Usability Blog Posts

I know it’s the holidays, and you all are probably only half-focused on your work. So I’m going to keep this month’s Usable short and sweet. I found a really great study on “Label Placement in Forms” by Matt Penzo at UXMatters.com that I wanted to bring to your attention (the idea for which came from Luke Wroblewski’s “Web Application Form Design.”)

Penzo and his colleagues attempted to replicate Wroblewski’s set-up. In doing so, they tested expert users (designers, programmers & usability testers) as well as novice users (the specific numbers of users not provided). They had the test subjects fill out multiple forms and they recorded the “gaze-path” data from the start of movement [assumed] until the submit button was clicked.

As I write this post, Google is holding an event detailing their operating system called “Google Chrome OS,” in which absolutely everything is stored in the cloud. While sitting in the front row of this event, Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land somehow managed to post a mini-bombshell feature covering another big change for Google in 2010–a change that will ultimately effect every web user: a new Google Search interface. Read on for a sneak peek

Before I looked into the topic, I just thought credibility was about being plausible. Would users come to my websites and think the information on them was legitimate? I’m not far off, but credibility is a complex beast that does not need to rely on intuition alone. I found three studies (sources and links at the end of the post) that discussed what is credibility, why is credibility important, what affects credibility and by how much. Wait a second—by how much? That’s right! A website’s credibility and the items affecting it can actually be measured, and this means you can rely on scientific data over your intuition.

I was watching Squawk Box this morning with guest host Ted Leonsis, Vice Chairman Emeritus of AOL, and he threw out a figure on worldwide internet users and its effect on the global economy.  While I wasn’t quick enough to write down the exact figures, the point was that North America represents only a small part of internet users.

95% of all statistics are made up.

The saying above is a tongue and cheek reference to a very real phenomenon: people’s willingness to fudge the truth in order to prove their point. If I’m arguing for something and say, it’s proven that 32% of people don’t like xyz, it’s harder for my opponent to argue otherwise. Statistics are powerful because people think of them as facts, as undeniable, set in stone truths. But statistics can easily be miscalculated, misrepresented and manipulated to serve an agenda.