Wikipedia’s Comparison of Layout Engines.

If you have read Krug’s first book, then you are familiar with his informal while engaging writing style. As with his first book, Rocket Surgery Made Easy is purposefully kept short and, as you can assume from its title, quite a humorous read.

Krug divides the book into two parts focusing on both the testing and what to do after the test. The first part is called “Finding Usability Problems” and contains the nuts and bolts about conducting usability tests.  It not only includes valuable information concerning the execution of the tests but also includes actual samples of scripts, forms and checklists.

The second part is called “Fixing Usability Problems” and addresses what to do with the information you’ve collected. Krug basically advocates two approaches to fixing your usability problems:  “tweak, don’t redesign” and “take something away”.

Tweak, Don’t Redesign

Krug cautions about the temptation to redesign when confronted with a usability issue.  Small tweaks and fixes just don’t provide the same satisfaction as a redesign.  However, small tweaks are usually quick and easy to implement and do not have the risk of being sidetracked or never finished.

Take Something Away

The reason many sites are difficult to navigate is because they are too busy. The users cannot find what they are looking for because they have too much stuff to go through. By removing some of the “noise”, it makes what is left easier to find. You can fix a problem by literally taking something away.

Krug points out early in his book that this method is not intended for all development projects. Where life and death situations are dependent on the usability of the interface (i.e. hospital systems, etc.) he recommends engaging a usability professional. However, in those situations where you cannot hire a professional, this book will definitely help you make your site more usable.

Luke touched on quite a few topics related to the evolution of forms and form input on the web.  He talked about his days at Yahoo along with the development and impact of Google’s instant search.  He also discussed a new site, Quora, to illustrate how future sites will incorporate profile information from existing sites so that the user will spend less time on data entry.

This idea of entering less and the web “knowing” me piqued my interest and I decided to do some research and look at some of Luke’s blogs on the subject.

In Luke’s blog titled Web Forms for People, he expounds on the impact of Web form design.  Luke is an evangelist for the importance of Web forms.  “Whether it’s checkout in e-commerce, comments on news articles, or managing a fitness routine – Web forms often sit between people and their goals.” How can a site ensure the user’s goals and the site’s goals are aligned?

He recommends focusing on the core purpose of the Web site while designing a Web form. This will keep the users from asking, “Why am I being asked this?” and bouncing off the site before the goal is reached.

He illustrates the point by comparing two sites and their different approaches to gathering profile or user data:  tookmark and Brightkite.  Additionally he shows how Brightkite, with a simple redesign of its Web form aligned the form input to the goals of the site.

Luke recommends asking the following questions when designing a Web form:

• Is this information necessary to give people what they want (the core purpose of the application)? If not, chances are people will question why they are being asked.

• Will there be a better time to collect this information? Asking people for information once they are already using an application is often more successful than asking them before they start using the application.

• Is there a way to explain why certain information is required? Clarifying how the information being collected aligns with people’s goals helps reassure them that they are making forward progress.

• Are there better ways of collecting the information needed? After all, Web forms are not the only way to get input from people online.

By following Luke’s recommendations, a designer can improve the user interaction and satisfaction with a site. But most importantly, the designer can improve the impact of the site  - the crucial interaction that keeps the business running.

For more information on Web form design, I recommend Luke’s book, Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks.

How can you be sure your site is easy to navigate? By calling upon the services of an information architect!

According to the Information Architecture Institute, an international organization committed to advancing and promoting the practice of information architecture (IA), information architecture is:

• The structural design of shared information environments.
• The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability.
• An emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.

In general, IA is the work involved to analyze, organize and label information on a website or web application so that users of the software can actually find what they are looking for – the desired information or functionality. In a nutshell, the information architect creates the website or application’s navigation scheme.

Information architects work behind the scenes understanding the purpose and goals of the website and then determine how to best present that information to the target audience.  Working with the clients, using content inventories, competitive analysis and persona(s), the information architect helps define the strategy, content and features for the website.  This definition is then used as the foundation for the development of site maps, wireframes and screen designs – all tools used to define and document the IA goal – an intuitive website design.

How do you know if the information architect has done a good job?  Check your website’s navigation against the following guidelines provided by usabilityfirst.com.

The navigation should:

• Be easy to learn.
• Be consistent throughout the website.
• Provide feedback, such as the use of breadcrumbs to indicate how to navigate back to where the user started.
• Use the minimum number of clicks to arrive at the next destination.
• Use clear and intuitive labels, based on the user’s perspective and terminology.
• Support user tasks.
• Have each link be distinct from other links.
• Group navigation into logical units.
• Avoid making the user scroll to get to important navigation or submit buttons.
• Not disable the browser’s back button.

In the beginning…

Tim Berners-Lee, considered the father of the Web, first envisioned the Internet based hypertext system in the late 1980’s. He wrote the first web browser, WorldWideWeb in 1991 to facilitate collaboration with his colleagues at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

During the early 1990’s the industry saw many browsers developed and released. Marc Andreessen released Netscape Navigator free for non-commercial use and, by 1995, began to dominant the market. However, Microsoft soon answered by releasing Internet Explorer 2 or IE 2 free to all Windows users. Microsoft started grabbing market share and began, what has since been called, the era of ‘browser wars’. With the release of IE 4 in 1997, Microsoft changed the tides of the war.

Can there be peace?

During this time development was rapid and the introduction of new features often took priority over bug fixes, resulting in unstable browsers, frequent crashes and many security holes. Because each technology used browser specific code, pages developed for one browser would not display well, if at all, in another.

Once again, Tim Berners-Lee saw a need.  In 1994 he started the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) with the stated mission “to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure the long-term growth of the Web” [Source: W3C].  Since then, W3C has grown to include over 450 member organizations including Microsoft and America Online (parent company of Netscape).

The treaty…

The W3C forms working groups to develop open specifications and guidelines to enhance the interoperability of the Web.  These groups make recommendations that are formalized and accepted by the W3C and their member organizations.  The current W3C standards are:

• HTML 4.0 – HyperText Markup Language
• XML 1.0 – Extensible Markup Language
• XHTML 1.0 & 1.1 – Reformulation of HTML as an XML application
• CSS – Cascading Style Sheets
• DOM 1 – Document Object Model Level 1

Thanks to the W3C, the browser wars are over and with them the need to develop specific code for specific browsers.  All the major browsers are now cooperating and supporting the above standards so that the same piece of code in a web site will look the same across multiple browsers.

To use or not to use?

Designing with web standards is a general term meaning not only using the standard technologies, but using them correctly by separating the content, the scripting and the styling.

There are many tangible benefits to designing with web standards. Separating the content from the styling makes websites easier to update and less costly to maintain. Also, the separation will mean a substantial savings on bandwidth leading to lower hosting costs.  Finally, separating the content from the styling will increase a site’s findability since search engines can do a better job of indexing the sites.

Most importantly, standards compliance allows web pages to be understood by people using different types of browsers, like voice or Braille browsers, making it easier for people with special needs to use the web. Additionally, its easier to code for mobile and tablet browsers.

In conclusion, designing with web standards will make your code more efficient, easier to maintain, more accessible and more staple.  Standards compliance will lower development and hosting costs while expanding your audience.  Thank you Mr. Berners-Lee for the Web and web standards!

So how do you convey your message?  By recognizing the needs of the user and making the copy easy to scan!

A lot of testing has been done on how long it takes for the average web surfer to decide if they want to read your page or move on.  Most viewers have made a decision in three to five seconds [Source: Nielsen: Alertbox].

It’s your job to present the information in such a manner that you grab the web surfer’s attention before they make a decision to click away.

The following guidelines from web content expert Erin Anderson in Interact with Web Standards will ensure your web pages are easy to scan and help you capture that elusive surfer:

Paragraphs should be concise
Each paragraph should only convey one idea and be less than 60 words.  As the reader scans, they will only miss one idea if they skip the paragraph.

Headlines should be short
Headings let the reader know that they are in the right place. They need to be engaging and use key words. They should be eight words less.

Subheadings should be brief
Subheadings, like headings, summarize the content that follows. They should be no longer than 12 to 14 words.

Use bulleted lists
Bullet lists can help you cut unnecessary copy and make it easier to read.

Don’t use numbered lists
Numbered lists should be used sparingly and only where they provide meaning like describing the steps in a process or a top 10 list.

Use headings to guide the reader through the page
Strategically place headings and subheadings can show hierarchy and the relative importance of the topics. They draw a reader’s eye and help them navigate the page. Also, good headings help web search engines improve your findability.

And finally, as with all writing, you need to use good web writing form. Lead with active words, use simple sentences and be succinct.

For more words of wisdom and best practices for writing for the web, check out these additional resources:

• Jakob Nielsen’s Website: Writing for the Web
• Websitetips.com:  Writing for the Web
• Sitepoint.com: Writing for the Web

When selecting colors to use on a web site, there is a sequence of rules you should apply. First, you must look at tradition and then you apply color theory.  Tradition is about the human eye and what is considered culturally acceptable.  For example, you would not use a lot of black on a wedding services site.  Accordingly, politicians in the United States use red, white and blue on their web sites to convey their patriotism.  Color has meaning, and the color choice must be both culturally acceptable and appropriate.

Color theory is applied when we take the base color we want, and then accentuate it with a complementary, monotonous, or analogous colors.  Sound confusing?  Let’s break it down by looking at the basic component of color theory, the color wheel…

Colors are classified as primary, secondary and tertiary. The primary colors are red, yellow and blue. The secondary colors are those colors “between” the primary colors on the color wheel and are made from combinations of the primary colors.  For example, orange is made from red and yellow; green is made from yellow and blue and purple is made from blue and red. As you might guess, the tertiary colors are between the secondary colors. And finally, you can affect the tint, tone and shade of the color by adding white, gray or black.

It is helpful to keep the color wheel in mind when thinking about what combinations of colors to use in your website. These best color combinations are:

• Monochromatic Color Schemes – the same color but with tint, tone and shade
• Complementary Color Schemes – colors directly opposite each other on the color wheel
• Triadic Color Schemes – colors one-third of the way around the color wheel (see above)
• Tetradic Color Schemes – colors one quarter of the way around the color wheel

Feel like you may need some help?  Don’t worry, there are tools available.  Check out the  Color Scheme Designer and you may just uncover the colorist in you!

Why is it important for the Web to be accessible to people with disabilities?  The use of the Web is spreading rapidly into most areas of our daily life.  Increasingly, it has become the source for research and training, government information and services, workplace and social interaction and entertainment.  In some cases, the Web is actually replacing traditional resources.  As the Web becomes a more essential component of our daily lives, it is crucial that the Web be accessible.  Like everyone else, people with disabilities want and need to access the kinds of resources offered on the Web.

But what is considered a disability?  Generally, there are four key areas of disability that are considered for accessibility adaptations:

• Visual – Blindness, low vision, color-blindness
• Hearing – Deafness
• Motor – Inability to use a mouse, slow response time, limited fine motor control
• Cognitive – Learning disabilities, distractibility, inability to remember or focus on large amounts of information.

Techniques and guidelines for the design and construction of accessible websites have been developed to ensure that those individuals with disabilities have the same access to information.   These standards known as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) are based on the following four key principles:

1. Perceivable – Available to the senses (vision and hearing primarily) either through the browser or through assistive technologies (i.e. screen readers, etc.)
2. Operable – Users can interact with all controls and interactive elements using either the mouse, keyboard, or an assistive device.
3. Understandable – Content is clear and limits confusion and ambiguity.
4. Robust – A wide range of technologies (including assistive technologies) can access the content

Within these principles, 12 guidelines have been established to provide the basic objective for each area of accessibility.  These guidelines should not be considered as just a compliance checklist during the testing phase, but should be used as a guide throughout the design and construction phases.  For the Web to reach its full potential for those with disabilities, web developers must commit to always designing and building with accessibility in mind.

By implementing IT Service Management using the ITIL framework, organizations will be able to achieve the following:

• Ensure that IT services are aligned to the needs of customers and users
• Improve availability and stability of services
• Improve communication within IT and with users
• Improve efficiency of internal processes

How did ITIL Evolve?

ITIL started as of collection of 40+ IT best practices documented by the UK Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA).  In 2000/2001, in order to make ITIL more accessible, the best practices were consolidated into 8 logical sets of documents.  The consolidation focused on the processes while eliminating some of the detail with the goal to better business-IT working relationships, while eliminating redundant processes and to improve levels of services to the business while reducing operating costs.  The main focus of the second version was Service Support and Service Delivery. Interestingly, Microsoft used ITIL as the basis to develop their proprietary Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) in 2000.

In May 2007, ITIL Version 3 was released, adopting more of a lifecycle approach to service management, with greater emphasis on IT business integration.  V3 defines a future with IT far more firmly integrated and aligned with the business than it was in either of its previous versions.  While V2 was centered on processes, V3 focuses on the services provided to the business. . In fact, ITIL V3 defines Service Management as a “set of specialized organizational capabilities for providing value to customers in the form of services.” These capabilities, functions and processes manage IT services over their lifetime, or what ITIL V3 refers to as the service lifecycle. Equally important, ITIL V3 focuses on continual service improvements across the lifecycle.

The ITIL V3 service lifecycle consists of five distinct phases:

1. Service Strategy: Designing, developing and implementing Service Management as a strategic resource and setting overall objectives for IT services.
2. Service Design: Developing appropriate IT services, including architecture, processes and policy development.
3. Service Transition: Developing and improving capabilities for the transition of new, modified services to production.
4. Service Operation: Developing effective and efficient support services.
5. Continual Service Improvement: Creating and maintaining value for the customer by designing service improvements over time.

What is the role of the Service Desk?

ITIL defines the processes, functions and activities required to implement IT Service Management.  Critical to the implementation of ITIL Service Management, is the function of the IT Service Desk.  The Service Desk is the customer facing interface to the IT Organization with primary goals of communication, identification and restoration of critical IT services with the agreed upon service levels.  It provides a single point of contact to all IT users for registering all types of incidents and service requests.  The Service Desk tracks, monitors, escalates and reports on the complete incident lifecycle. The Service Desk receives and logs all incidents and provides the first line of support to resolve incidents. The Service Desk monitors and escalates all incidents as per agreed service levels and finally, the Service Desk prepares reports on service levels.  [Source: ITIL News ].

How can I learn more about ITIL?
There are hundreds of companies and consultants that can provide services to help an organization gain various levels of expertise in ITIL.  The oldest is Pink Elephant.  Pink Elephant has been working with ITIL since its inception in 1989.  Initially begun in the UK, it has offices across the globe and the company is the #1 supplier of ITIL and IT Service Management conferences, education and consulting services.  To date, close to 200,000 IT professionals have benefited from Pink Elephant’s expertise. In recognition of their expertise and contribution to the ITIL movement, Pink Elephant was elected as an international expert to contribute to the ITIL V3 project.

Are there tools available to help implement ITIL?

As with consulting firms, there are many tools available in the marketplace that enable the implementation of ITIL.  Often, organizations pick the “best of breed” for the different tools to support the different functions of IT Service Management:  Service Desk, Technical Management, Application Management, and IT Operations Management.  However, it would be best to select an integrated approach using a single tool.  One such tool is Service Desk and IT Service Management Software developed by Axios Systems.

According to the Axios System’s web site, the Axios solution was “developed from the beginning as a single integrated solution for IT Service Management”.  This integrated approach gives the solution a number of advantages:

1. Easily deploy as many or as few ITIL processes as your organization requires – from simply service desk and incident management, all the way to ITIL V3 service lifecycle management.
2. Ability to activate additional processes at any time, without the overhead of a toolset integration project.
3. Manage the full lifecycle of an incident seamlessly across problem, change, release, and configuration processes within a single solution.
4. One vendor, one product roadmap, one simple upgrade path.

For more information on the Asios System IT Service Management solution check out their website www.axiossystems.com.

For a more detail review of the Service Desk and its processes, check out itlibrary.org.

For an overview of ITIL and its processes, view these Overview Videos.