Comments on: Usability heuristics for web development teams

By: mooj

mooj — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:34:11 +0000

I would have never considered incorporating a favicon as part usability of a website! Some good points here and arguments aside, I will now be making much more use of this 16×16 space.. and pixel by pixel editing! :)

By: stevebaty

stevebaty — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 01:45:00 +0000

This discussion (in the comments) falls broadly into my category of ‘where to draw the line between usability and user experience’. Keeping in mind that these are usability heuristics, I think this becomes an important distinguishing factor when deciding whether additional dimensions might be added to the list. Is information findability a usability consideration? Certainly within a site it is, but less so when you’re considering how easy the site is to locate on the Web.

Around the boundaries of usability there are a great deal of ambiquities as to whether a particular issue is related to usability or something else. I would not expend too much energy attempting to determine a definitive list of attributes that are/are not usability concerns. The scope of your heuristic checklist would (and should) be adjusted to meet the terms of enquiry for the evaluation. As Lisa has pointed out, there are considerations below the surface of the presentation layer which affect usability and are available to us for evaluation, and this is a valuable starting point for creating an extended heuristic checklist. Similarly, there are considerations beyond the bounds of the target web site which affect the user’s experience with that site, and might also be included in an heuristic review.

By: Matthew Magain

Matthew Magain — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 22:02:02 +0000

Why draw the line at browser usability and say “that’s not my area”? Whether it’s relating to the user finding your site amongst their 17 tabs, or using your site - what’s the difference? If it improves the user experience, whether inside your direct area of responsibility or outside of it, and it takes a few seconds to implement, it seems worthwhile listing as a heuristic so that it doesn’t get left out, don’t you think?

By: mrsmiley

mrsmiley — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 21:28:11 +0000

I’m with XraySierra, I dont get why its a usability feature. It has absolutely nothing to do with the way people use your site, but everything to do with how they locate it in your bookmarks/favourites lists. Arguably its a browser usability as it makes the tool (aka the browser) easier to use to find your site.

Implementing a favicon (or not implementing one) doesn’t have any impact on how usable a site is when you are actually using it. Only in discovering the site.

That does bring up an interesting point, why don’t search engines put the favicon next to the search results? If implementing one is such a big deal, it would encourage more sites to do so if they knew their sites would stand out from ones that didn’t have one.

By: Simon Mackie

Simon Mackie — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 06:20:32 +0000

XraySierra- it doesn’t, it’s a usability feature.

By: XraySierra

XraySierra — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 05:32:03 +0000

I don’t understand what a favicon would have to do with site accessibility?

By: saumendra

saumendra — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 02:24:07 +0000

The Ten Usability Heuristics by Jacob Nielson , is a basic design rule for everyone out there, who need to have his/her website in a world wide standard. Now the Design Rules can be utilised smartly with the client side coding i.e javascript. But one can’t force the same as such.In a wider perspective the web needs more of global and unique usability components, which can be accessible by any form of data/content and yet be simple.

Even the Usabilit week 2007 Confrence does make that passion alive. And the results it had shown makes us to think and wait for the comming standards

There is allways more to explore……. Saum

By: mrsmiley

mrsmiley — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 05:00:32 +0000

Considering there is a whole industry devoted to HCI, it’s a wonder there isn’t a definitive set of rules for web development. Although, if you look at every area that “web development” covers, said list would be around 1 km long once it came out the printer.

The joys of working in an industry and almost requires you to be an expert in everything. Well, at least the ones that can be abbreviated to an acronym that is pronounced nothing like its spelt :)