Here’s another idea that should never have made it out the petri dish at Google Labs. Gmail, which I like, has added a new feature to prevent you from sending email that you might later regret. You can enable a new feature in Gmail called Mail Goggles which will prompt you to solve some math problems after you click ‘Send’ to verify you’re in the right state of mind and that you are sure you really want to send the email. Luckily, the pesky thing is only active by default late at More»

Labels: Gmail, google, usability 2.0, user experience, web 2.0

Google is currently doing a retrospective of their famously sparse search results pages and if you look at it from ten years ago to today, you will notice some marked differences. Most notably, it is no longer as bare as a decade ago. In fact, although we have all grown accustomed to the current version and consider it pared down, it is actually quite crowded and busy today. There is a whole lot more going on on the pages - a lot more links, content, features, and functionality. The color palette is toned down; yet, there is more color More»

Labels: google, usability 2.0, user experience, web 2.0

If you Google ‘recession proofing‘, you’ll find everything from recession proofing your job, life, diet, vacations, finances, wedding, retirement, etc. And, unlike other recession proof industries like healthcare, food, debt collection, tax filing, career services, energy, and tobacco, booze, porn, and gambling, high tech is not one of the recession proof industries. Most of us manage web sites, work on sites, and run businesses on sites. So, we are about to or are already walking a virtual tightrope. But before we all rush for the nearest exit, lets think about this for More»

Labels: recession, sem, seo, social media, usability 2.0, user experience, web 2.0, websites

According to the Founder and CEO of the largest usability consultancy, Human Factors International, Inc. (HFI), usability is no longer enough as a measure of a successful Web site. Dr. Eric Schaffer states that “We’re nearing the end of the time when usability is a key differentiator. Websites must now be designed for Persuasion, Emotion, & Trust (PET) in order to stay ahead.” He believes that companies and their sites whether it’s an e-commerce, informational, or a transactional site, need to influence and deepen their interactions with online customers through persuasion, emotion, and trust.
Understanding More»

Labels: usability 2.0, user experience, web 2.0, websites

As part of an estimated $6M settlement of a lawsuit against Target by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), Amazon will be required to make the Web more accessible. According to the Financial Times, Amazon Enterprise Solutions which provides Web technology to the sites of Target, Marks & Spencer, Mothercare, Lacoste, and Timex, will be required “to ensure ‘full and equal’ access for blind people both to its own site, and to those of the merchants it supports”.
The Target suit claims that alternate text and accessible image maps are missing More»

Labels: design, usability 2.0, user experience, web

Could your site map be a design cop-out for poor information architecture? In a recent piece titled, The Site Map: An Information Architecture Cop-Out, usability guru, Jared Spool, contends that users don’t want site maps and if they are asking for it or a large number of them are going to it, that could be indicative of a scent problem.
By itself, “site map” doesn’t give off scent — the clues that tell the user if the link will lead them to their desired content. It’s only in the absence of anything else that gives off scent that users start More»

Labels: internet, usability, usability 2.0, user experience, web

A web-based screen reader which enables blind people to surf the web is now available. The program called, WebAnywhere, requires no special software to be installed on a computer. Provided the computer has a sound card, blind users are able to access and use the web. Traditionally, blind web users need to purchase special software such as screen readers to use the web. However, with this new technology, that is all about to change. This is the alpha release of the open source tool. The program is OS and browser independent.
According to its More»

Labels: internet, usability 2.0, user experience, web, web 2.0

Here is the video of the Web Usability Event on June 25 featuring Tom Chi, Senior Director - User Experience, Yahoo!, Jeremy Ashley, Vice President, Applications User Experience, Oracle, and David Nelson, Sr. Experience Designer, Adobe Systems.

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Labels: localization, Search, social media, usability, usability 2.0, user experience, web 2.0

The Web Usability Event on June 25 was highly informative covering many issues of the day on building the usable web. Speakers Jeremy Ashley, Vice President, Applications User Experience, Oracle; Tom Chi, Senior Director of User Experience, Yahoo; and David Nelson, Sr. Experience Designer, Adobe Systems were all very knowledgeable, on the cutting-edge, and offered many unique perspectives. Thank you to everyone who attended and see you at the next event which is a great follow-on to this event on Web Analytics: Measuring The Attention Economy.Photos of the event.

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Labels: usability, usability 2.0, user experience, web 2.0

Forms are a staple of the online experience. We use them daily for a host of activities from signing in/up, purchasing something, asking a question, to downloading a document. They come in all sizes, layouts, and configurations. Some are better executed than others and ultimately, impact our businesses adversely if their designs and usability are impaired. So, how do we ensure that in creating web forms, we get them right? I am speaking with Luke Wroblewski, Senior Principal at Yahoo! and author of a new book “Web Form More»

Labels: usability 2.0, user experience, web 2.0