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Why Usability is So Important
DON'T LEAVE! - On the Web, usability
is a necessary condition for survival. Why?
- If a web site is difficult
to use, viewers leave
- If your homepage fails
to clearly state what you offer and what
users can do, viewers leave
- If
your viewers get lost on a web site, viewers leave
- If
your web site's information is hard to read or
doesn't answer key questions, viewers leave
See a pattern here?
There's no such thing as a viewer reading a web site
manual or otherwise spending much time trying to
figure out an interface. There are plenty of other
web sites available; leaving is the first
line of defense when users encounter a difficulty.
How can my business benefit?
- Increased productivity
- Increased sales and revenues
- Decreased support costs
- Reduced maintenance costs
- Increased customer satisfaction
So now that we know why we do Usability; how is
web Usability done?
Some of the services may include:
Heuristic Evaluations:
A Certified Usability
Analyst examines the interface and uses recognized
usability principles (the "heuristics").
The usability problems are discovered and then
categorize and rate by a set of heuristics.
- Competitive Analysis
- Personas
- User Testing
- P-E-T
(Persuasion, Emotion, Trust)
A word about Quality Assurance
From our perspective, QA is a subset
of the overall usability goal—after all, a web
site isn't usable if it isn't working.
Quality Assurance
is an important step in the web site development
process and, by all means, should not be skipped.
A broken link or a misspelled word may seem like
trivial mistakes, but they can greatly undermine
the credibility of your web site. You want people
who visit your site to feel assured of the quality
of the information they find. That’s why InterSeller
does a comprehensive check that include:
7 Quality Checkpoints
- Accessibility -
check against W3C WCAG1, WCAG2 and Section 508
guidelines
- Compatibility -
check for browser specific code, script and image
formats
- Compliance -
check for compliance with EU and US law
- Broken
Links - check for broken links and
other errors
- Search -
check Google, Yahoo and MSN webmaster guidelines
- Web
Standards - validate HTML, XHTML and
CSS
- Usability -
check against Usability.gov guidelines
1 - Accessibility Testing
- Check W3C WCAG 1 and WCAG
2 guideline compliance
- US Section 508 - 34
checkpoints covering 15 guidelines
- WCAG 1 Priority A -
31 checkpoints covering 17 guidelines
- WCAG 1 Priority AA -
32 checkpoints covering 23 guidelines
- WCAG
1 Priority AAA -
11 checkpoints covering 10 guidelines
- WCAG
2 - 106 checkpoints
covering A,AA and AAA guidelines
InterSeller checks sites against the W3C WCAG
1.0 and 2.0 accessibility standards, and compliance
with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. These
checks find problems stopping disabled users from
using a web site
Testing against these standards reduces legal
exposure by demonstrating compliance with disability
discrimination legislation in the US, Canada
and Europe.
2 - Browser
Compatibility Tests
InterSeller will test for browser compatibility
issues in the most common web browsers.
- Internet Explorer 6.0, 7.0 and 8.0
- Firefox 2.0
and 3.0
- Safari, Opera and Chrome
Checks pages for an array of features that don't
work correctly, or behave differently, on different
browsers. Checks include:
- HTML tags and attributes
that don't function correctly on all browsers
- CSS
features that don't function correctly on all
browsers
- Vendor specific HTML elements and attributes
- Vendor
specific JavaScript
- Image formats not supported
by all browsers (e.g. transparent PNGs)
- DOCTYPEs
that trigger quirks mode
These checks give early warning of browser compatibility
problems without the associated cost of testing
on different platform and browser combinations.
3 - Legal Compliance
- Check sites are protected by international
copyright
- Check violations of EU Privacy
and Electronic Communications Regulations
- Check violations of US CAN-SPAM
Act
InterSeller checks sites for compliance with EU
and US legislation:
- EU Privacy and Electronic Communications
Regulations 2003
- US CAN-SPAM Act 2003
- International trademark
and copyright law
- Missing copyright statement
- Missing privacy
statement
- Setting cookies with no privacy statement
(violates EU regulations - maximum fine 10,000
euros)
- Using tracking images with no privacy
statement (violates EU regulations - maximum
fine 10,000 euros)
- Flags pages collecting e-mail
addresses (needs to comply with US Can-Spam act
and EU regulations)
Violation of these regulations leave sites open
to hefty fines, up to $10,000 in some cases.
4 - Error and
Link Checking
- Find broken links and missing
images
- Detect server configuration issues
- Check for ASP/ASPX/PHP script
errors and warnings
InterSeller error checks include:
- HTML - check for missing
images and broken links
- CSS - check for missing
background graphics and broken @import statements
- Flash - check for missing
movie files and find broken links inside movie
files
- RSS - check for broken
RSS feeds
- Placeholder Text -
such as "lorem ipsum" and “TO DO”
- Script Errors - in ASP,
ASPX and PHP
- Unexpected HTTP error codes
- Script errors
- Pages with large ASP.NET view
state
- Invalid SSL certificates
- Missing DNS entries
- Malformed URLs
- Badly configured RSS feeds
- Domains close to
expiring
- Badly configured 404 handlers
5 - SEO Analysis
and SEO Checks
- Check Google, MSN and Yahoo search
guidelines
- Check best practice search optimization guidelines
- Optimize keywords and
domain registration
InterSeller checks every page on a site for compliance
with search guidelines from:
- Google
- MSN
- Yahoo
- Wikipedia
These guidelines are designed to prevent sites
trying to gain unfair advantage in search rankings,
but it's very easy to fall foul of them and have
your site ranking unfairly penalized.
InterSeller also checks your keywords in titles,
headings and highlighted text against best-practice
guidelines to ensure your site has the optimum
rank for your chosen keywords.
6 - Web Standard
Checks
- W3C HTML / CSS standards validation
- Check for
W3C WCAG accessibility standards
- Check for vendor-specific
tags, attributes and JavaScript
- Check for HTML
/ CSS which triggers browser bugs
- Works on intranet/staging
sites behind a firewall
- Checks entire site - not
restricted to single pages like W3C validator
InterSeller enforces web standards by:
- Validating every page on a site against
W3C HTML / XHTML standards using the same technology
as the W3C validator
- Checking against W3C WCAG
accessibility standards
- Finding valid, but deprecated,
HTML / XHTML tags and attributes
- Finding vendor
specific tags, attributes and JavaScript
- Finding
HTML / CSS features that trigger bugs in major
browsers
- Checking against search engine content
guidelines to ensure your site has optimum search
rank
7 - Usability Checks
InterSeller checks web sites for problems that
make pages hard to use. Finding and fixing usability
problems makes users less likely to abandon your
site in frustration.
Guidelines checked include:
- US Federal Usability.gov guidelines
- W3C usability
guidelines
- Wikipedia usability guidelines
Checks include:
- Slow loading pages
- Hard to read pages (Flesch
Reading Ease Score)
- Text too small to read
- Duplicate page titles
File formats checked: HTML, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript,
SMIL, SVG, MathML, Adobe PDF, Flash SWF, GIF, PNG,
JPEG, TIFF, and Microsoft Office
*Additional Usability services are Heuristic evaluations,
Competitive Analysis, Personas, and User Testing. |
