Web Design and Marketing Week 3 Reading - Usability.gov – Topic: Design Process and Evaluation – online book (FIRST CHAPTER ONLY!!!)

http://usability.gov/guidelines/index.html

Chapter 1 – Design Process and Evaluation

1. Provide useful content
   If the content is not good, then all the usability features in the world will not help.
2. Establish user requirements
   Get as much interaction with the end user as possible so that you know what they need.
3. Understand and meet user’s expectations
   Users expect navigation and formatting to be similar to other sites so it is best to follow convention.
4. Involve users in establishing user requirements
   Users are valuable in helping a designer know what it should do, but not in how to design the system to do it.
5. Set and state goals
   Determine the audience, content, function, and look and feel.
6. Focus on performance before preference
   If performance is important then focus on the content, format and navigation before colors and graphics
7. Consider many user interface issues
   Consider multiple interfaces when creating the website.
8. Be easily found in the top 30
   Know how to use tools to get in the top area on major search engines or site will be ignored.
9. Set usability goals
   Know what you expected the user to be able to do on your site and test to see if it can be done in timely fashion
10. Use parallel design
    Have developers offer many designs and choose the best from each one.
11. Use personas
    Know who you expect to use the site and build information of the typical user. The look at the site through their eyes.