ISO 9241
Posted on February 10, 2014 by Sameera Thilakasiri
ISO 9241 is a multi-part standard from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) covering ergonomics of human-computer interaction. It is managed by the ISO Technical Committee 159. It was originally titled Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs). From 2006 on, the standards were retitled to the more generic Ergonomics of Human System Interaction. As part of this change, ISO is renumbering some parts of the standard so that it can cover more topics, e.g. tactile and haptic interaction. The first part to be renumbered was part 10 in 2006, now part 110.
Human Factors & Ergonomics Standards
ISO 9241 From Wikipedia
Using ISO9241 to Build a Robust and Creative User Centred Design Strategy
HCI – ISO Standard 9241
Evaluating and Improving Software Usability
Author
By Sameera Thilakasiri
,is a front-end developer based in Colombo, is a blogger and a lifestyle photographer.
Follow him Twitter and Google+. Check out him.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Heuristics
Posted on February 10, 2014 by Sameera Thilakasiri
A heuristic evaluation should not replace usability testing. Although the heuristics relate to criteria that affect your site’s usability, the issues identified in a heuristic evaluation are different than those found in a usability test.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
|
|
Author
By Sameera Thilakasiri
,is a front-end developer based in Colombo, is a blogger and a lifestyle photographer.
Follow him Twitter and Google+. Check out him.
10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
Posted on February 10, 2014 by Sameera Thilakasiri
Summary: The 10 most general principles for interaction design. They are called “heuristics” because they are more in the nature of rules of thumb than specific usability guidelines.
- Visibility of system status
- The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.
- Match between system and the real world
- The system should speak the users’ language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.
- User control and freedom
- Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.
- Consistency and standards
- Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.
- Error prevention
- Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
- Recognition rather than recall
- Minimize the user’s memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.
- Flexibility and efficiency of use
- Accelerators — unseen by the novice user — may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
- Aesthetic and minimalist design
- Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
- Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
- Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
- Help and documentation
- Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user’s task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.
Originally developed the heuristics for heuristic evaluation in collaboration with Rolf Molich in 1990 [Molich and Nielsen 1990; Nielsen and Molich 1990]. Since refined the heuristics based on a factor analysis of 249 usability problems [Nielsen 1994a] to derive a set of heuristics with maximum explanatory power, resulting in this revised set of heuristics [Nielsen 1994b].
Author
By Sameera Thilakasiri
,is a front-end developer based in Colombo, is a blogger and a lifestyle photographer.
Follow him Twitter and Google+. Check out him.
Tags: Heuristics | Usability | User Experience | User Interface Design
How to create your information architecture
Posted on February 10, 2014 by Sameera Thilakasiri
After you’ve gathered all of your branding content, it’s time for you to make some big decisions. Ready?
- What website pages will you build on your website?
- What website pages will you put in your navigation?
- How will you order the pages in your navigation?
- What pages do you think will be most important to your visitors?
All of this is just another way of asking:
What is the information architecture of your website going to be?
These questions aren’t always easy to figure out at first. But you can start with what you have and take it from there. So first maybe just decide on the basic website pages that you’ll have on your site. There are lots of great resources online (like this and this) about how to go about researching your information architecture and optimizing it. The site maps feature in HubSpot lets you easily map out the entire information architecture of your website in one place and quickly reuse that structure across your website pages as a navigation menu.
Why should you plan the information architecture of your website?
Information architectures are diagrams or maps that organize all of the content that you plan to have on your website into defined categories. They can eliminate a lot of guesswork when you are building out new pages in the future and help your website content keep its core focus. They also will make it easier for visitors to navigate and find content on your website.
Information Architecture Examples
What does an information architecture look like? Here are a few examples.
Service Company
This is an example site map for a service company. If you were to apply this structure to a landscaping company, Service A might be “Commercial Landscaping” and Service B might be “Residential Landscaping.”
Product Company
Here is an example of what a product company’s site map might look like. If this company only sold a remarkable frisbee, the product page might be called “Our Frisbee” and discuss all the features of that awesome frisbee.
Nonprofit Organization
If you are building a website for a nonprofit, your information architecture would be a little different. You would want to make it simple to figure out what your mission is and highlight how visitors to your website can get involved with your efforts.
Author
By Sameera Thilakasiri
,is a front-end developer based in Colombo, is a blogger and a lifestyle photographer.
Follow him Twitter and Google+. Check out him.
Tags: AI | Information Architecture | Usability | User Experience | UX
Gamification Experts to Follow on Twitter
Posted on October 28, 2013 by Sameera Thilakasiri
Present to you, the top 25 gamification and engagement experts to follow on Twitter (in no particular order). We’ve included their name, where they’re from and their handle so you can simply click and follow! While these are only a few of the hundreds of great experts out there, this list should get you started on the right path of implementing game mechanics into your campaigns!
Mario Herger- AICSV- @mherger
Gabe Zichermann- Gamification Summit- @gzicherm
Mark Golstein- Backops- @Markgee
Sergio Jiménez Arenas- Game Marketing- @gamkt
Brian Wong- Kiip – @brian_wong
Amit Fulay- Google- @amitfulay
Kes Sampanthar- Cynergy Systems- @KesSampanthar
Michael Wu Ph.D- Gamification Scientist- @mich8elwu
Andrea Kuszewski- Researcher/Therapist- @AndreaKuszewski
Jane McGonigal – Author of “Reality is Broken, Why Games Make Us Better and How They Change the World” @avantgame
Stella Grizont- WOOPAAH!- @StellaGrizont
Bob Marsh- Levele- @bobmarsh5
Yu-kai Chou- Octalysis- @yukaichou
Andrzej Marczewski- YARS.co.uk – @daverage
Phaedra Boinodiris- IBM- @INNOV8game
Jesse Redniss – USA Network @jesseredniss
Nicole Lazzaro- Designed TiltWorld- @NicoleLazzaro
Mark Yolton- SAP- @MarkYolton
Kevin Werbach- Co-Author of “For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business @kwerb
Dannette Veale- Cisco- @dveale
Stephanie Garcia – Digital Strategist – @heystephanie
Amy Jo Kim- Game Designer- @amyjokim
Ivan Kuo- Gsummit- @GamificationKuo
Roman Rackwitz- EngagingLab- @RomanRackwitz
Scott Dodson- Digipen- @Gamebiz
Author
By Sameera Thilakasiri
,is a front-end developer based in Colombo, is a blogger and a lifestyle photographer.
Follow him Twitter and Google+. Check out him.
Tags: Experts to Follow on Twitter | Gamification
Community presentations of the blogger
Sameera at LinkedIn
BIOGRAPHY
Sameera Thilakasiri is a front-end developer and UX Architect based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, specialist in User Interface Design, User Experience, Usability and Accessibility, Information Architecture, Responsive Web Design, Interactive Design, Search Engine Optimization, Trainging and Public Speaking.
In his profession, follow the best practices, W3C web standards and guidelines, responsive, semantic, usable, accessible, SEO friendly to cutting edge cording using XHTML/HTML5, CSS and jQuery for Pixel-perfect cross browser compatibility.
In his leisure blogging for technical articles and lifestyle photographer.