Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Checklist for usability testing in 2018

I've been thinking a lot lately about my procedure. It's unusual that people sit down and try to map out what we know, although experience is a powerful thing.
Though it's part of my choices that were paid, I've decided to share this checklist. Several disclaimers: First, I really don't claim this list is comprehensive or unique. Jakob Nielsen has a fantastic 113-point checklist in his e-book, Homepage Usability, for instance. That is just my way of organizing what I believe is essential while attempting to keep it manageable. Second, my usage of conditions may differ from yours. I use "usability" in an extremely broad sense, and my use of "accessibility" is not very industry-standard. Don't like it? Write your own checklist ;) Lastly, an advance warning this post is pretty lengthy.
Basic Overview
The list is divided into 4 roughly equal sections, (I) Accessibility, (II) Id, (I-II) Navigation, and (IV) Content. I'll rationalize and describe all line items and the sections under, but you could also download the checklist as a simple, 1-page PDF.
I try to keep it easy with 3 basic scores: (1) Green Check Always = Good/Move, (2) Red Check Always = Wants work, but no disaster, (3) Red X = Bad/Fail. Not allpoints are necessarily relevant to all sites.

HTML Page Titles Are Explanatory

More importantly, your page titles (in the tag) should be descriptive, distinctive, and maybe not jammed total of keywords. Page titles are the first thing searchengine visitors see, and if these titles look spammy or do not make sense, they will shift on to the next result.

Major Headings Are Clear & Descriptive

Most people do not examine on the web, they skim. Use headings (major and small) to set content aside and keep it organized. Headings should be clear, as well as for SEO gain, using heading tags (, , etc.).

URLs Are Significant & Consumer-friendly

This is really a point of some debate, but meaningful key-word-based URLs are usually excellent for both visitors and search engines. You don't have to reengineer a complete site to get new URLs, but do what you can to make them friendly and descriptive.

Styles & Colors Are Consistent

Make sure folks know they truly are still on your site by being consistent - confuse them-and you'll lose them. Headings layout, and styles should be steady site-wide, and colours should generally have the sam e meaning. Do not use red links on still another headers on onepage, and red text somewhere else.

1 comment:

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