Archive for 'Expert Eye'

Jun17

Ian Everdell

12

A Big List of User Experience Best Practices

I promised some user experience best practices in the latest episode of The Expert Eye, Thinking Like A User, and I intend to make good on that promise. There are all kinds of lists of best practices out there, ranging in size from small (like Nielsen’s Ten Usability Heuristics) to gigantic (like Usability.gov’s Guidelines), and there will always be debate about what’s most important, valid, easy, or any number of other adjectives. But there is one thing that I think most UX specialists will agree on: if you are aware of these best practices, you can at least evaluate whether [...]

Jun17

Ian Everdell

1

Thinking like a User- Expert Eye Ep. 4

[wp_youtube]Sd7t115jj0A[/wp_youtube] Who is your web site for? It’s supposed to be for your customers, but sometimes company web sites look like they were designed for someone else, like the shareholders, the marketing department, or the CEO. Uh-oh. And what about web sites for mobile users? Ian and Karl visit a few sites to see who’s doing it right. Read the companion post – A Big List of User Experience Best Practices

May25

Ian Everdell

0

Writing for the Web Part III – Expert Eye Series Ep-3

[wp_youtube]KvS3MHs4MyM[/wp_youtube] It’s been a while since our ancestors were hunters and gatherers, but some habits die hard. Our brains became hardwired to find the shortest path to the best patches of food. Online, that same instinct is called “information foraging”. In Episode 3 of the Expert Eye, Ian and Karl talk to Gord Hotchkiss about writing for the web and guiding your visitors with the alluring scent of relevant information.

Apr26

Ian Everdell

0

Writing for the Web Part II – Expert Eye Ep-2

[wp_youtube]0X3SRq_c4FY[/wp_youtube] In Episode 1, we talked about how people generally skim web pages rather than reading them – that means that you need to make important information stand out in order to convince your visitors to read. In this episode, we’re looking at titles, headings, and links, and how you can use information scent and text formatting to make sure that they’re compelling and easy to read.

Apr09

Ian Everdell

2

Content is King – The Expert Eye Companion Post, Episode 1

Why bother creating a website if you’re not going to use it to give people what they want? In the first episode of The Expert Eye, Karl and I talked about how “content is king” on a website, and brought up two best practices: Give them what they want Eliminate the fluff Give them what they want For the most part, people coming to your website are going to have a specific intent – they’re going to be looking for something in particular, whether it’s information, products, or phone numbers. This means that they’ll be looking for “information scent”, stuff [...]

Apr09

Ian Everdell

1

Writing for the Web Part I – Expert Eye Ep.1

[wp_youtube]FTttgvcSD7E[/wp_youtube] “Content is King” – the mantra of pretty much anyone concerned with the user experience of a web site. We’re kicking off the Expert Eye with a three-part series looking at Writing for the Web and how you can develop content that really resonates with your customers. In this first one, we’re talking about why writing for your web site is not the same as writing a brochure or catalogue. We’ll touch on how people look at web pages and what they’re likely to read or skip over, and we’ll share a few techniques to make sure that your [...]