Basics and Methods Summary!

Information must be:

Useful: Your content should be original and fulfill a need

Usable: Site must be easy to use

Desirable: Image, identity, brand, and other design elements are used to evoke emotion and appreciation

Findable: Content needs to be navigable and locatable onsite and offsite

Accessible: Content needs to be accessible to people with disabilities

Credible: Users must trust and believe what you tell them

Project Management: develop a project plan, project team roles and responsibilities, kick-off meeting, and website requirements.

For developing a project plan it is important to include usability activities in my project plan, so I can build in the time and resources to carry out those activities. Step-by-step usability guide is: Plan, Analyze, Design, and test and refine.

Scope: Means what needs to be done for the project to be considered complete.

At the beginning of every project, it is important to think about the audience that I’m trying to reach, the tasks they come to complete, and how addressing those needs compare to that of your organization. 

There are two types of goals/ objectives to consider:

·         User goals are users’ task scenarios.

·         Usability goals should measure your users’ ability to accomplish tasks on your site.

 Areas of Expertise are:

Accessibility, Business Analysis, Change Management, Content Strategy, Enterprise Architecture, Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Marketing, Metrics Analysis, Project Management, Quality Assurance, Subject Matter Expertise, Technical Development, User Research, Usability Testing, User Interface Design, and  Visual Design.

kick-off meeting:

Discussion topics at your kick-off meeting should include:

·         The site’s audience

·         Users' main scenarios

·         Whether the current site meets users’ needs

Also, it is important to discuss the business case and project plan including: Scope, Vision, Goals, target audience, and Content.

Website requirements: are a list of necessary functions, capabilities, or characteristics related to your website and the plans for creating it.

There are: Business Requirements, User Requirements, Functional Requirements, Quality-of-Service Requirements, and Implementation Requirements.

User research: usability testing, first click testing, system usability scale, and contextual interview.

When budgeting for usability testing should consider these elements: Time, Recruiting Costs, Participant Compensation, and Rental Costs

Elements of a test plan are: Scope, purpose, schedule and location, sessions, equipment, Participants, Scenarios, Metrics, Quantitative metrics, and Roles.

First Click Testing allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of the linking structure of your site, including the navigation, to see if users how to get around the site and complete their intended task.

Benefits of using a SUS:

Is a very easy scale to administer to participants.

Can be used on small sample sizes with reliable results

Is valid – it can effectively differentiate between usable and unusable    systems.

Usability Evaluation: usability testing, first click testing, system usability scale, and heuristic evaluations and expert reviews.

Information architecture: organization schemes, organization structure, content inventory, and wire framing.

Exact organization schemes objectively divide information into mutually exclusive sections.  

Examples of exact organizational structures include: Alphabetical schemes, Chronological schemes, and Geographical schemes.

An organizational structure is how you define the relationships between pieces of content. 

The three main organizational structures are Hierarchical, Sequential, and Matrix.

A content inventory is a list of all the content on your site. Your inventory will typically include text, images, documents, and applications.

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 behaviors.

User Interface Design: organization schemes, organization structure, user interface elements, and wire framing.

Interface elements include but are not limited to:

·         Input Controls: checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdown lists, list boxes, buttons, toggles, text fields, date field

·         Navigational Components: breadcrumb, slider, search field, pagination, slider, tags, icons

·         Informational Components: tooltips, icons, progress bar, notifications, message boxes, modal windows

·         Containers: accordion

Interaction design: use cases, card sorting, and prototyping.

Card sorting is a method used to help design or evaluate the information architecture of a site.

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 money into development.

Visual Design

Parallel design:

·         A range of ideas to be generated quickly and cost effectively.

·         Several approaches to be explored at the same time, thus compressing the concept development schedule.

·         Concepts generated to be combined so that the final solution benefits from all ideas proposed.

Content strategy: Cords sorting, writing for the web, develop a project plan, project team roles and responsibilities, organization schemes, organization structures, task analysis, and content inventory.

Content Strategy focuses on writing and curating useful content by planning the creation, delivery and governance behind it.

Accessibility focuses on how a disabled individual accesses or benefits from a site, system or application. Section 508 is the governing principal for accessibility.

Web Analytics focuses on the collection, reporting, and analysis of website data.