23.WebsiteUsabilityReview

When defining usability, one should consider its five quality components:

• Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?
• Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?
• Memorability: When users return to the design 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 design?

(http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html)

For this blog entry, I will describe how these five quality components apply to two  websites as I believe them to have high levels of usability. I will then describe how two other websites are lacking in areas of usability.

(Good Usability)


nytimes.com (The New York Times)

Learnability: The front page of the New York Times website should have a very familiar feel as it mimics a newspaper. Most people know what a newspaper looks like,
and how to navigate it. Arguably, this webpage navigates better than a newspaper as one doesn't have to fumble about with the loose sheets of paper.

Efficiency: Since most users already know the design of a newspaper, one can just read the headings and briefly glance at what things are interesting to them. The front page provides snippets of information that the writers feel relevant to their articles and are what promotes the users interest to click a link.

Memorability: Again as mentioned previously, this webpage is very intuitive due to the fact that it mimics a newspaper design. As long as the user has seen and used a newspaper, they will always know how to navigate this page.

Errors: It is very hard to make an error on this webpage as the links are very distinguishable from each other. However, if one were to make a mistake and mis-click on a link, he/she would be able to simply hit the back button to get to the front page. Also, each page that is clicked on will generally have some link back to the front page, no matter where the user navigates to.

Satisfaction: There is an sense of unbroken information flow when I navigate this page. Finding interesting information is very easy as it will pop out at the user. The left column also provides links to various specific pages related to categories of news, such as sports, science, health, etc. The user interface to this website is very simple and I believe it to be very pleasant to navigate.

pandora.com (Pandora Internet Radio)

Learnability: The front page of pandora is very self-explanatory. To create a new internet station, one just clicks the button, "create a new station..." From here, the user can enter in the name of a genre or particular band they are interested in, and pandora will generate playlist of songs for the user. In total, the user has to perform at most three actions to start listening to music. Since there are few hoops to jump through, the chances of the user accomplishing these basic tasks are fairly high. In the case that the user wishes to create an account, there will be more steps involved, but this will be a one time task.

Efficiency: After the user has created their first station as explained in Learnability, the user will only have to repeat the same steps to create a new station. In the case that the user wishes to switch stations to another station in the set of stations they have created, the user will only have to click on the station. So far, the total count of operations that a user would have to endure is four. In most cases, the user will only be switching through stations. The worst case scenario would consist of the user constantly creating many new stations, but users will generally not behave this way.

Memorability: Unless the user forgets their account information, the total amount of the common operations that a user will commit to memory is ~four. I would imagine that even the least tech savy people would be able to handle these four operations, no matter how long they may have been away from this page. Since the labels of all the links are self explanatory, the user will not have to remember much to get started again. In fact, the site saves the users information, so a default station will start playing music as soon as the user comes back to the page.

Errors: It's difficult to make errors on this website. If the user selects the wrong station, they can simply click on the correct one. If the user creates a station that they did not want, they can delete it by using the drop down menu associated with the station and repeat the process of station creation until they are satisfied.

Satisfaction: Navigating this page and accomplishing the task of creating a music channel is fairly seamless. Manipulating the station environments feel natural to those who are comfortable using computers. Even if you don't use a computer, it should be pleasant to use this site as there aren't too many things to remember. One could say the ease of use is comparable to typical music entertainment electronics.

(Bad Usability)


http://www.joneschijoff.com/ (Industrial Designer?)

It's hard to understand what the point of this webpage is. Navigating it is simply a pain. Although it incorporates the use of HTML5, it is misused. The user does not immediately understand what the point of the brain in the middle of the page is supposed to represent. There is minimal amounts of information being displayed. Thus, navigating and trying to find information is very tedious. The user will only remember this site in a way in which they will remember never to visit it again.

The chances for error while browsing this page are very large. The user can click just about anywhere on the front page and get output, however the output is enigmatic. In the most general case, upon clicking a part of the brain, you are given a zoom in view of the brain. When clicking the right error, you are taken to a matrix of pictures that have seemingly little to do with each other. There are no text links and the user is left to deduce where the useful information is.

When I leave this page, I'm left feeling very dissatisfied.

http://www.siphawaii.com/ (Shop in Paradise)

This site gives an ample definition to the statement "information overload". It is the exact opposite of the page previously reviewed. The web designer has filled this page up with many colors and styles. The main page is hard to look at. Reading the page gives the user an inclination to turn their head away from the bombardment of noise. In terms of efficiency, the website is not efficient at all. The person who made this page obviously neglected most common html interface structures, such as a drop down menu. There is a lot of redundancy with the labels and more than enough pictures.

The links on this page provide no feedback to the user as to which links have been previously been clicked. If a user wishes to find what item(s) they were looking at previously, they will have to make the search once again with little reference. This can debilitate the learning process associated with this page. The user will learn that you have to associate items of interest in relation to items of disinterest to find the items again.

The pages are also extremely "tall." The user will have to scroll through large portions of screen real estate to have the chance of finding what he/she is interested in. My finger is worn from the continuous use of the mouse-wheel on my mouse.

Upon adding an item to the cart, the user is whisked far away from anything that resembles the page they were at previously. This can cause confusion and perhaps annoy the customer enough so that they may give up entirely.

The site is memorable in that I may remember never wishing to be bombarded by so much information at one time again. I leave this page feeling extremely dissatisfied.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the less thinking involved, the better the user response and hence, the higher rating of usability corresponding to the product.