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usability Tagged Articles
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Are You Sabotaging Your Site's Online Visibility?
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| Most Internet users rely on search engines to find product and service providers. Unless they know the exact website address or search by the company or brand name, they will try to find what they are looking for by using keywords that describe a product or service's features, benefits or attributes. By ignoring the most important method used by people browsing the Internet, some companies are sacrificing an enormous opportunity to attract more traffic to their sites. |
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The Idea Harvester
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| A short article on how usability evolves products; how exploitation of customer brains moves innovation within industry. This article deals with the basic principles of "usability" -- the new computer science buzzword of the past two decades. Remember when people actually owned the things they made? Not anymore... |
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5 Rules on Planning Your Startup Website
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| Too many clients rush to buy a domain name, and in a fever, develop it at the lowest bid they can find, only to discover later that 1) their domain name is not branded well for the web, and 2) their site will need massive revision in order to accommodate organic search marketing needs, while 3) the design and usability of the cheapo site itself is showing...big time. Here is advice from a web marketing planner on how to avoid serious pitfalls when planning a new website. |
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Google Analytics & Usability: The Myth of "Traffic=Profit"
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| Probably, most of your site's visitors are just browsing your site for the heck of it, or worse yet, are mere spider bots, and you'd be better off with as little of that kind of traffic in your analytics Data as possible. There are ways to clear away the loiterers and invite targeted traffic that will buy. |
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Knowing Is Better Than Guessing
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| Article Highlights
* You don’t need to test more than 5 people at a time.
* Test early and often.
* Focus on specific flows.
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Designing for Power: Rapid Development, Scale and Usability
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| You want to be able to control power. You want to wield it like a weapon, or perhaps a tool, against beyond-human forces (forces of nature, commerce and the meta-human). How can we extend business into space? When will our organizations evolve to provide us with the depth needed to evolve further? What is the role of customer, organization, capitalist, super-capitalist and human being? Does negative marketing help or hurt? Some people say it does both. What are the psychological factors of failure? Why do we need organizations? |
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Exploitation as Empowerment: On YouTube and User-Generated Content
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| Reprinted with permission from the book "A Universe of Interactions" by H. Elwood Gilliland III, edited by Ziva Borlja; this article deals with exploitation and its changing role. |
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Search Engine Optimization and Website Usability
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| The design and functionality of a website does not have to suffer just to receive a high ranking on a search engine results page. Search engine optimization, the practice of optimizing the code and content of a website to make it easy for search engines to index and for end-users to find and usability, the practice of making something easy to understand and learn are actually two sides of the same coin. Both practices are a lot more similar than you may think and lend to enhancing the user experience for websites and web-based applications. |
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••••••>GetMeOnTop Free SEO tip of the day: Use the Alt Tag to Assist in Achieving #1 on Google Search
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| Search engine spiders generally will not list your website images unless you rely on the alt tag to give a title to the images you present o your website. Alt tags go beyond showing browsers info about your images and they are part of the search engines Algorithms, helping tell them about important content on your website. Alt tags will also help in raising your websites usability, allowing a web visitor to scroll over a graphic or image with a mouse in order to receive a brief description of what the graphic, illustration or image presentation is. |
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Why Internet Explorer Must Die
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| If you’re someone who lives more in the online world, you’re sure to have heard of or participated in the eternal battle of the browsers – IE vs. others. If you’re a new denizen of the World Wide Web, you would want to know which browser best suits your online needs, but chances are, you’ve already been warned off Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. This is not just because of IE’s poor track record as a browser, but also no concrete changes being made to newer versions, despite Microsoft one of the biggest players in the market. So, we decided to debate why newer browsers are much more preferable when compared to IE one by one so as to make your choice easier for you. |
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Why Won't My Site Show Up in Google?
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| We often get inquiries from prospective clients who would like us to build them a new website. They believe that their current website must be “bad” because it's not listed in the search engines. They're convinced that a new website will automatically ensure a top ten Google rank. |
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Palm releases kit to software developers
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| After a long wait and much anticipation, software developers can finally gain widespread access to the Palm Mojo Software Development Kit to create apps for the Palm Pre.
On Thursday, the Mojo SDK was made available on the company’s webOS developer page, which also offers guidelines, a forum for developers and other documentation intended to assist in the process.
But will the release of the kit help alleviate the lack of applications available on the company’s new smartphone, a factor viewed by some as a potential roadblock to its success?
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Features of Joomla Web Designing
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| Are you at all familiar with the terms Joomla web designing or Joomla technology? Basically, Joomla is an award-winning CMS or Content Management System which allows a web developer to create web sites and powerful online applications.
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User Acceptance Testing Can Improve Your Website's Chances
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| Before you launch a new or modified Website you should have a representative sample of of the end users try the Website before it goes live, even if you have already subjected the Website to testing by qualified quality assurance testing professionals. Here's how easy it is. |
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The Greening of Expectations
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| Consumers are increasingly seeing the green movement, not just as a quality of life issue, but as a survival issue as well. Here's why business should, too. |
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Industrial Design and Your Invention
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| Industrial Designers offer the ability to improve your inventions usability, aesthetics and ergonomics increasing your inventions perceived value and potential. |
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Emerging Technologies
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| Major retailers like Wal-Mart typically represent the leading edge in retail technology, but that doesn't mean small retailers should ignore these trends because "only the big guys are doing it" |
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Leveraging Usability to Profit in a Down Economy
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| In a down economy, good usability isn't a nice to have, it's a must have. By understanding how your users interact with your applications up front, and designing with the end user in mind, you can save money by getting it right--first. |
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Building Consumer Confidence Online
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| The greatest challenge to businesses aiming to build a presence on the web is establishing brand credibility and consumer confidence online. The Internet provides a plethora of marketing opportunities to businesses of all types and sizes, but some of the considerations involved in successful online marketing are unique. For instance, the process often lacks human interaction, and as such creating consumer confidence online is difficult because potential customers are forced to determine whether or not to proceed with a transaction or interaction based on how credible they perceive the business to be.
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Make Exponential Profits With Backend Sales-Part 3
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| So you provide a product or service? Great....but that's just the start. Add in "Backend Selling" and watch profitability soar. |
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20 todo's for Windows 7
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| The focus of windows 3.1 to 2000 was usability. The focus of XP was security and, again contrary to some gripers, the security problems were mostly fixed. The hype of Vista seemed to be about visual design - and not usability, so a lot of users like me went "pfffff". Will the next version of windows goes back to the basics and focus on the daily needs of us users to help us do what we do a little faster and with fewer frustrations? Here's twenty things to hope for. |
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You Are Not Amazon
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| Amazon.com moves a lot of product. It processes 24 orders every second. Its 76 million (and counting) unique visitors would make it the world's 17th-largest country, if it were a country. And just about every person I have ever interviewed for a usability study has mentioned using it. This success doesn't mean that it's always smart to copy from Amazon. It's still necessary to think critically about your content, audience, and goals before implementing any feature from another website, even proven leaders. |
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Why We Choose the 'View More' Button Instead of Pagination
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| We changed the pagination method because we feel the "View More" button provides a much better user experience.
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Search First, Ask Questions Later
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| Searches are an extremely important feature for most sites, as the first step of every user task is finding where to begin. A well-implemented text search generally does a good job when people know exactly what they want, but it's much less effective if they don't. To help these individuals, it's best to start with the assumption that your users are human. |
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Graphic Design vs. Web Design: Separate and Not Equal by Nick Haas
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| As designers, it is our job to communicate effectively in both the print and web mediums, and learn that they are separate and not equal. Understanding the distinct differences between being a graphic designer and a web designer in 2010 might help you on your next project or in the way you approach your design. |
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Learn This Phrase: Conversion Rate
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| Having a lot of traffic doesn’t mean you have a lot of sales. Obviously, not every visitor is going to buy something. But a percentage of them will. This percentage is called a conversion rate. If your business involves e-commerce (or if you’re considering it) this is something you’re thinking about. |
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Get your site higher on search engines
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| Achieving a higher ranking on Google and other search engines is the main goal of many website owners. The important point to keep in mind though is that you first need to optimise your website for site visitors, and then optimise it for the search engine. |
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Blog Usability – How to Reach Your Blogging Happy Place
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| You’re a blog owner. It has a catchy name. After submitting a blog post, you’re amazed at the inbound traffic. The ads in your sidebar are paying your mortgage. People recognize you on the street as that “Cool Blogger”. Next year, you’ll retire to some tropical island because your blog success is like winning the lottery. Or not. |
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Don’t You Want Contact? Boost Your Fan Base With Web Usability That’s Free ‘n Easy
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| It's incredible how much marketing capital is lost by websites that don’t invite easy contact. And, I’m not talking about anything in-depth or expensive to implement either. I’m talking about basic stuff like changing navigation text or deleting all the extraneous garbage on your Contact page (assuming you have one of course). |
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Web design: Accommodating User Abilities, Disabilities, Browsers, and Alternative Devices
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| Your page design must be fluid and flexible if it is to display well and function effectively on small screens as well as at larger resolutions. You should keep in mind that your site should be developed to work across browsers, platforms, and devices. So, for instance, use external style sheets to target and support alternative media, Accommodating User Abilities, Disabilities, Browsers, and Alternative Devices such as handheld devices and printers. And avoid fixed-width designs, which can be problematic for users with lower screen resolutions. |
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Increase Conversions With Optimized Landing Pages
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| A landing page is a web page that visitors from a specific traffic source land on. They are heavily linked to individual marketing campaigns – for example, the landing page for a PPC campaign is the page that visitors land on when they click your PPC ad. |
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5 Engaging Ways to Engage Your Audience
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| How engaged a customer is with your website will determine whether they can be persuaded to buy, comment, download or submit their information for you to follow up on. Customer engagement goes beyond just getting the customer's attention, you must keep their attention. This can be done by providing your visitors near immediate gratification.
To do that you have to first know who your audience is, know what they seek and then also know their purpose for being on your site. Knowing all this then lets you work toward meeting the needs of your target audience. But it also means taking things a step further and building a relationship with them. The ability to build a relationship with your visitors can be crucial to driving them through the persuasion process. Relationship building starts the moment the visitor hits the website. |
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14 Usability Tips for Login and My Account Pages
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| Sites that require users to log in to access certain information and/or purchase products add an additional layer of potential complication to the usability process. To avoid potential visitor confusion and the possibility for errors, it is important that any login process requires little or no thought on the part of the site visitor.
Once logged in, you must be sure that visitors are able to find the information they want and expect to find. My Account pages need to provide visitors with access and ability to view and change personal information, as necessary. |
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Searching for Better On-Site Search Usability
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| Not every site needs, nor should have, an on-site search feature. But those that do must be sure that the search isn't just an after-thought. It needs to be more than something to add because you think visitors want it. Adding a search function is not necessarily good for on-site usability. Implementing a search function improperly is often a greater source of frustration than not having one altogether. |
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Converting Visitors Through Errors and Form Fields
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| Forms are one of your primary points of contacts with your visitors. While many visitors still use email or even the telephone to contact you or to place an order, the vast majority will contact you first via your web forms. Forms that are broken or improperly implemented cause frustration and can greatly reduce your conversion rate for leads and sales.
It is up to your design and development team to test your site's web forms as thoroughly as possible in order to eliminate any errors. While no site can ever be 100% error-free, finding and fixing errors sooner, rather than later, is important to maintaining a usable website. When user and usability errors do occur --and they will-- it is important to employ the right safeguards in order to ensure visitor satisfaction and reduce exit rates.
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7 Ways to Make Your Home Page a Home Run for Usability
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| Your home page is the single most crucial page of your site. This is the page that will be the primary entry point for a majority of your visitors. It is also the page that sets the stage for the rest of the site giving visitors a birds-eye view of who you are, what you're about, what you can do for them, what you offer, and how they get the information needed.
The importance of making sure your home page is user-friendly cannot be understated. This page, more than any other, has to pull together so many elements without being overbearing or overloading the visitor with information overkill. Despite the over-reaching purpose of the home page, simplicity is the key. Provide the necessary information and usability elements and you'll lower your bounce rate and improve site conversions along the way.
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Web can make or break business
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| A smart company knows that its Web site is as important as its mandate. |
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