Today we will finish our introductory unit (test to come shortly).
Usability involves design and it involves hardware. First I must have enough bandwidth to get my information to the user. Bandwidth is the "size of the pipe" that carries information. The larger the pipe, the more information I can send. Second I need to think about the hardware at the end of the line. Is my user viewing the information on a phone or through a dial-up connection? Is my user using high spped DSL?
Here is what bad design looks like according to Vincent Flanders: Check out the worst website ever and his checklist for how to ruin your website.
Top ways to ruin a website:
1. We've designed our site to meet our organization's needs (more sales/ contributions) rather than meeting the needs of our visitors.
2. It takes longer than four seconds for a man from Mars to understand what your site is about. Example.
3. Our site looks like we've never seen another web site. Example.
4. We use design elements that get in the way of our visitors.
5. Our site doesn't make us look like credible professionals.
1. Read the following article. Save it in your favorites. Web Usability Guidelines. The chart at the bottom is awesome.
2. Skim this basic article about usability from Great Britian.
3. What's wrong with Google? Wouldn't you like to learn how to do that? (this may be blocked...working on it...)
Start a MS Word document. Please answer the following questions:
1. Define the following. Provide definitions that make sense to your readers.
- bandwidth
- web usability
Newsmap
Connecticut Post
3. Find a website that you think has a high usability rating. Provide a link to this website and explain why you think its usability rating is high. Possible examples: Bobby (use headphones), Baby Names (blocked??) Tall Buildings.
All three assignments (bias, accessibility, usability), the evernote biography recording, plus the two HTML webpages are due Friday 9/23. Work hard today and produce your best work.
No comments:
Post a Comment