Web Site Usability Handbook

Does your web site convey your message effectively? Are your customers finding what they need easily? Determining these factors is a difficult task that has challenged Usability professionals since the first web page was posted. Company web sites aren't optional in today's highly competitive business environment and ensuring that your investment on the web is well spent, is a challenge facing all levels of web professionals. With the hands-on guidance and examples provided in this book, readers will find practical tools to make certain that their site is as effective and user-friendly as possible. They'll learn to create sites that are free of navigation “dead ends,” difficult to use interfaces, and other barriers to usability. All of the principles of User Centered Design (UCD) are covered along with critical Human Factors, and guidelines for implementing a test plan. Examples of Usability issues and how they are dealt with are covered through a case study focused on fixing an existing site. As new techniques and tools are introduced, the team of usability specialists will detail how they implement these new tools as they work through the evaluation, testing, and transformation stages.

KEY FEATURES

• Provides practical information for increasing your web sites' usability
• Explains the principles of User Centered Design
• Details what you need in your “Usability Toolbox” including usability testing
• Takes you through the testing and evaluation process, from a scientific and heurisitc approach
• Teaches you how to implement the results and transform the data into change
  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• GETTING STARTED
  
  • Introduction to Usability
  • Human Factors
  • User Centered Design
  • Usability and the Web
• USABILITY TOOLBOX
  • Usability Tools and Techniques
  • Heuristic Evaluation
  • Scientific Approach
  • Usability Testing
• PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
  • Creating a Usability Program
  • Transforming Data into Change
  • Web Site Usability Lifecycle
  • What's Next?

CD-ROM
Windows & Mac will include sample web site designs with an analysis of good and bad features; and free usability testing software!