Friday, December 18, 2009

A Model of "Omnipresent Usability" in Website Design

The idea is that, no matter what you're doing, there's a user-centered way of doing it.
Users should be painstaking throughout the website design process. Usability should not be an afterthought. Testing and fixing a website after it has been built is inefficient and unlikely to produce good results. The best approach to take is to incorporate a model of "pervasive usability" into your design and production process.
The Remuneration of planning usability into your project are:
o Improved end-user contentment
o Improved end-user efficiency, success, and achievement
o Compact durable development costs (costs incurred from fixing poorly designed products)
o Compact training and support costs
o Return business to improve your competitiveness
1. Requirements Examinations
o Determine the goals for the website from the perspective of the user and the business.
o Determine the user desires and intention usability requirements.
o Appraise existing versions of the site.
o Execute a competitive analysis.
o Execute user interviews and appraisals.
2. Theoretical Design
o Draft out a site design and architecture at an intangible level.
o Conduct a task analysis to find critical features.
3. Replicates / Model
o Rapidly create visual representations (replicate) or interactive representations (model) of the site.
o Appraise usability through focal point groups, user tests, and walkthroughs.
o Use the evaluation results to create more mockups or improve the prototypes.
o Reiterate this process (design iteration) until the design and usability goals are met
4. Making
o Create the concluding product.
o Appraise functionality through testing, eminence assurance, usability testing, and field testing.
o Use the evaluation consequences to improve the product.
o Reiterate these processes (production iteration) until the business goals are met.
5. Initiate and Continuation
o Initiate the website.
o Continue and improve with user feedback.
o Use the feedback to create new requirements, and begin major design enhancement (system iteration).
Assessment happens at every stage of the process. Similar types of evaluation can happen at diverse stages of the design process to keep in mind the goals of the project and the users' needs. And if it comes down to a choice, diminish the scope of the project rather than the usability.

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