Usability

• Webpages and electronic documents
• Books and articles
• Training and presentations

Introduction to usability

The design, structure and content of all university webpages should be user-focused, not organisationally focused. To make your site an effective communication tool, find out who uses your site and identify their needs, expectations and interests.

Think about these key points:

• effectiveness - are users able to use your site to achieve their goals?
• efficiency - is minimal effort required to use your site?
• satisfaction - are users happy to use your site & satisfied with its performance

Webpages and electronic documents

If you have any suggestions or comments about the following links, please contact us.

• An introduction to usability (pdf, 1.5mb) - written by Dey Alexander, user experience design specialist, who presented a usability training session to university staff in July 2004.
• Usability - introductory articles (on Dey Alexander's website) - Dey is Monash University's usability specialist. She provides links from her personal website to usability articles written by experts such as Jakob Nielsen.
• Useit.com - Jakob Nielsen is one of the world's leading usability experts. On his website you will find articles on every usability topic you can think of, including his bi-weekly Alertbox column.

Books and articles

To borrow these resources from the Web Centre please contact us.

• Don't make me think (book by Steve Krug) - Easy to read book that demystifies web usability. Includes tips on how to run user-testing.
• Back to the user (book by Tammy Sachs & Gary McClain) - Explains the "big picture" marriage of development and strategy for creating sites that the user actually wants to use.
• The Design of Everyday Things (book by Donald A Norman) - A powerful insight into how - and why - some products satisfy customers while others only frustrate them.
• Web Site Usability Handbook (book by Mark Pearrow) - In depth introduction to web usability. Includes information on human behaviour when using technology (human factors), heuristic evaluation and user testing

Training and presentations

• Training course - User testing teaches staff how to conduct usability testing for their site. See web training for more information about Web Centre courses.