unit eight reading

READING SUMMARY

Chapter ten really reiterated good design that functions on a level that we have come to know and expect. Usability as a common courtesy really made me think of my "annoying" web finds. For example, when paying on Seattle City Lights website, they have the "continue" button on the left and the "exit" button on the right. Since I am used to sequentially pressing the right button for "next" I often exit and have to re-enter my payment information. Enter immediate frustration.
Some ways that "diminish goodwill" or piss off users are: hiding information they want to see, punishing them for not doing something your way (ie- no spaces between credit card numbers vs having boxes that contain 4 numbers), asking for unnecessary information, using filler words (your time is valuable to us- yeah right), showing them an amateur looking site, and time consuming animation. I can think of a plethora of times I've gone through each of these issues. The problem with them, besides frustrating your user is that it might keep that user from coming back.
There are ways to "increase goodwill" as well, like: making the most desirable thing to do on your site easy, give users information they want to know, save steps (think use billing address as shipping address button), put effort into the site, know what questions the user might have and have readily available answers, printer friendly pages, recover from errors with ease, and APOLOGIZE! Let's be humans here and understand that we will make mistakes. But mistakes are (usually) easily forgiven when an apology takes place.

Chapter eleven really was eye opening to me. I can honestly say that I have never really thought about web accessibility. I'm going to go over the main things that can be done to make your page accessible to those who may have disabilities. First, you need to fix all usability problems that are typically effecting everyone. This means that if your tested group is continuously clicking on the end button instead of the next, maybe its time to switch those buttons locations. Seattle City Lights could save me a lot of time and frustration with moving one simple button. Secondly, it is good read about usability and accessibility. There are articles and books dedicated to the subject, and it wouldn't hurt to get more informed of good ways to get used to working through accessibility problems. Third: CSS- cascading style sheets. Now that I know about css I can't imagine coding page designs via html alone (think bold tag, color, etc). CSS gives formatting control, flexibility, and consistency. It also allows for easy text resizing and sequential order to your content. Finally, do the most important stuff: alt text for images, making forms work for screen readers, skip to main content link at the beginning of a page, keyboard accessible, use client side site maps, and avoid using javascript unless you have a great reason for it.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Common Web Annoyances
10 Biggest Web Annoyances
Usability Accessibility
How To Conduct Usability Studies for Accessibility