Comments on: Usability for Developers

By: Lisa Herrod

Lisa Herrod — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 04:16:09 +0000

Hey James, I think there’s a great deal of crossover between usability and accessibility.

Clearly they’re two different fields and I don’t think that a practitioner of one necessarily knows much about the other. However, accessible sites are always going to be more usable for a significant proportion of all users. For example, large text or resizable text may improve accessibility and usability for vision impaired users as well as older users. That’s just a really basic example though.

I do think accessibility is quite a specialised area that requires specific knowledge, and a well experienced usability practitioner won’t necessarily know anything about it.

By: nycGuy

nycGuy — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 21:34:35 +0000

Your statement and SitePoint’s timing couldn’t be more perfect. I am in NYC currently looking for a new position and tentatively have an offer. Looking at the market here for the past 3 weeks there are a great deal of UI related jobs with all sorts of titles, from User Interface Designer, to Interaction Designer, to Experience Designer, even Sr. Web Designer. It seems they are looking for people are have experience with not only the analytical skills, but the technical and design skills as well. From what I understand it is a very hard combo to find, but highly desirable.

That being said, this is perfect timing. I look forward to reading what you have to say, welcome!

By: Andy King

Andy King — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:45:40 +0000

Lisa,

One large part of usability in website design is have a
strong information scent for users to find your info.
In some recent research Dennis Galletta and his colleagues
found that there is a three-way interaction between website
delay, site breadth, and familiarity with terminology for
user outcomes. I’ve summarized the article and interviewed
the author at:

http://www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/tweak/scent/

- andy

By: brothercake

brothercake — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 16:59:29 +0000

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the crossover between usability and accessibility - to what extent they’re the same/different thing, or in what situations a practioner of one should or shouldn’t be concerned with the other.

By: Skyblaze

Skyblaze — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 14:42:51 +0000

I’ve just ordered the usability kit and i hope it will teach me useful things in term of usability…..then this blog ;)

By: Octal

Octal — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:51:45 +0000

A great addition to the Sitepoint blogs; well met Lisa.

By: Matthew Magain

Matthew Magain — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 09:58:16 +0000

Good to have you on board Lisa!

It’s interesting to hear your comment about the two streams of usability - it seems to happen in a lot of fields where the academics and theorists get out of touch with the more practical folks who are actually in the trenches doing the hard yards.

By: Simon Mackie

Simon Mackie — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 06:41:32 +0000

Welcome aboard, Lisa!