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Improving the User Experience 
Methods
Project Management (4)
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A project plan takes into account the approach the team will take and helps the team and stakeholders document decisions made regarding the objective, scope, schedule, resources, and... -
Creating an interdisciplinary team with the right mix of skills is vital to the smooth and successful execution of any project. Team members may be able to cover multiple roles or there may... -
Use your kick-off meeting to discuss the business case related to the site, the vision and mission based on user and organizational goals, and the vision for the site moving forward. -
Website requirements are a list of necessary functions, capabilities, or characteristics related to your website and the plans for creating it. There are several types of requirements that...
User Research (14)
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When reporting results from a usability test, you should focus primarily on your findings and recommendations that are differentiated by levels of severity. Include the pertinent...
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Once you have planned your test and recruited your test participants, it’s time to get ready to conduct your test. To do so, you’ll want to think about which moderating technique is right...
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It is vital to recruit participants who are similar to your site users for your usability testing. Depending on the site or product, you may have multiple potential users groups. Try to...
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One of the first steps in each round of usability testing is to develop a plan for the test. The purpose of the plan is to document what you are going to do, how you are going to conduct...
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Usability testing refers to evaluating a product or service by testing it with representative users. Typically, during a test, participants will try to complete typical tasks while... -
First Click Testing examines what a test participant would click on first on the interface in order to complete their intended task. It can be performed on a functioning website, a...
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The System Usability Scale (SUS) provides a “quick and dirty”, reliable tool for measuring the usability. It consists of a 10 item questionnaire with five response options for respondents...
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During these interviews, researchers watch and listen as users work in the user’s own environment, as opposed to being in a lab. Contextual interviews tend to be more natural and sometimes... -
A focus group is a moderated discussion that typically involves 5 to 10 participants. Through a focus group, you can learn about users’ attitudes, beliefs, desires, and reactions to... -
In individual interviews, an interviewer talks with one user for 30 minutes to an hour. Individual interviews allow you to probe their attitudes, beliefs, desires, and experiences to get a... -
The purpose of personas is to create reliable and realistic representations of your key audience segments for reference. These representations should be based on qualitative and some... -
An online survey is a structured questionnaire that your target audience completes over the internet generally through a filling out a form. Online surveys can vary in length and format....
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Scenarios describe the stories and context behind why a specific user or user group comes to your site. They note the goals and questions to be achieved and sometimes define the...
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Task analysis is the process of learning about ordinary users by observing them in action to understand in detail how they perform their tasks and achieve their intended goals. Tasks...
Usability Evaluation (14)
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When reporting results from a usability test, you should focus primarily on your findings and recommendations that are differentiated by levels of severity. Include the pertinent...
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Once you have planned your test and recruited your test participants, it’s time to get ready to conduct your test. To do so, you’ll want to think about which moderating technique is right...
-
It is vital to recruit participants who are similar to your site users for your usability testing. Depending on the site or product, you may have multiple potential users groups. Try to...
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One of the first steps in each round of usability testing is to develop a plan for the test. The purpose of the plan is to document what you are going to do, how you are going to conduct...
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Usability testing refers to evaluating a product or service by testing it with representative users. Typically, during a test, participants will try to complete typical tasks while...
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First Click Testing examines what a test participant would click on first on the interface in order to complete their intended task. It can be performed on a functioning website, a...
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The System Usability Scale (SUS) provides a “quick and dirty”, reliable tool for measuring the usability. It consists of a 10 item questionnaire with five response options for respondents...
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In a heuristic evaluation, usability experts review your site’s interface and compare it against accepted usability principles. The analysis results in a list of potential usability issues...
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Eye tracking involves measuring either where the eye is focused or the motion of the eye as an individual views a web page. Purpose of Eye tracking When your site visitors are connected... -
During these interviews, researchers watch and listen as users work in the user’s own environment, as opposed to being in a lab. Contextual interviews tend to be more natural and sometimes...
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A focus group is a moderated discussion that typically involves 5 to 10 participants. Through a focus group, you can learn about users’ attitudes, beliefs, desires, and reactions to...
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Remote usability testing allows you to conduct user research with participants in their natural environment by employing screen-sharing software or online remote usability vendor services... -
Testing mobile devices such as phones, tablets, and eReaders requires special equipment and methodology. Since traditional desktop screen-capture software cannot adequately capture touch... -
Scenarios describe the stories and context behind why a specific user or user group comes to your site. They note the goals and questions to be achieved and sometimes define the...
Information Architecture (4)
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Organization schemes have to do with how you are going to categorize your content and the various ways you'll create relationships between each piece. Most content can be categorized in...
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An organizational structure is how you define the relationships between pieces of content. Successful structures allow users to predict where they will find information on the site. It’s...
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A content inventory is a list of all the content on your site. Your inventory will typically include text, images, documents, and applications. To gain insight from your inventory, you will...
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A wireframe is a two-dimensional illustration of a page’s interface that specifically focuses on space allocation and prioritization of content, functionalities available, and intended...
User Interface Design (4)
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Organization schemes have to do with how you are going to categorize your content and the various ways you'll create relationships between each piece. Most content can be categorized in...
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An organizational structure is how you define the relationships between pieces of content. Successful structures allow users to predict where they will find information on the site. It’s...
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When designing your interface, try to be consistent and predictable in your choice of interface elements. Whether they are aware of it or not, users have become familiar with elements...
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A wireframe is a two-dimensional illustration of a page’s interface that specifically focuses on space allocation and prioritization of content, functionalities available, and intended...
Interaction Design (3)
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A use case is a written description of how users will perform tasks on your website. It outlines, from a user’s point of view, a system’s behavior as it responds to a request. Each use...
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Card sorting is a method used to help design or evaluate the information architecture of a site. In a card sorting session, participants organize topics into categories that make sense to...
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A prototype is a draft version of a product that allows you to explore your ideas and show the intention behind a feature or the overall design concept to users before investing time and...
Visual Design (2)
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A color wheel is an illustrative model of color hues around a circle. It shows the relationships between the primary, secondary, and intermediate/ tertiary colors and helps demonstrate...
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With the parallel design technique, several people create an initial design from the same set of requirements. Each designer works independently and, when finished, shares his or her...
Content Strategy (8)
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Card sorting is a method used to help design or evaluate the information architecture of a site. In a card sorting session, participants organize topics into categories that make sense to...
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When writing for the web, using plain language allows users to find what they need, understand what they have found, and then use it to meet their needs. It should also be actionable,...
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A project plan takes into account the approach the team will take and helps the team and stakeholders document decisions made regarding the objective, scope, schedule, resources, and...
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Creating an interdisciplinary team with the right mix of skills is vital to the smooth and successful execution of any project. Team members may be able to cover multiple roles or there may...
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Organization schemes have to do with how you are going to categorize your content and the various ways you'll create relationships between each piece. Most content can be categorized in...
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An organizational structure is how you define the relationships between pieces of content. Successful structures allow users to predict where they will find information on the site. It’s...
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Task analysis is the process of learning about ordinary users by observing them in action to understand in detail how they perform their tasks and achieve their intended goals. Tasks...
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A content inventory is a list of all the content on your site. Your inventory will typically include text, images, documents, and applications. To gain insight from your inventory, you will...
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