Слайд 1Top 10 Usability Guidelines
for Blogging
Слайд 2
Brian Sullivan.
@BrianKSullivan
@bigdesign
Hi, my name is
#UXblog
Слайд 6Classic Definitions of Usability
Usability assesses how easy your site, app, or
blog is to learn and use by your customers. (Jakob Nielsen)
The usability of a website is based upon whether people can find the information they need. (Jared Spool)
Usability is based on whether you are meeting your business and user goals with your product. (Brian Sullivan)
Слайд 7Five Planes of User Experience
Слайд 8
The Strategy provides an overview of what you want to get
out of your blog and what do your customers want to get out of it. From a business view, the strategy plane is interested in Return on Investment (ROI) for a product.
User Needs: externally derived goals for your
blog, which are identified through web analytics,
interviews, and testing.
Site Objectives: business, creative, or other
internally derived goals for the site.
The Strategy Plane
Слайд 9
The Scope plane transforms your strategy into requirements. What features does
your blog need to meet your customer requirements?
Functional Needs: defines the “features” you
need for your site, such as a shopping cart, sign
up form, or download features.
Content Requirements: defines your content
elements required to meet customer needs, such
as large bandwidth for video blogs.
The Scope Plane
Слайд 10
Your blog has some overall Structure. The Structure plane gives shape
to how the overall pieces fit together, behave, and interact.
Interaction Design: development of application
flows to facilitate user tasks and defining how
the user interacts with site functionality
Information Architecture: structural design of
the information space to facilitate intuitive
access to content
The Structure Plane
Слайд 11
The Skeleton plane lies just below the surface. The Skeleton helps
people to easily understand, learn, and use something.
Interface Design: how the design of interface
elements facilitates user interaction with
functionality
Information Design: how the presentation of
information facilitates understanding
Navigation Design: how the design of GUI
elements helps the user's navigate through the
information architecture
The Skeleton Plane
Слайд 12
As its name suggests, the Surface plane describes the basic finished
project. We could use visual design techniques to describe the Mona Lisa.
From UCD perspective, we are primarily concerned with Visual Design, such as the graphic treatment of GUI elements (the "look" in "look-and-feel"), the visual treatment of text, graphic page elements and navigational components.
The Surface Plane
Слайд 13Good Blogs Require Thinking
We’ll re-visit each of the planes in the
next hour.
Слайд 14
Nielsen’s 10 Heuristic Principles
Slide
Feedback: Visibility of System Status
Metaphor: Match
Between System and Real World
Navigation: User Control and Freedom
Consistency: Consistency and Standards
Prevention: Error Prevention
Memory: Recognition Rather than Recall
Effort: Flexibility and Efficiency of Use
Design: Aesthetic and Minimalistic Design
Recovery: Recognize, Diagnose & Recover from Errors
Help: Help and Documentation
Слайд 15Top 10 Usability Issues for Blogs
Слайд 16
Brian’s Top 10 List for Blogs
Slide
Strategy: No Clear Blogging
Strategy
Credibility: Lack of Credibility Cues on Blogs
Headlines: Poorly Written Headlines to Grab Attention
Navigation: Using Only One Navigation Scheme
Content: Writing Ineffective Content
Frequency: Infrequent or Irregular Updates
Burying: Classic Hits are Buried
Bad Forms: Cumbersome Forms to Use
Search: Bad Search Forces Users to Think
Un-responsive: Blog Can Only Be Views on One Device
Слайд 26Your Strategy Defines You!
Luke as an Expert:
- Three Books, But One
Blog
- Luke W is now a personal brand
Data Mondays:
- Probably, links from a Google Search
- Resources for many designers
Video Blog Posts:
- Self-promotion, but that’s ok
- The videos are really good
Mixture of Writing Style:
- Link, video, presentation, and event posts
- Data is on Monday (at a set frequency)
Слайд 28Four Types of Web Credibility
Presumed Credibility: You already have heard of
this person or brand. (Ex: Known brands vs generic brands.)
Reputed Credibility: You have heard of this person or site from someone you trust. (Ex: Your friend likes it.)
Surface Credibility: You like how something looks on a casual inspection. (Ex: Looks good vs looks confusing.)
Earned Credibility: You know it is credible from your personal experience. (Ex: Good customer service.)
Слайд 34Ways to Add Credibility
Make your site look professional (surface credibility).
Make it
easy to verify accuracy of info (sources, links).
Show there’s person behind the site (name, picture, bio).
Highlight your expertise (credentials, organizations).
Make it easy to contact you (email, social, phone).
Keep your content fresh (old content is not trusted).
Restrain from marketing (reduce ads, offers).
Avoid errors (broken links, spelling) impact credibility.
Use simple, plain language for people to understand.
Use testimonials and case studies (reputed credibility).
Слайд 37Online Headlines
Displayed out of context.
Part of a series.
Compete with other links.
No
background material.
Text is the same size.
Do not use ALL caps.
Слайд 38Offline Headlines
Displayed with context.
Surrounding data:
- Photos
- Decks
- Article
More information to start.
Usually
the biggest text.
Use ALL caps a lot.
Слайд 40Headlines: Writing Assignments
Treat headlines as their own writing assignment!
Слайд 41Guidelines for Headlines
Short abstracts of your article.
No teasers to entice people.
(They don’t click.)
Written in plain language. No cute or clever puns.
Skip leading words like “The”, “A”, or “An”.
Do not use the same verbs each time (to differentiate).
Make the first word an information carrying one.
(Ex: Titanic Sinks, Design Like Da Vinci.)
Слайд 45Use Pages, Categories, & Tags
Pages to separate content.
Categories to group similar
types of content together.
Tags to group related content together.
Слайд 46Guidelines for Navigation
Timelines are only one method to organize content.
Provide more
than one navigation scheme.
Use pages, categories, and tags to group content.
Avoid the mistake of tagging to all your categories.
Categories must be sufficiently detailed to reduce posts.
10-20 categories are usually enough for any subject.
Highlight each category’s most recent articles and the most popular ones.
Слайд 49Implications of the F Pattern
Customers will not read your text thoroughly.
They
do not read in a word-by-word manner.
Use inverted pyramid style for writing.
First two paragraphs must state most important info.
Use information carrying words for headings, paragraphs, and lists—people can easily scan them on the left.
Most people scan the first two words of every line.
Слайд 51Spend More Time Elsewhere
“People spend more time on another
person’s
site.” (Jared Spool)
Слайд 52Guidelines for Content Usability
Use clear, simple language.
“We won the award.” vs
“The award was won by us.”
Limit each paragraph to one idea:
- Easier to scan
- Get the general sense of what is coming
- Move to the next idea (or paragraph)
Front-load your content (put the conclusion first):
- Quickly scan the opening sentence.
- First sentence is usually read (again, F pattern)
Слайд 53Guidelines for Content Usability
Use descriptive sub-headings:
- Breaks up the page
- Shows
the organization
- Easy to scan to see your idea, or argument
Use font differences sparingly:
- Harder to read with competing fonts
- Decrease your credibility
Use descriptive links:
- “Click Here” is rude
- Descriptive links support your article, too
Слайд 54Guidelines for Content Usability
Use lists for scannability:
- Less intimidating
- Information chunking
-
More succinct, usually
Left-align text:
- Easier to read
- Blockquotes add credibility, but decrease reading speed
Слайд 55 Don’t Write What They Don’t Need
50%
Less Words
2X
Understanding
Слайд 586. Infrequent or Irregular Updates
Слайд 59Blog of a Well-Known Person
Latest post is from February 1, 2013
(not too bad).
Next post is from October 2012 (this is old).
Outdated meeting widget on sidebar (on every page).
Слайд 60Infrequent Schedules Hurt Fans
Without new content, you risk losing your fans,
who are your best customers.
Слайд 61Establish an Editorial Calendar
Use the Wordpress Editorial Calendar plug-in.
Write universal content,
which can moved around.
Publish at regular intervals to keep your site fresh.
Слайд 62Let Users Know of Expiring Content
Use the Wordpress Content Scheduler plug-in.
Provides
notification for expiring content to contributors.
Change when content expires, too.
Слайд 63Do You Know When to Publish?
Lowest readership is on Saturdays.
Mondays and
Tuesdays have the highest readership.
Dips on Fridays (most of the time).
Слайд 64
7. Classic Hits are Buried
CLASSIC
TODAY
HITS
Слайд 65Most People Do Not Visit Daily
Average 500 daily views.
We have 3
posts with over 50,000 views.
We get 25,000+ views at the conference.
Слайд 67Show Related Articles
Zemanta is a good plug-in for related articles.
Слайд 68Use Embedded Content
Embedded links
Embedded video, audio, slides
Слайд 69Guidelines for Past Hits
Don’t relegate past hits to your archive.
Revisit past
hits with a fresh perspective.
Embed links, video, or audio in newer articles.
Use a Popular Articles list on the Home page.
Embed related links using a plug-in like Zemanta.
Do not assume that people visit everyday.
Compile lists of past articles (ex: SEO 101, Top 10 List).
Слайд 71The Tool is Good, Usage is Bad
Gravity Forms is an awesome
plug-in.
Google Forms is also great for simple forms.
Most people don’t know how to build good forms.
Слайд 74Example: Any Data is Accepted
Postal Code accepts any data format.
Phone number
accepts any delimiter (dash, dot)
Слайд 7510 Rules for Good Forms
Use a simple, vertical layout with labels
above the input fields. It is easier to scan
If vertically aligned labels are not possible, make them bold and left-aligned.
If you put more than one field on a row (e.g. first and last name) make them look like a single piece of information.
Emphasize section headings (via color or shading) if you want people to read them.
Only ask for required information. Identify optional fields rather than required fields (don't use asterisks).
Слайд 7610 Rules for Good Forms
Use a single input field for numbers
and postal codes, and allow input in various forms.
Avoid displaying unnecessary information and make sure important information stands out.
Real time feedback may be distracting — good implementation is key.
Place instructions to the side of the field.
For multi-page forms tell users how many steps remain
before completion.
Слайд 78Search Helps Small Sites Compete
Big sites get more traffic, but niche
sites can dominate.
Слайд 79SEO and Usability
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is about attracting people to
your site by making sure your blog and article show up in search engines.
SEO happens before the first click.
Usability is about people completing tasks, so it is interested in their behavior after they arrive on your blog. It is about conversions (and more).
Usability is about what makes them click.
Слайд 80
The Importance of Search
If your website is difficult to use, customers
leave.
If they get lost in your website, customers leave.
If a customer can’t FIND your product, they can’t BUY it.
….
Then, they leave!
About 60% of people are search-dominant (1st step).
Слайд 81No Search Better Than Bad Search
Bad search greatly impacts credibility.
No search
slightly impacts credibility.
Bad search loses lots of customers.
No search loses less customers.
Слайд 82Site Search When Navigation Fails
Слайд 83All in One SEO is Good Plug-in
This a good start
for SEO, which is half the equation.
Слайд 84Guidelines for Site Search
Make it a box.
Button on the right.
On top
right of page.
Must be on all pages.
Box is initially empty.
Button label = “Search”.
Searches whole site.
Don’t search Internet.
Read Rosenfeld book.
Слайд 8510. Un-responsive Design is Used
Слайд 86
We live in a Post-PC Era
In 2012, PC sales were
down from the previous year.
Слайд 87
Tablet Sales Rapidly Increasing
In 2014, tablet sales will exceed 100+
Слайд 92What is Responsive Design?
“In simple terms, a responsive
design uses
media queries to
figure out what resolution of
device it’s being served on.”
Слайд 94Responsive WordPress Themes
Lucid
Angular
Trim
Glamour
Deadline
Boxline
Inovado
Simple Press
Flexible
Blox
Слайд 95
Brian’s Top 10 List for Blogs
Slide
Strategy: No Clear Blogging
Strategy
Credibility: Lack of Credibility Cues on Blogs
Headlines: Poorly Written Headlines to Grab Attention
Navigation: Using Only One Navigation Scheme
Content: Writing Ineffective Content
Frequency: Infrequent or Irregular Updates
Burying: Classic Hits are Buried
Bad Forms: Cumbersome Forms to Use
Search: Bad Search Forces Users to Think
Un-responsive: Blog Can Only Be Views on One Device