Book Image

UX for the Web

By : Marli Ritter, Cara Winterbottom
Book Image

UX for the Web

By: Marli Ritter, Cara Winterbottom

Overview of this book

If you want to create web apps that are not only beautiful to look at, but also easy to use and fully accessible to everyone, including people with special needs, this book will provide you with the basic building blocks to achieve just that. The book starts with the basics of UX, the relationship between Human-Centered Design (HCD), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and the User-Centered Design (UCD) Process; it gradually takes you through the best practices to create a web app that stands out from your competitors. You’ll also learn how to create an emotional connection with the user to increase user interaction and client retention by different means of communication channels. We’ll guide you through the steps in developing an effective UX strategy through user research and persona creation and how to bring that UX strategy to life with beautiful, yet functional designs that cater for complex features with micro interactions. Practical UX methodologies such as creating a solid Information Architecture (IA), wireframes, and prototypes will be discussed in detail. We’ll also show you how to test your designs with representative users, and ensure that they are usable on different devices, browsers and assistive technologies. Lastly, we’ll focus on making your web app fully accessible from a development and design perspective by taking you through the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Title Page
Credits
About the Authors
About the Authors
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface

Planning, conducting, and analyzing usability tests


In this section, we will describe in detail how to practically plan, conduct, and analyze a typical formal usability test. Before starting, we will define what we mean by a usability test, and describe the different types. At the end of this section, we will briefly discuss variations on the formal usability test, such as guerrilla testing and unmoderated remote testing.

Note

Usability testing involves watching a representative set of users attempt realistic tasks, and collecting data about what they do and say. Essentially, a usability test is about watching a user interact with a product. This is what makes it a core UX method: it persuades stakeholders about the importance of designing for and testing with their users.

Team members who watch participants struggle to use their product are often shocked that they had not noticed the glaringly obvious design problems that are revealed. In later iterations, usability tests should reveal fewer...