Eye tracking Web usability

Eye tracking Web usability by ZDNet's Dan Farber -- User interface guru Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group is on the road, giving seminars based on a recently completed an eye-tracking study that indicates how users consume Web pages–such as where people start browsing on a page, whether they have banner and text link blindness, where users look for navigation, how they react to [...]

Change vs. Stability in Web Usability Guidelines

Summary:
A remarkable 80% of findings from the Web usability studies in the 1990s continue to hold today.

As Web usability testing enters its 14th year, it's worth asking how early results have held up to recent user research.

10 years ago, I wrote an article on the changes in Web usability from 1994 to 1997. A few of my original findings were no longer valid a mere 3 years after they were issued. But most of the 1994 guidelines held true in 1997 -- and they're still correct today.

More details about this topic - Usability Guru (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/guidelines-change.html)

Jakob Nielsen's - The Ten Most Violated Homepage Design Guidelines

Summary:

There are ten usability mistakes that about two-thirds of corporate websites make. The prevalence of these errors alone warrants attention, especially since they appear on sites with significant investment in usable design.

1. 1. Emphasize what your site offers that's of value to users and how your services differ from those of key competitors
   
2. Use a liquid layout that lets users adjust the homepage size
   
3. Use color to distinguish visited and unvisited links
   
4. Use graphics to show real content, not just to decorate your homepage
   
5. Include a tag line that explicitly summarizes what the site or company does
   
6. Make it easy to access anything recently featured on your homepage
   
7. Include a short site description in the window title
   
8. Don't use a heading to label the search area; instead use a "Search" button to the right of the box
   
9. With stock quotes, give the percentage of change, not just the points gained or lost
   
10. Don't include an active link to the homepage on the homepage

Please read the full description here - http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20031110.html

Usabilty

Intranet Innovation Awards

The Intranet Innovation Awards are global awards that celebrate new ideas and innovative approaches to the design and delivery of intranets. I’ve agreed to lend my name and Prescient Digital Media’s support to these first annual awards as I customarily highlight and regularly document and write about award winning intranets on this site.

The goal of the awards is to recognize innovative intranets (whether large or small), and to share them with the wider intranet community. Uniquely, these awards recognise individual intranet improvements, and not intranets as a whole.

The Intranet Innovation Awards are now open for submissions, which must be received by 15 May 2007. Full details on the awards (including the entry form) are at: http://www.steptwo.com.au/iia/index.html

The Intranet Innovation Awards have been created by Step Two Designs, a recognised thought-leader in intranet strategy and design. These are also truly global awards, supported by a network of intranet-savvy organisations from the US to the UK, Europe and beyond.

“Intranets must innovate in order to prosper; they must constantly grow and evolve to better meet the needs of the organisations they serve,” says Step Two’s James Robertson. “While there can be no single 'best intranet', there are innovative ideas and approaches that warrant recognition.

The Intranet Innovation Awards have therefore been established to celebrate the great work done by intranet teams across the globe, to give them the recognition they deserve.

Gold Awards are given across four different categories, each focusing on a specific aspect of intranets. Platinum Award winners are then chosen to recognise the most extraordinary entries for the year.

These awards are about improving all intranets, by increasing the pace of innovation across the whole of the intranet community. Every idea, no matter how small, adds to our understanding of what it means to have a successful intranet.

Read more about the awards and download the entry form.

Approaches to design

A design approach is a general philosophy that may or may not include a guide for specific methods. Some are to guide the overall goal of the design. Other approaches are to guide the tendencies of the designer. A combination of approaches may be used if they don't conflict.
Some popular approaches include:

User centered design, which focuses on the needs, wants, and limitations of the end user of the designed artifact
Use-centered design, which focuses on how it will be used with less emphasis on the user than user-centered design
KISS principle, (Keep it Simple, Stupid), which strives to eliminate unnecessary complications
There is more than one way to do it (TMTOWTDI), a philosophy to allow multiple methods of doing the same thing
Murphy's Law (Everything that can go wrong will, so plan for it beforehand)

for more details - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design