last post

This will be my last post for this scrapbook assignment, I have finished final documentation assignment and noted some research in there has not been posted here so the following is from assignment four:

Validating accessibility


At the W3C it recommends the following to validate accessibility for automeated tools wont cover all issues:

“Validate accessibility with automatic tools and human review. Automated methods are generally rapid and convenient but cannot identify all accessibility issues. Human review can help ensure clarity of language and ease of navigation.

Begin using validation methods at the earliest stages of development. Accessibility issues identified early are easier to correct and avoid.
Following are some important validation methods;

1. Use an automated accessibility tool and browser validation tool. Please note that software tools do not address all accessibility issues, such as the meaningfulness of link text, the applicability of a text equivalent, etc.
2. Validate syntax (e.g., HTML, XML, etc.).
3. Validate style sheets (e.g., CSS).
4. Use a text-only browser or emulator.
5. Use multiple graphic browsers, with:

-sounds and graphics loaded,
-graphics not loaded,
- sounds not loaded,
-no mouse,
-frames, scripts, style sheets, and applets not loaded

6. Use several browsers, old and new.

7. Use a self-voicing browser, a screen reader, magnification software, a small display, etc.

8. Use spell and grammar checkers. A person reading a page with a speech synthesizer may not be able to decipher the synthesizer's best guess for a word with a spelling error. Eliminating grammar problems increases comprehension.

9. Review the document for clarity and simplicity. Readability statistics, such as those generated by some word processors may be useful indicators of clarity and simplicity. Better still, ask an experienced (human) editor to review written content for clarity. Editors can also improve the usability of documents by identifying potentially sensitive cultural issues that might arise due to language or icon usage.

10. Invite people with disabilities to review documents. Expert and novice users with disabilities will provide valuable feedback about accessibility or usability problems and their severity.” (W3C, 1999)

So that is all! I need to do to validate accessibility properly. It is good to note that using a validator and gaining validation does not actually mean you have achieved your goal but just a step in the process.

lightbox

I want to use lightbox javascript (Dhakar, 2007) to open images of my designs. Javascript though can be turned off in users browsers and lightbox only works on 'all modern browsers'.

Jakob Nielsen is quite anti javascript: "Avoid JavaScript in your Web pages. No code equals no risk of bugs. If you must use JavaScript, test and debug religiously on all combinations of platforms and browser versions" (Nielsen, 2001). I think I read in our text somewhere that Krug? or was it in accessibility somewhere? that if you use something like java and flash then you should supply an alternative for those with incompatible platforms and browsers etc..

So I intend to use light box but supply an alternative for those that can't or wont be able to open the images that way. All I need to do now is work out how to do that!

I found this information: "Lightbox JS is a great example of what I'm talking about. Reference a JS file, then add rel="lightbox" to any image tags on your page and they get a cool popup effect. If the image tag has a title, it's used in the display. If the browser doesn't support it or the page is being rendered in another format (screenreader, print, etc.), it's a standard image tag so it degrades gracefully. Perfect" (Galloway, 2006).

I disabled java in firefox and noticed image (only) opens in a new page at the lightbox site, so this means images can still be opened for a larger view. I find myself forgetting to press the close button when I open images this way and tend to hit the back button which means I am taken from the site! This could be just me, I forget that you can click anywhere on the page to remove the image! My boyfriend doesn't have this problem though, he is good at closing elements in their correct places, could be just a personal usability issue, however, I will need to test this with users as this lightbox way is not a standard convention with opening images.


Dhakar, L. (2007) Lightbox Version 2.03.4,
Retrieved from: http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/
May 22, 2007.

Galloway, J. (2006) Using markup based javascript effect libraries to make dynamic sites in standards compliant html,
Retrieved from: http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2006/01/18/435857.aspx
May 22, 2007.

Nielsen, J. (2001) Poor Code Quality Contaminates Users' Conceptual Modes,
Retrieved from: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20011028.html
May 22, 2007.

more usability research

It feels a bit lame only relying on Krug for usability there may other issues I need to consider not mentioned by him. Online I found a few do and don'ts in design from: http://www.usabilityfirst.com/websites/design.txl#DosAndDonts

One thing I picked up from them (Foraker design) was the suggestion all links which are blue and underlined tend to get more clicks than other links. This style has become a web standard, you see it everywhere and it does make links obvious. On the other side of this designers should never use blue underlined text unless they are actual links other wise we will confuse users. I added this blue link theory to my mock up site with the following result:

I notice the links do stand out more obviously, but I felt they were obvious before. Other points noted at that site were:

Dos and don'ts for achieving usability in design

Do:
Use ALT tags for all graphics, especially navigation graphics.
Use black text on white background whenever possible for optimal legibility.
Use either plain-color backgrounds or extremely subtle background patterns.
Make sure text is in a printable color (not white).
Place navigation in a consistent location on each page of your website.
Use a familiar location for navigation bars.
Keep the design from scrolling horizontally.
Use one axis of symmetry for centered text on a page.
Encourage scrolling by splitting an image at the fold.

Don't:
Allow ALT tags to get clipped (especially an issue for small, fixed width images).
Display static text in blue or underlined.
Use boldface or ALL CAPS for long pieces of text. These slow down reading.
Leave too much white space--reduces scannability.
Make the user scroll to find critical information, especially transaction buttons and navigation links.
Use horizontal rules to separate chunks of content.
Alternate too frequently between centered text and left-aligned text. Most text should be left-aligned.
Fix pages at larger than 800 x 600 pixels. Larger pages may force users to scroll horizontally.

And: "People with different browsers will more likely get the proper interpretation of text regardless of how it is displayed. For example, users with screen readers may be able to hear ‹STRONG› words emphasized in the speech synthesis as opposed to words in bold or italics. And automated tools can interpret an ‹H1› tag versus a header displayed as ‹FONT SIZE=5›" (Foraker, 2002-2005). I didn't notice that one at W3C accessibility guidelines.

I notice there site has the 3 A's for adjusting text size, I have noticed this before and will research a bit more to see if I should add that option to my site. Alot to read in this site accessibility, ROI, methods and so on... may be tomorrow.

Foraker design (2002-2005) website design:Design,

retrieved from: http://www.usabilityfirst.com/websites/design.txl#DosAndDonts

May 21, 2007.

Index card test

I conducted one of these index card tests as adviced in our curriculum section, this involves, basically, making up cards with information on each which a participant then has to place on a paper tab (like 'home', 'about us' etc). I asked four participants with the following results:

The table shows a few obvious responses, information with three or more hits:

home page - special deals should be placed here.

about us - phone number, address and email along with business information.

designs - prices and websites business has created here.

privacy - legal information placed here.

What is not so clear is where people expect to find a portfolio and services, which leaves me wondering if I should add a separate page for these items? I am now off to research what I need to do in my site to make it accessible.

Vischeck

Looking at guideline 2 "Don't rely on color alone." I went to the Vischeck site again and put through my screen design image draft with the following result:

The first one is the result of Protanope (another form of red/green color deficit)















this one is the result of Deuteranope (a form of red/green color deficit)

and then Tritanope (a blue/yellow deficit- very rare)

I think they all degrade okay, but its hard to do this on a draft, something to check when site is finished to look for readability of text etc.. Quite a good resourse Vischeck http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/

Accessibility

I am looking at "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0" at http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/ for information on how to design an accessible website, for this is part of usability for disabled internet users.

There are a few levels of compliance recommended:

Conformance Level "A": all Priority 1 checkpoints are satisfied;
Conformance Level "Double-A": all Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints are satisfied;
Conformance Level "Triple-A": all Priority 1, 2, and 3 checkpoints are satisfied;

The priorities:

[Priority 1]
A Web content developer must satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it impossible to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint is a basic requirement for some groups to be able to use Web documents.
[Priority 2]
A Web content developer should satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint will remove significant barriers to accessing Web documents.
[Priority 3]
A Web content developer may address this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it somewhat difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint will improve access to Web documents.

Ideally I shoul design to cover all priorities if I am going to 'showcase' in my own site how design aesthetics, usability and accessibility can all mesh and work well. There are 14 guidelines mentioned and I have added a 'short' summary of each, the site also has techniques available to help developers achieve compliance, I will look to that in next post with my own site and how to apply guidelines:

Guideline 1. Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content.

for example use the 'alt' tag for images to explain the image purpose etc.. as a basic checkpoint up to providing auditory descriptions.

Guideline 2. Don't rely on color alone.

Don't rely on color to convey information and backgroung and foreground colours cannot be too close in hue.

Guideline 3. Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.

an example is using tables for layout and header to change font size makes it harder for specialised software to read pages. The majority of these checkpoints deal with correct use of code.

Guideline 4. Clarify natural language usage

this is about identifying the documents language.


Guideline 5. Create tables that transform gracefully.

Only use tables for tabular information, and alot of checkpoint here if you intend to use them.


Guideline 6. Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully

Design with older browsers and for users that turn off feature in mind etc.


Guideline 7. Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes

Moving text cannot be read by some programmes and disabled users.


Guideline 8. Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces.

make things like applets and scripts directly accessible and /or compliant with assistive technologies.


Guideline 9. Design for device-independence.

This is about allowing users to interact with what ever they choose, mouse, wand etc.. rather than it being dictated certain elements can only be used by a mouse, for example.


Guideline 10. Use interim solutions.

Aspects of this priority involve not opening or causing pop up with out first informing user. Some older browsers real list of links as one link.

Guideline 11. Use W3C technologies and guidelines.

pages will be more accessible if we avoid using non w3c compliant programmes, like shockwave.


Guideline 12. Provide context and orientation information

grouping elements and providing contextual information, title frames etc.


Guideline 13. Provide clear navigation mechanisms.

consistant and clear navigation, identify the target of each link, include a sitemap etc.


Guideline 14. Ensure that documents are clear and simple.

consistent layout, simple language and consisent style.


Alot there, a good guide at that site to refer back to when designing as different sites will have different accessibility issues.

logo

The main reason I wanted to create a logo for this assignment was all to do with the tagline element. So I came up with a few designs which I posted in webct discussions for peer feedback. The design most liked was:

Issue with above logo is how the tagline needs to say what your business does - be relevant and descriptive and Edwin pointed out that search engines can't read images, so I thought it might be better to have an image logo and a tagline made in a header tag, I also went to a grayscale color as they are easier to match with other colours:

web sites designed for you

The above image would end up as site id. for all pages and the tagline would only really need to be on home page but I will place it on all of them. I also drew up a site demo to show basic elements and how I plan on having every page colour change to suit the tab:

The above shows search bar position, site id and header for tagline, advert position, footer and the style concept for the tab page colour changes.

final documentation

I have been mainly looking to Steve Krug's book for starters to this assignment as I need to build a site that is usable and also accessible.

with usability I found:

That Krug believes web navigation is not just a feature of the internet but that it is the web. There should be a basic page structure where the site id is in the top left and in the center of that top banner the section then utility links to the right.

krug likes tabs (Krug 2004, 79), I never actually got the idea they were like binder tabs as I am used to them being on the right of the page not the top. As they are used in websites now they just look like links crammed into the top banner to me. I am toying with the ides of using tabs to the top of the page, performing usability testing, to see if I'm alone. I might design tabs into my page to the right, do testing and if it is found too hard move them to the top. As tabs are becoming a standard convention users are aware of, it makes sense to use them if it makes it easier to navigate sites as users can go straight to what they are used to.

I am planning a small site so I don't really feel a search bar is needed. However, krug strongly recommends them as many users go straight to the search bar and I should cater to their preferences. I am going to put one on my site for users and also as I have never created one before it will be good to learn as any site I design shall end up needing one.

The Home Page is different according to krug in chapter 7 and I need to remember and incorporate the following:

• site identity - what site is and for and why user should be here and not another site
• site hierarchy - give overview of what site has to offer
• search box - 'as above'
• teases - hint at the good stuff in the site like hot deals and top stories
• timely content - signs of life, weekly deals etc.
• deals - allocate advertising space etc.
• shortcuts - most frequently requested, most downloaded etc,
• registration - if login needed put it on home page
• abstract objectives - for example, show what user is looking for and what they are not, show user where to start. establish credibility and trust - and all pages not just home for those objectives.

These 4 questions (Krug 2006, 99):

what is this?

what do they have here?

what can I do here?

why should I be here and not somewhere else?

should all be answered in a glance, also, you need to impress, entice, direct and expose the user to deals.

Krug mentions a tagline should express what the businness does or offers (Krug 2006, 101), So my business logo for my web design site shoul state that I build websites for people.

With accessibility I went to Lynx viewer http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html
as recommended in webct study modules but I had no luck viewing pages so Iam currently downloading a copy. I, still going through the accessibility tutorial at webct, went to the vischeck site and the samples are amazing, I could create a site where colours hardly contrast for users like in the hat images where the colours all end up varying shades of mustard yellow colours.
Couldn't find the ficticious uni of antarctic.
Went to http://www.contentquality.com/ and put in our webct which failed on a few usability issues in WCAG priorities, in IE, for example:

4.3 Identify the primary natural language of a document.
Rule: 4.3.1 - Documents are required to use the META element with the 'name' attribute value 'language' in the Head section.
Note: This rule has not been selected to be verified for this checkpoint.
Rule: 4.3.2 - The HTML (Root) element must use the 'lang' attribute.
Failure - The HTML (Root) element does not use the 'lang' attribute.

Also downloading the firefox developer tool which has accesiblity tools, heaps of broken links in this tutorial exercise so I couldn't view all the sites mentioned. Noticed though different home reader software have their own usability issues. Ah.. yet another issue to explore for designers are there many issues with text browsers? and design issues with different home readers? more research for me to do for assignment as I really want my site to be assessible, not because I feel asite like mine would be in demand for disability users but because i need to assert in my sites design what issues I stand for. like usability, accessiblity and simplicity. So I feel I need to design my site to the same standards.

at the w3c site http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505/ it advices us to remeber the following while designing sites:

-They may not be able to see, hear, move, or may not be able to process some types of information easily or at all.
-They may have difficulty reading or comprehending text.
-They may not have or be able to use a keyboard or mouse.
-They may have a text-only screen, a small screen, or a slow Internet connection.
-They may not speak or understand fluently the language in which the document is written.
-They may be in a situation where their eyes, ears, or hands are busy or interfered with (e.g., driving to work, working in a loud environment, etc.).
-They may have an early version of a browser, a different browser entirely, a voice browser, or a different operating system.

There are alot of guidelines on this page for me to implement into site design, quite a challenge, but well worth it.




Krug, S. (2006) Don’t Make Me Think, A common sense approach to Web Usability, Second Edition, New Riders Publishing, Berkeley, California USA.

research for video testing

some of the research I conducted for video testing assignment:

The testing script I used is based upon Steve’s Krug’s testing script recommendations (Krug 2006,146-155). I also downloaded a sample script and video release form from his web site sensible.com (Krug, 2007) and used both with some minor adjustments in my testing sessions. I did not copy either of these scripts word for word and made some changes, for example, I did not want to ask users “what would you click on first” (Krug 2006, 150) as I felt that may alter their use of the site as it would be better to just observe what they just naturally click on before any tasks are asked of them.

Steve Krug (Krug 2006, 144) recommends “Get it “ testing and “key task testing”, the first is about whether the participant gets what the site is about and how it is organized and works etc. The second concerns asking the user to perform a task and watching how they perform the task. I used both of his recommendations in this video testing assignment. In fact nearly all of my research for this assignment came from Krug’s book “Don’t make me think” (Krug, 2006). With the following exception:

The idea behind the following recommendations is to maximize verbal contribution along with the physical tasks users perform, although some usability experts recommend not to place too much emphasis on user comments, Isabelle Peyrichoux’ article proposes a method to minimize the risks (Peyrichoux, 2007). She believes that to just focus on the physical tasks can produce misleading and limited results and instead we should also apply the following 10 recommendations:

Be aware of your own judgements and projections
Be genuine and transparent
Adapt to each user. Do not ask users adapt to you
Be conscious of the way users are interacting with you
Get users to speak about their own experiences
Notice when users are censoring their own comments
Get user to speak in terms of problems, not solutions
Ask “why” and dig deeper
Make objective and precise observations
Allow users to be spontaneous and follow their flow


I tried to apply all of the above during my testing, it is not always easy to remember them in the heat of the moment. I found it hard to know when users are censoring comments, one user asked if “it was okay to swear”? even though her comment makes her thoughts obvious it is not always so easy to know what users are really thinking as they may be too polite to voice their thoughts.

Peyrichoux, P. (2007) When observing users is not enough: 10 Guidelines for getting more out of user’s verbal comments,
Retrieved from: http://www.uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000183.phpApril 3, 2007.

Krug, S. (2006) Don’t Make Me Think, A common sense approach to Web Usability, Second Edition, New Riders Publishing, Berkeley, California USA.

Krug, S. (2007) Advanced Common Sense
Retrieved from: http://www.sensible.com/
March 28, 2007.

so long...

Wow. I haven't blogged for over twenty days! Too busy getting video testing assignment finished, nearly finished just a few things to edit fill in in my report.

Completed last test yesterday the participant is a friend who I noticed was really holding back during her session and then it came out (halfway through second site) that she thought I had designed the sites she was viewing! After it was explained that I hadn't created them she relaxed and was more vocal with her opinions. Prior to this she had been pulling faces and making me laugh, all unprofessional! Need to use strangers next time, on second thought; serious strangers. But a bit of fun is good as long as it is not directed at the testers abilities but at the sites or yourself, for after all we are testing the site not the user (Krug, 2006).

I used camstudio (http://www.camstudio.org/ ) a screen desktop recorder with a microphone I plugged in and this worked well. The quality a bit shoddy sometimes but it's still okay to view. Only thing is you miss some of the participants facial expressions which often say more than their words.

Usabilty testing is a great eye opener to how people use the web. You realise that what appears obvious to me is not to others and how little of the technology behind some sites is realised or even noticed by testing participants. I guess due to confidentiality I cannot go into specifics here, but in general I noticed the following:

• none of my participants seemed to realise what flash and text only versions were.
• unless links are really obvious they don't tend to find them.
• they can get frustrated and give up quite easily.
• whether they blame themselves or the site design, the result is the same, they give up and probably wont bother with the site ever again.
• noise is a bad thing.
• aesthetically, opinions vary.
• I notice how much participants relied upon images to key them into what a site is about, some will gather a view of the site from images and stick to that view regardless of what any text says.
• Their opinion as to what the site is about can change throughout the session, depending on what they notice around the site.
• even things right in front of participants on the screen can be missed if they are not obvious and well headed.
• if sections are not explained well (and explanation read) users can assume all kinds of different things as to where they are and what they are in.
• I (we) ended up in Jakob Nielsen's usability website during one session so you never know where these tests will take you.

I really enjoyed the teating experience and the insights gained, Steve Krug is right, people don't want to think (Krug, 2006). I felt I lacked professionalism during the testing, mainly due to using friends and family in the sessions. I'll know better next time.

Been too busy with assignment and not posted any research here but been putting it all in my assignment. This post has excerpts from assignment research:

1. One of the problems I have with becoming a web designer is building a portfolio and I found this guy on the net http://www.briterwebdesign.com/ who is giving away free websites in order to build a name for himself. Could be an idea!

2. Questionnaire results are in and below (from assignment) summarises them:

I received 10 responses 7 from business providers and 3 from other organisations. Two of the business’ providers had websites, only 1 had a site for other reasons, the main reason to have a business site was to attract more work, most were in the market for some of the services listed, most want the site updated for them but quite a lot would update themselves if they felt able to. I was expecting people to think a website would be expensive as a general misconception but the responses here were as varied as the market itself, nearly all have no idea how much internet advertising would cost and when looking for a web designer the main criteria is experience, know what they are doing with quality of previous work. Two of the respondents with non-business sites required the designer to be local as their sites (which they already have) need constant updates.

I noticed I could offer update services along with the added value of training the site owner to update the site themselves, and also marketing an advertising service with a dollar value attached might motive some people to purchase the product as they would go from having no idea of the price to gaining product knowledge that may or may not appeal to them. Advertising is not something I had planned to provide but it may be a viable service to provide if businesses are in the market for it, definitely something I would need to research and consider offering.

I did not ask any usability style questions like “how often do you use the internet” as I conducted one earlier in the unit and realised how varied users are some people can use the internet fluently others cannot and I need to design with the assumption people know very little and even if they do I still need to design with the motto “don’t make me think” (Krug, 2006). I plan on a simple site anyway, no flash to download or sounds, nothing complicated just a good basic site that is easy to use.Most businesses did not have websites and I noticed they might purchase a site if they believed it would increase sales and I assume a business would weigh up site cost against the sales it generates. I would need to give a potential business a good idea of what a site could do for their business.

3. Besides primary research secondary advice is available in, for example, statistical forms; some for purchase (others free) at the Australian government business site (http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/b06660592430724fca2568b5007b8619/9c7742890adec989ca2568a900139423!OpenDocument which can help getting the business environment surrounding business' currently. Other issues here would be how consumer spending, for example, can affect your line of business.

4. I researched the three competition sites mentioned in previous post, I found 'hardweb' and 'arteffect' had many usability issues and the site style I want to emulate 'emotionlive' also had a few usability issues. I will know more about the sites after testing video is completed and at the moment I can only list what I do and don't like about them, the issues I found in regards to usabilty were about navigation, pointless graphics, links not obvious, don't know what page you are on and being unable to change font size in some browsers.

5. With copyright I only researched in the OZnet law website ( http://www.oznetlaw.net/) and found issues around work agreements between a web designer and the client:

Without a written agreement:

(a) the third party developer (and not the customer) will own the intellectual property in the website and:

* the customer may have limited future control over the development and hosting of the website;
* the website developer may be able to reproduce the customer's website design for another customer if the customer is not the intellectual property owner; or
* the continuing use of artwork or other copyright works by customer will be dependent upon the copyright owner granting it a licence to do so.

(b) owning the intellectual property and not having possession of the source code can be a very frustrating and potentially disastrous situation. Escrow should be considered when the developer is not prepared to supply the source code;

(c) the customer is exposed to significant liability arsing from programming and other errors with the website;

(d) the customer and developer can have different interpretations of delivery dates, the development timetable and the liability of the parties for delay;

(e) the unsuccessful developer is potentially exposed in the case where a pre-contractual development proposal is put forward but not accepted and that proposal is used in a future site created by another developer.

You should maintain records such as minutes of meetings to document the fact that you have relied upon the knowledge and expertise of the developer. Such evidence makes it difficult for a developer to defend a claim of misleading and deceptive conduct made against the developer. (Oznetlaw, 2006)

Also stated in site how it is best (not necessary) to place a copyright symbol on your work and also mentions how every site should have a disclaimer to limit liability.

5. After a fellow student mentioned that she could not find 'emotionlive' displayed sites (they are posted as screenshots without links on the site) on the internet as 'real websites' I searched the net and only found one of the sites but the site looked different to the 'emotionlive' version. I think they(emotionlive) are creating mock up of sites to display on there website as part of the portfolio. Not a bad idea but I think this should be mentioned on their site; else we are left with the impression that they are real sites the devloper created for clients. A bit deceptive but it would help a new designer to have some work to showcase by re vamping existing sites as before and after shots, I just feel this should be stated on the site.

real version: emotionlive version:

web sites to test

ok questionnaire out the way and posted to webct, got few responses and more on the way.
Having a hard time finding solo designers on the gold coast (been at it all day, even went through yellow pages and yellowonline), as I want to research my local competition. Ended up having to do a larger area search and came up with:
1. http://www.hardweb.com.au/ - a local, Gold Coast designer.
2. http://www.art-effect.com.au/ - almost local, at Burringbar
3. for this one I did a search for the top web designers in the world and came across alist at Andy Denton site (http://www.andydenton.com/2006/11/05/the-top-55-web-designers-in-the-world/) and after going through the list (they all freelancers or small business) looking for a site design I like or can aspire to, I decide upon http://www.emotionslive.co.uk/

now I just have to analyse them..................later.

from assignment 2 research

I finally finished my questionnaire and posted it for peer feedback in webct, I put the following in assignment 2 about the questions asked and why:

1.What the name of your business? This is a social question.

2.What is the service your business provides? To help define how different sectors of business may answer the questions or how expectations of websites may vary across industry.

3.Do you currently have a business website? To define their status at the moment in relation to the following questions.

4.Do you have a website for any other reason? To find out if they have other business interests or personal interests on the internet as this may affect the answers they provide.

5.What do you think a website would or does achieve for your business? People have different expectations, some may believe the internet in capable of more (or less) than possible for a business. For a business with a site already their answer could show if some of the sites on the web are not achieving what they could for business.

6.Which of the following services would you be prepared to pay a web design company for? (Website creation, Regular updates to optimize search engine ranking, Updating business information, for example monthly specials, logos, graphics, Advertising your business through banner advertising, Graphic design services, Other (please specify))? To ascertain what service people are in the market for, which are of the most interest to those who do or do not already have a site or a site that is or is not achieving for their business.

7.Would you prefer to update your website yourself or have a business provide that service for you? Again to ascertain the market preference

8.How much would you expect to pay for a five page website? An open question to ascertain if there are any general misconception about web page pricing.

9.How much would you expect to pay for advertising on the Internet? An open question to ascertain if there are any general misconception about web page pricing.

10.What would you look for in a web design company if you were going to have a web site created for your business? To get a general idea of what is expected from a web design business.

11.Any additional comments? Place here for respondant to place any information they feel appropriate.

I had originally planned to ask a lot of usability questions like “how do you rate yourself as an internet user”? But this questionnaire is aimed at customers for a web design company and as such is not about usability, yet, but to analyse what the potential customers require and expect from a web designer as a business provider, and to see what services they are in the market for and how much they expect to pay, for example if plumbers, in general, only expect to pay $500 for a website they would not be a viable market to target en masse, however, if photographers are prepared to pay a few thousand for a site then it would make more sense to target them. If plumbers are prepared to pay more for internet advertising then the banner ad service could be aimed at them.
I see the above questionnaire as stage 1, next would be to research the business groups the web design company plans to target and ask them more details of what they expect from a web design company and so on and to look at usability issues in their sites context.
Usability, in general has been well researched from people like Steve Krug (Krug,2006) to Jakob Nielsen (Nielsen, 2007), there is a lot of general information available to be applied to the design process and usability can be tested on websites that have been created. In this stage of the development the web design business has no web site to test so only a general usability knowledge can be applied until the site is created and site specific usability issues arise.


Nielsen, J. (2007) Current Issues in Web Usability,
Retrieved from: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/
March 16, 2007.

Krug, S. (2006) Don’t Make Me Think, A common sense approach to Web Usability, Second Edition, New Riders Publishing, Berkeley, Californis USA.

Market Research

found the following advice at http://www.inc.com/articles/2000/03/19094.html

"Determine Your Market
-Three key questions to answer when starting a company are:
1.Who, if anyone, has a real need for the thing I propose to sell, and how many of those potential customers are there?
2.How much, if anything, are they spending to address that need today?
3.Does my product meet that need in a manner that either saves or makes them substantial amounts of money?"(Mann, D. 2000)

my answers to above:
1. Lots of business, individuals, charities, government agencies etc.. have web sites. In fact anyone with a need or want to promote, sell, publish, display and so on.. information online. Some may already have sites that need updated and revamped others may need their first site or different site for a different aspect of their business, for example I was asked to update my sons school P&C website which is separate from the schools site. The actual market is quite huge, if you however decided to just make websites for small business in your city (there is potential here to nationalise and even go global with your market) one would narrow their markets range.
2. Some don't spend a cent on design, for example the school P&C site is compiled by donations of time from parents. Others spend thousands. It is a question of getting what you pay for, usually. An electrician I know was quoted a thousand a year to have a web site. Some sites are large and complicated, others small. Some designers charge by the hour others for the site first and then an ongoing fee to maintain the site.
3. My product (web design) would solve this need (for a website) for smaller style web sites within my own area. I would also create charity style (like school P&C) for free in order to gain recognition and work to display in my own site. My product price would be competitive and similar to the prices charged in my area.

Having read Mann's article I have decided to adapt questionnaire to help me know my customers (potential market) more and ask some questions along the lines of;
"if you were searching for a wed design company, what would you be looking for"
"how much do you think a web site is worth "
"what do you think a web site would do for your business/product" etc...

Questionnaire resources

I designed my questionnaire and decided to serve it on only 5 people based on research sources mentioned in previous post and the following:

I posted the following in webct discussions:

Message no. 310
Author: Jan Hobson
Date: Monday, March 5, 2007 8:23pm

Anyone thought about their questionnaire yet? I guess the idea is to ask some general questions relating to internet usability rather than ones specific to the site we are conducting market research for? Do these questions seem okay or is the answer already obvious? are some too technical?

1.If a web page is taking too long to load (be viewable) can you be bothered waiting?
2.What internet content, if any would you wait more than a few minutes for to load?
3.Do you know how to make the text size larger on web pages in your browsers menu? (yes or no)
4.Do you know what screen resolution you use while browsing the internet? (yes or no)

and received these responses....so far:

I read Nielsen's usability testing article, which recommends only asking the questions of five people: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000319.html

And read this article: http://www.ahref.com/guides/design/199806/0615jef5.html which says ask a few general questions like their name and internet proficiency and to explain to participants that there is no right and wrong answers etc..

will make next post my completed questionnaire example

Questionnaires

researched this topic at http://www.studentbmj.com/back_issues/0601/education/187.html and compared some of their theory to the assignment example by Naomi Hama in webct 'hall of fame' usability section.
The website recommends the following:

for wording questions:
-sentences be short and simple and ask for only one piece of information at a time
-avoid negatives and ask precise questions
-Ensure those you ask have the necessary knowledge
-ask for the exact level of detail required
-Minimise bias and be careful of sensitive issues

Format of responses can be either open or closed or a combination of both depending on the with 'ranking' being the less used as reponses are hard to analyse.

Length of questionnaire short ones tend to have a better response rate.

The order of questions is also important:
Go from general to particular.
Go from easy to difficult.
Go from factual to abstract.
Start with closed format questions.
Start with questions relevant to the main subject.
Do not start with demographic and personal questions

Also recommended to mix negatives and positives, use a variety of question formats, filter questions may be used and questionnaire should have cover letter or at least an introduction and a thankyou at end.

Naomi Hama's questionnaire begins with and ends with simple general questions
1. What is your occupation?
2. How old are you?
3. How often do you use the Internet?
here I think it would be easy to receive responses like, "not much", "all the time", "when mum lets me" and so on it seems a question open to ambiguous answers.

4. What web sites do you use the most? (Please include the URL if you can.)
here it appears Naomi is looking for specific websites, but many people may just answer with; "the bank", "shopping", "the weather" and so on. A sensitive issue here may be porno sites I wonder how many would own up to vising them?

5. What is your level of Internet know how? (How much do you think you know about the Internet?)
(Minimum) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (Maximum)
I can think of someone I know giving themselves an 8 here when all of the internet they explore is yahoo

6. What do you like the most about the Internet?
7. What do you dislike the most about the Internet?
8. Do you have a computer at home?
9. What operation system do you use? (e.g. Mac OS/Windows)
10. Do you have stereo with your computer?
this question seems strange, should it say "do you have sound or speakers" and "do you ever turn them on while on the internet"?
11. What screen pixel do you use? (e.g. 640 x 480, 800 x 600)
many people I know wouldn't know what screen resolution is Naomi found the same thing with only 3 of the 11 questioned able to answer, perhaps this is a filtering question?
12. Which browser do you use? (e.g. Internet Explorer, Netscape.)

I don't mean to pick on her questionnaire it just gave me an opportunity to compare Naomi's questions with the websites recommendations. A questionnaire for internet students could contain more technical questions than one for people with little internet experience, or you could pose a questionnaire testing just how much user do know etc..

next job is to create my own questionnaire

Been looking around http://www.hardweb.com.au/index.html and wondering why a site with code that doesn't validate and work perfectly across browsers is on the first page of google results.

A few usability issues I noted (ones I am aware of so far..):

1. text size cant be changed in IE but can in FF (alters alignment quite badly though)
2. few minor image alignment issues between FF & IE
2. some things look like links but are not (example, in 'web information section' on right side of screen the text best reasons and new clients is bold but link is at end of paragraphs
3. two search bars, powered by picosearch, one doesn't work, error message says 'being worked on' use other search bar.
4. What's the flower pot for?
5. why have all the sites designed placed under main content instead of in web design navigational link? the web design link takes you to page 'about web design'
6. weird right arrows, and not next to the read more here text.
7. loads fast- images very small some been reduced a bit too much I think
8. muddled links at the bottom of home page, at first glance they look like part of the 'sites designed' section but not, here you notice a newsletter can be viewed, css validator link, computer training course, audio welcome (seems pointless) and so on

Can't wait to see how the 'test subject' find this page compared to my critiques, especially if I ask them to try to find the newsletter! (without using the search bar)

Decided one day I will need my own design site so I shall start work on its development in this unit. Googled 'web design Gold Coast" - to focus on where I live. First result (not sponsored) was http://www.redfoxwebdesign.com.au/ then http://web-design-gold-coast.surfpacific.com.au/ then http://www.webdesignmagic.com.au/ (who have a position vacant for a designer).
I, however shall focus on sites that appear to have a solo designer as that is what I intend to do.
This site appears like just one guy, http://www.hardweb.com.au/ but I will also need to research what others are doing and also in other areas of Australia, just to see whats going on out there etc...
keep searching for now.

Day 1

Study begins..... and outline states this blog scrapbook is for ongoing research of usability testing.

evidence of regular usability testing throughout design process:

Planning - can include notes from A3 prep.
organisational stage
Rough sketch stage
page design stages
using three participants each time

This assessment is 15% 10 for research 5 for execution and by week 13