One Billion People Online!

Got 'NET?! Research indicates that is the case for an estimated one billion people (or 'users' to the usability world) as of late '05. Fast forward to present day, that number has, no doubt, increased even further.

This is truly remarkable and awesome in itself; notwithstanding, the tremendous impact on usability concerns. For instance, wired and wireless bandwidth are both on the rise. Broadband access has and is expected to grow in the double digits in years to come. Wireless access by way of WiMAX, the higher bandwidth and greater range alternative to WiFi is, too, expected to be a reality in '06 and '07. The bottom line is that there are more people online with faster access.

Does this mean performance latency is a thing of the past? Can we put larger files online? Can our web pages weigh as much as we want? Are pure-play flash sites going to make a return? Can we embed as much rich media as we want onto web pages? Can we load up on high-resolution images...especially for wap sites? Probably not, given the optimal page download time based on users' bandwidth capabilities remains constant, it would only mean that more users fall into the faster category. Bulking up our sites would only serve to slow them down and further isolate the lower bandwidth users. Until we've seen the last of dial-up, sites still need to be accessible and usable to those users. But what it does mean is that more sites will be accessed via wap-enabled devices and created specifically for such devices given the greater bandwidth affordances.

Read the article at http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1003975.

Yahoo! Patterns Library

Yahoo's recently released patterns library features design patterns and related code snippets related to Yahoo web sites. Such libraries are fast becoming a popular solution to an old problem. Many companies face the challenge of having multiple sites, microsites, and applications managed by disparate groups all of which have common UI components. Imagine having those components manifest themselves in different ways on the same site, no less. A patterns library minimizes the incidence of such an occurence as it is essentially an online repository of vetted solutions to design problems. It facilitates design re-use which feeds into code re-use making the design and development process more consistent and efficient.

I think the fact that Yahoo has chosen to make this library public is brilliant for a number of reasons. It's a great way to garner feedback from users and apply that feedback to iterate on the patterns and ultimately improve on the usability of the Yahoo sites. Also, users may not be aware of each of Yahoo's myriad of sites. Each pattern links to the related site including beta releases. This way I, too, know of Yahoo's Trip Planner site. Who knew?!

Check it out for yourself, the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library, at http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/index.php and see our Experts Corner for a related article by Jared Spool on "The Elements of a Design Pattern". The WebGuild also recently hosted Bill Scott of the Yahoo! Patterns Library to present on this very topic. Listen to the podcast of that event.

Top Web Domains

Interesting report! This is a ranking of web domains based on unique visitors from Feb. '05 to '06. The top five web domains were:
1. Yahoo.com - experienced a 5% increase
2. Google.com - experienced a 21% increase
3. MSN.com - experienced a 1% increase
4. AOL.com - unchanged
5. eBay.com - experienced a -3% decrease

The big winners though, in descending order, were: Blogger.com, MySpace.com, Wikipedia.org, and CitySearch.com. Notable declines, in no particular order, were: eBay.com, Microsoft.com, Expedia.com, CNN.com, Geocities.com, IRS.gov, CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com, Overstock.com, Orbitz.com, and CheapTickets.com.

It would be interesting to know what the biggest winners and losers attribute their traffic or lack thereof to. Given the time span of the study, we can eliminate seasonal fluctuations. Purely speculative...my guess is that these findings can be partly attributed to marketing (both on- and offline marketing spend including SEM), popular trends (e.g. MySpace.com), business maturation and plateauing, and competition.

See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/custom/2006/03/31/CU2006033101136.html

What's The Download...

I recently attended the User Interface Engineering (UIE) Roadshow, http://www.uie.com/events/roadshow/, where the designerati and userati were out in full force. I feel like a junkie because I can never get enough of this stuff. Jared, as always, didn't disappoint. It was an enlightening experience - reinforcing familiar concepts and learning new ones. Some of the topics presented on were designing for scent, usability testing techniques, search, navigation, and bolstering team buy-in.

Its always interesting to gain insight into UIE's research. Some of their lab test results are sometimes shocking and amusing. One of the findings reported on that struck me was that download perception was greater than reality. We've always been taught that there's a direct correlation between download time and user dropoff rates. Their tests showed that if users are engaged enough, even if a site is slow, their perception of the time it takes to load a page is favorable. Interesting! Lets face it...technology sometimes fails us. Anything, we, as web creators can do to minimize the impact is a good thing. So, what's the secret sauce you ask? Its the old...respect the user adage!!! Keep users empowered and informed by way of progress bars, appropriate messaging, and time countdowns. Lesson learned...done correctly, you CAN keep them waiting and wanting for more!