10 Useful Usability Findings and Guidelines: good for anyone building websites

[tuqqer]

Pretty interesting list here for anyone who builds websites or is just interested in human dynamics when it comes to reading sites.

The most interesting one to me was the last one: Most Users Are Blind To Advertising. I sure am! My eyes have wired my brain to completely ignore anything that even resembles an ad. I don't even see that they're there most of the time. I don't think I'm alone in this.

[DRR]

Good tips. Thanks.

[mattkime]

very nice

[Seacrest]

good stuff.
ammunition for meetings with idiotic clients.

[abevilac]

Funny how the first thing you see on their site is a bunch of ads and if you really want the article, you have to scroll down and down which, if you scroll long enough, you will find that only 23% of us will do.

[hal]

ads? what ads?

[Seacrest]

abevilac wrote:
Funny how the first thing you see on their site is a bunch of ads and if you really want the article, you have to scroll down and down which, if you scroll long enough, you will find that only 23% of us will do.

However, users’ habits have significantly changed since then. Recent studies prove that users are quite comfortable with scrolling and in some situations they are willing to scroll to the bottom of the page. Many users are more comfortable with scrolling than with a pagination, and for many users the most important information of the page isn’t necessarily placed “above the fold”

[M A V I C]

Yeah, I was glad they put that disclaimer on scrolling. Times have changed. Not only that but they say "Above the fold (768 pixels high)" which is not true. You have to account for task/menu bar and the browser UI.

Speaking of times have changed, "Blue Is The Best Color For Links" is no longer accurate either. That used to be the case, 10 years ago. Most users anymore have become accustom to links being colors other than blue.

This I like "White Space Improves Comprehension"

Though I really disagree with "tests found that tests with just five users would reveal about 85% of all problems with your website, whereas 15 users". While that may be true, you don't want to make changes based off of what 15 people do. Try more like 1500 or 15,000... those are big enough sample sizes to make accurate choices.

I'll also pick on "The “Submit” button is either left-aligned (56%) or centered (26%)." - that may be internationally, but in the US the submit button is generally on the right.

[testcase]

Interesting info