Home Usability News January-June 2001	Articles   About KB

Usability News Archive

January-June 2001

By Kristoffer Bohmann

June 30, 2001
Searchable pictures. Google added image search capabilities to their search engine. It actually works when searching for people and art. The challenge for this service is that most pictures lack meaningful descriptions due to missing ALT tags and incomprehensible image file names. On the other hand, 95 percent of all sites neither need nor want to make their images searchable since images are components on a webpage, not an end in themselves.

The best use of the technology at present probably is to identify (illegal) use of your corporate logos and product pictures. Still, the importance of image search capabilities will grow significantly as the web moves towards multimedia rich content. Some day it may become possible to spot a word or person mentioned in a radio show or TV broadcast show.

June 29, 2001
Scannability revisited. Writers who make their texts scannable should do so with care. It is by now common knowledge that writers should make their online writings scannable. This is usually done by adding bold text, bulleted lists, links, and new paragraphs. Still, using these text layout techniques should be done in a moderate way.

• Too many bulleted lists on a page makes the text hard to read. If everything is bulleted you may just as well remove the bullets.
• Making entire sentences or even paragraphs bold or linked work against the purpose: To guide the user's attention.
• Proving too many links in a text adds confusion as users become more focused on figuring out what's behind each link than reading the present text.

June 28, 2001
Laissez-faire capitalism. Partly good news. Microsoft will not be split up (this time). A US appeals court has overturned a ruling from June last year that found Microsoft to be guilty of abusing monopoly powers and ordered Microsoft to be split in two.

For a moral defense of Microsoft, read Thomas Sowell on Microsoft and the Mythology of Anti-trust "Law" and Richard M. Salsman on What does Competition mean under Capitalism? (comment on the antitrust lawsuit). In Salsman's opinion - as in mine - government should uphold and enforce market contracts-not violate freedom of contract by dictating the terms, changing the terms, or abrogating the terms of contracts.

Update (June 29). I was not completely correct in yesterdays comment on the Microsoft antitrust appeal. The appeal court ruling was not a clear victory to Microsoft, only a new chance in a different court room. The appeal had two main elements:

• Microsoft appealed the District Court's judgment that monopoly power had been used and the premises for this judgment. The appeal court rejected the appeal completely.
• Microsoft further appealed the order to split up Microsoft in two distinct companies. This decision was accepted by the appeal court. The case will be reassigned to a new trial judge. So, Microsoft gets another chance in court.

By rejecting Microsoft's appeal the appeal court has legitimated the use of anti-trust policies in the US IT industry. Unfortunately, this leaves plenty of room for state intervention and other socialist policies supported by companies and bureaucrats who hate the commercial success of others. Argh!

June 27, 2001
Usability defined. User interfaces have high levels of usability when users can achieve their goals. The specific goals depend on the context. Users buying a radio must, as a minimum, be able to find the radio and complete the ordering process. Identifying such user goals is a key component in the work done by usability professionals. The more demanding and relevant user goals a site supports, the more likely is it that the site will be the preferred choice.

Highly targeted sites also need to take the intended user into account. If you are a bank and your intended users are elderly people above sixty you want to be sure these users can use your system (while it is irrelevant if teenagers can use the system since they are not intended users).

A surprisingly high number of users are not able to complete key tasks in usability studies. Task failure typically occur because site structures, instructions/wording, and links are missing or unclear. Users simply don't understand what they can and should do. They don't get the message.

More advanced calculations and metrics can be taken into consideration in later phases of usability studies. For instance, it is often necessary to optimize task performance time and user satisfaction on ecommerce sites to stay competitive. But first users must be able to achieve their goals.

June 26, 2001
Being principle-based. Principles are practical in life ... and in web design. Good principles support decision-making by emphasizing the correct path and by de-emphasizing wrong or inefficient paths in the eyes of the decision maker. For instance, principles help a web designer avoid large graphics on a site if the designer values fast page download times (the underlying principle: pages should download in a few seconds).

Professionals who successfully have built up a coherent set of principles will be able to make correct design decisions faster and better than designers who failed perceiving reality or integrating reality into principles. Professionals need to protect their principles by avoiding clients, employers, or employees who don't value the skills. Otherwise the principles held by the professional will erode and the value he adds will decrease. In short, the relationship becomes impractical.

Making principle-based design decisions is a hard road to take since it involves tough decisions. So why do it? Because it leads to integrity, happiness, and (maybe) superior profit.

June 25, 2001
Tell a friend. Brands can engineer human curiosity through a set of marketing initiatives during product launch. All the initiatives have one central goal: make sure potential buyers hear about the product. One option is to spread the word by announcing the upcoming product through retailers, industry observers, and other indirect channels. Another is the use of a sig file in emails. The technique, sometimes called viral marketing, is currently being used to promote the movie A.I. (see also community site and homepages related to the movie).

Customers will start talking about the product, or at least pay attention to it, if it is found interesting enough. Small talk makes people curious. Curiosity creates attention. Attention creates options to sell.

Probably the most important effect of successful word of mouth is increased customer-acceptance of the product. Orders may even roll in before the product is launched. Ecommerce sites can support the process by accepting orders before the product is launched and by providing a way for customers to be informed when the product is online.

June 24, 2001
Navbar menus. Why drill-down menus are harmful. Drill-down menus make interaction more difficult, destroy the user's overview, and poor wording make users give up using the site.

June 23, 2001
Internet usage patterns. Four Internet companies control half of the time users spend on the Web. The companies are AOL Time Warner, Microsoft, Yahoo and Napster. What can be learnt from this:

• Apparently unrelated mergers will take place to achieve at least one goal: Increase the number of page views in a certain user segment. For instance, AOL and Time Warner merged to strengthen their future competencies to deliver broadband content thereby creating a market leader in the entertainment business.
• Large sites will grow larger resulting in higher revenues. Jakob Nielsen point out that strategic use of the Web should easily result in values of a dollar or more per page used. This is actually what happens on sites such as Amazon and Yahoo. Yahoo Shopping host stores on the Yahoo.com domain and charge stores for the service. Amazon Toys is operated entirely by Toys R Us. Even the Toys R Us homepage is hosted by Amazon who is making more dollars on this set-up than they could do on their own in the toy industry.
• Smaller sites will only survive the competition if they provide highly focused and valuable content that is easy to access.

June 21, 2001
Dot com porn. Internet professionals accept jobs in the porn industry. Well, this job category was not in Computerworld's 100 best places to work in IT (PDF, 75KB). When it becomes more important to earn a living, you stop living.

June 20, 2001
Permission service.

Larger picture

Permission service. Providing service to users exactly when they need it creates a competitive advantage and credibility in the eyes of the user. For instance, my Internet Explorer 5.5 prompted me for a security update as I opened the browser. Excellent! The user is receiving service exactly when needed. This is what the marketing people call permission marketing: ask customers for permission to send marketing info when they need it. Service companies can do the same: ask users for permission to send info about important bugs and fixes when needed (for instance when a certain feature is activated by the user). However, Microsoft could improve the value of their service in a number of ways:

• Only contact the user when relevant. The relevant update was already installed on my computer(!), while the remaining six important updates aimed at earlier browser versions and other products not used on the computer.
• Updates were almost one year old. Why wasn't I prompted before? And if I were - why am I being prompted again?
• Ask for permission and remind the user about it. I don't recall if Microsoft ever asked. A brief reminder would have solved the problem.
• Make it obvious exactly which product and version an update is relevant for. For instance, the header for each Microsoft update currently says Security update, August 9, 2000. Better: Security update: Internet Explorer. List the publishing date as part of the update description if necessary.
• Prioritize updates by importance. Internet Explorer listed 15 updates nicely categorized as important, recommended, or other updates. Beta versions were listed as the last category. (Good!)

June 19, 2001
Being netcentric. Investing heavily in content is probably the single best way for any site to drive traffic and increase sales. But the magic will only happen if content is considered valuable by target users. This usually means that you need to write more about your products and technologies. Or pay professional writers to do the job for you. It also means that editorial resources are needed to get rid of outdated news and keep product descriptions updated. In short, ecommerce sites need to develop netcentric organizations with a passion for online publishing.

June 18, 2001
Homepage scrolling. Mainstream users accept long homepages on content rich websites because it gives them faster and more accurate access to content. It is faster to press page down a few times to get a view of the options compared to browsing many pages on a site using a short homepage.

Designers' main reason for avoiding long homepages is to make main options on the site visible in a screenful - without scrolling. Such homepages typically look very simple. Yet they are also difficult to use since users are forced to click back and forth to carry out their tasks.

The optimal length of the homepage depends on how much you have to say. For instance, Google need less than a screenful to make their search form, logo, and most important links available. However, the homepage length has an upper limit since users will start getting lost on very long homepages. This usually happens after hitting pages down more than 2-3 times.

June 17, 2001
The User. When I use the concept the user, I mean a living person who is using a website or other user interface. "The user gets lost." "The user hits the backbutton." "The user cannot buy the shirt." And so on. Basic insights about Web user behavior include:

• Most users have limited time to do the things, they want to do online. As a result, users will spend very little time on your site. Minutes, not hours.
• Specific goals are pursued by users. The goal may be very broad (e.g., what are the latest top stories) or very narrow (e.g., what is the speed limit on French highways). In any case, goals are followed. Successful sites know the goals of their users and make it easy to carry them out.
• Users make errors. Especially when the interface is hard to figure out.
• Users differ in terms of Internet and technology experience. Still, assuming that Internet freaks will use advanced features on a site is often a mistake since users seldom take the time to learn advanced features.
• Language barriers matters, especially if you write in English and your users speak English as their second language. Comprehension errors are more frequent among such users. Accordingly, such sites should write English in a language that is easily understood.
• Users direct their attention in highly selective ways. For instance, they scan articles and news stories as opposed to reading every word. This force sites to make options extremely obvious since less obvious interface elements often is ignored.

June 15, 2001
Handwritten emails. Soon handwritten email messages can be sent using a digital pen. Emails are sent using three items: A digital pen, special paper, and a cell phone. The pen works like a traditional pen. You write on a special piece of paper and see your writings as you move the pen. Once you are ready to send the email, check a box on the paper.

The market for the pen are mainly users on the road. McKinsey consultants who register their observations as they walk through a company. UPS workers who deliver packages. Teenagers using the pen for chat and SMS. These users will have a wide range of demands before they choose to adopt the pen.

• Reliability: Users should never experience data loss or connection downtime since they will start perceiving the pen as unreliable. When batteries are low, users should receive an early warning and, preferably, be able to change batteries without data loss. Battery lifetime matters - users who write 10 emails daily don't want to change batteries and ink cartridge weekly.
• Multi-tasking should be supported since users often need to write more than one email or note at the same time. Switching between different messages may be very confusing to users (and the pen). Assume you write two emails at the same time. How do you tell the pen that you have switched from the first message to the next? One solution is to press somewhere on the special paper to activate it.
• Weight and handling: I cannot say how it feels to write with the pen since I never tried. I expect the pen to be heavier than a traditional pen so I wouldn't use it for longer handwritten notes, only brief notes and messages.

I do see one possible application in which the pen could be beneficial to me. I use a paper calendar since it is faster to update and get a view of than any other calendar technology I am aware of. The pen could actually help me store my appointments in an electronic calendar that matches my paper calendar. Best of all: I don't need to remember any special paper, only my calendar. The paper calendar may even outperform or supplement PDA calendars. Send a few bottles of good red wine if you use or patent this idea.

June 14, 2001
Welcome messages. Most welcome message on homepages are not necessary. Typically, welcome messages take up 5-10 lines in a central spot to tell new users what the business is all about. Introducing the business can be done in better ways, including:

• Design the homepage as one, big welcome message aimed at new and return users. List as many details and links as possible.
• Avoid the word Welcome.
• Clearly state the website's purpose from a user perspective (e.g., What can I do here?)
• Don't talk about corporate intentions and strategies. Only performance matters.

June 13, 2001
Free speech online. Commercial freedom of speech is being limited by Danish government who demand that portals remove their sponsored links to foreign gamble and casino sites. The portals are not allowed to refer users to sites such as www.entercasino.com and www.prestigecasino.com. Paradoxically, the portals are allow to display bookmaker phone and fax numbers in their ads. The arbitrary rule seems to be: The easier to use, the more illegal.

I guess the socialist-ruled government wants to protect their market share and tax revenues in the gambling industry. Bottom-line: Defending free speech remains relevant.

June 12, 2001
100 European startups. List of 100 European startups. Studying the list gives an idea of how online technology is developing in Europe. No Danish companies included in the list.

June 11, 2001
Form design. Banal design mistakes can make it hard to submit search words and email addresses through forms. I recently observed a user who was unable to submit an email address on my site because the user didn't see the Sign up-button. The user saw a collapsed form like this:

Mistake: Button jump to the next line

Everything was done right except the final step. The form was easily found by the user. The email adress was entered correct. But the user forgot to hit the Sign up-button. The problem occurred because a small browser window was being used which made the button jump to the next line as shown above. Meanwhile, the user was so focused on spelling the email address that everything else was ignored.

Not only does business suffer when such usability problems happen (e.g., I didn't get the opportunity to send email updates to a client). Worse, users become disappointed and frustrated ("Why don't I receive the email notifications I signed up for?"). A clear loose-loose situation that is easily fixed if identified.

June 10, 2001
Dot com profit. Strategy Professor Michael Porter recently explained why many dot com companies have failed (see also online interview). The main reason is an absent focus on profits. Companies have been too willing to sell their products without receiving high profits in return. A lot of the companies even collapsed after focusing more on sales than profits.

I love this philosophy. Making profit is imperative: don't give away value unless you receive value in return. To make extraordinary high profits you need to focus on delivering unique and high value within selected areas, while saying no to ideas and customers who don't match the strategy. This is how enduring great companies and economies are built.

June 9, 2001
Risk perception. Login pages should be accessible through a secure connection when users submit sensitive data to home-banking systems, corporate extranets, customer accounts on ecommerce sites, etc. Otherwise this will be an important reason for users to reject the service completely. Bad for business.

Larger picture

Example. The pop-up window above prompts users for FTP-server username and password. It is used by webmasters and editors when they post new stories to weblogs (a news module) hosted on their own server and enabled by Blogger. Submitting FTP-server username and password is a rather drastical decision for security-concerned users. And Blogger makes two important usability mistakes that scare security-concerned users away.

• The pop-up window hides the URL. This denies users a basic opportunity to verify the site owner (i.e., is the information submitted to www.blogger.com or to an unauthorized site?). Making the URL visible would eliminate this usability problem.
• It is not clear if data are transfered through a secure server. The secure server should be an option since users worry about security when giving away sensitive information such as FTP login to servers (e.g., "Somebody may see and misuse the username and password for our ecommerce site."). Accordingly, these users reject the service completely even if they need it..

June 8, 2001
Customer experience. What it looks like when a buyer unpacks his new computer (58K). 1. Receive package. 2. Unpack, unpack, unpack. 3. Connect wires. 4. Install software. 5. Go to work.

The unpacking process is remarkable. The user only sees the most necessary items as he opens the box (manual and wires). And pre-installed software makes it easy to get started.

June 7, 2001
Eye-guiding colors. Amazing what a few colors can do to usability. I added a light gray background color to the featured articles on my homepage. The color change aims at enhancing user performance by making it more obvious where most users want to start reading. Result: The articles have now become an anchor point. It's one of the first things you see upon entering the homepage. As you scroll down, the colored box helps you understand where you are relative to the page top - this is especially helpful if the homepage is long. To try, press Page Down on the homepage.

June 6, 2001
Technology overkill. Too often, websites differentiate themselves in terms of the visual appearance of the site. Not only are most "cool" designs irrelevant to the user experience. They may even make a negative contribution by annoying users and slowing down their performance. In turn, users leave to competing sites.

You can test the downsides of most visual designs by comparing them to a minimalist version of the same design (plain HTML, very little graphics if any). You simply observe how well users perform when using the minimalist design compared to the "cool" design. The minimalist design wins if it performs better. If the two design are equal, consider using the minimalist version anyway since it is often cheaper. Only use the visually oriented design if it performs significantly better (e.g., overall usability is improved by 100%) to justify the extra development costs.

June 5, 2001
Goodbye Tomalak. Lawrence Lee of Tomalak's Realm has decided to shut down his excellent news service to pursue other goals. Tomalak's Realm published and emailed daily summaries of news stories about strategic Web design from hundreds of sources, including New York Times, The Economist, The Standard, Useit, and Wired News. What I liked most about this service was its competent and brief overview on current affairs.

I made a brief comment on Tomalak's Realm a year ago. Lawrence Lee responded to the comment by changing the page width to 600 pixels on all news archive pages.

Update comment (June 16, 2001). Hello again, Tomalak. Lawrence Lee and Tomalak's Realm has partnered with Dave Winer of UserLand and decided to let Tomalak's Realm live. UserLand provides the software behind Tomalak's Realm. So it goes.

June 4, 2001
Skilled incompetence. My review of the MAN Group homepage is a good example on how homepages should not be designed. Worst usability mistake: The navbar disappears when you change the browser window size a few times.

June 3, 2001
Writing reports. Bruce Tognazzini on how to write a usability report. The article is too focused on being nice and gentle for my taste. Still, Tognazzini provides good tips for report writers. For example, In usability study reports, use simple topic headings (e.g., "Navigation") and In observational reviews, outline improvement ideas, not criticisms (e.g., "Improve navigation").

May 31, 2001
I know where you were last month. New Danish legislation allow police to register any mobile phone user if the person was close to a crime scene. Consequently, thousands of innocent users will be registered by the police. Since traffic on the GSM net (global system for mobile communications) is stored for several years, police may even map the physical movements of users for several months.

This attack on individual rights is important because it is one of the first initiatives enabling mass-surveillance of innocent citizens. It is highly likely that police will misuse such information for unauthorized purposes. The unavoidable result is more surveillance and less moral law.

May 30, 2001
Language selection.

Europe: Select language.

US: Read content.

Language selection. A large number of European websites waste homepages on language selection while their American counterparts rarely commit this usability mistake. I recommend that multi-language sites use English as default.

May 28, 2001
Health information. A new study on health information (PDF, 305KB) examines accessibility, quality, and readability of online health information on sites such as CBS Health Watch, DrKoop.com, and WebMD. While this study doesn't address ease of use, it certainly does address the usefulness and trustworthiness of websites. The authors' ideal is clear. Information services needs to cover all key topics with accurate information written in a readable language. The study report that websites rarely deliver as expected. Our results suggest that consumers using the Internet may have a difficult time finding complete and accurate information on a health problem. In particular:

• Key consumer questions are not always covered. As a result, users cannot carry out critical tasks on some websites.
• Answers to key consumer questions are not always accurate. So, users cannot rely fully on the web services and may even become skeptical towards the services.
• Reading levels are quite high. Even high school graduates may not always be able to understand the available information.

May 27, 2001
Tab mania. The store tabs on Amazon.com has often been criticized for their negative effect on the user experience. In particular, the store tabs steal valuable pixels in the page top on almost every page and they are rarely relevant to the user's current task. Dack Ragus is paraphrasing the tabs in this Amazon homepage redesign.

May 26, 2001
Users first, then technology. Unknown markets and user needs can be explored in two basic ways -- from a technology perspective or user perspective. The technologist is searching for ways to apply his technology. For instance, developers in the cellular phone industry became fascinated by the new the wireless application protocol and developed WAP phones that didn't match the market need. On the other hand, the user-centric researcher focuses on the usage situation as his starting point. His goal is to understand what the technology needs to do to enhance human performance in the usage situation.

The technology-centered approach is dangerous because it often creates a closed system that doesn't stand a reality check. In short, technologists are lead to refine and perfect the wrong application of technology. Starting out with the user situation is more likely to create useful and profitable products and services since technology is applied for a purpose, not just because it is available.

May 22, 2001
Wireless payment. In a few months, Danish shoppers will be able to use their cellular phone as a credit card terminal (in Danish). The technology clearly reduces the need for cash; users may even be able to buy a car through their cellular phone. The technology is simple to use. Users submit their mobile phone number to the store along with their order. The store will then charge the user by sending information about the ordered item, total price, and a control number. The transaction is completed once the user has entered a PIN code.

Soon, the mobile commerce industry may even make it possible for users to receive payments, not only send them. Such systems are already provided on the Web by PayPal and Amazon.com's Honor System.

May 21, 2001
Writing e-mail. Mastering the e-mail medium is an essential skill in most companies and business relationships. Poorly written e-mails often cause frustration, comprehension errors or are completely ignored by the reader. Good emails makes it more likely that the message is actually understood.

Esther Dyson provides her useful advise on how to write a good e-mail, including: Use a credible and understandable e-mail address. Use a meaningful, specific subject line. Tell the reader what you want. Keep the history. Limit the use of attachments. Use a sig file to identify yourself. Check your spelling.

May 20, 2001
Web traffic. April's traffic statistics for Bohmann Usability show that it is possible to attract dot com traffic to a non-dot com domain. My visitors in April came from:

• Dot com domains (37%) and Scandinavian countries (29%).
• Other visitors came from dot net domains, dot edu domains, Australia, Germany, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Israel, Spain, Netherlands, Austria, and Belgium.
• There were even a few visits from Botswana, Chile, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore.

May 19, 2001
Exploring emerging markets. The first step in true innovation is observation and understanding. Innovators need to observe users in action and understand why they perform their actions. Only then will the innovator be able to translate his insights into valuable products and services.

The usability discipline has responded to this challenge, to explore non-existing markets, by developing a range of tool to assist innovative activities. The tools include field studies, prototyping (update: link no longer active), user profiling, task analysis, and other methods and techniques. Of course there is not much news here since this is what innovators have always done. Only the usability discipline is refining the methods and applying them to new situations and levels of analysis.

The benefit from detailed observation and deep understanding is better investments. Companies are more likely to create usable products from which they can and should make a substantial profit -- and less likely to invest in prodcts nobody needs.

May 16, 2001
Pop-up research. Most users find pop-up windows highly disturbing. Yet, they are frequently used on ecommerce sites. Research findings from Statistical Research shows that pop-up Internet advertisements are 50% more likely to be noticed than banner ads, but also that they are 100% more likely to be considered intrusive.

May 15, 2001
Usability community. UserForum, a new Danish usability community launched this week. Recommended: Collected articles in Danish and English and a Ph.D. dissertation on Usability Evaluation Methods. The UserForum initiative is headed by Christina Hernvig who has done a remarkable job editing links, conducting interviews, and reviewing books.

April 15, 2001
Xerox PARC study: Users mainly compare. Jakob Nielsen comments on a study conducted by researchers from Xerox PARC. The study findings indirectly explain a key component in the success of Amazon.com Books. Book lovers can use Amazon as a shopping tool and as a reference tool. The Xerox PARC study refers to the latter user behavior as "collect". For instance, readers and students can use the site to gather information on new books by their favorite author or other books similar to their favorite readings. Even information about out-of-print books is available. Best of all, Amazon has turned these services into a business by offering out-of-print books from their dealer network and allowing users to sell used books directly on product pages.

Interestingly, Barnes & Noble hide out-of-print books in their search results - you need to know the ISBN number to find the book - thereby providing lower value of use when users carry out collect tasks(!)

March 18, 2001
Napster create a paradise for stolen goods. Capitalism Magazine: Napster is About Freeloading, not Freedom. Napster's technology is mainly used to violate the intellectual property rights of creators and distributors of music, a paradise for people in search of stolen goods.

March 18, 2001
Argus ceases operations. Argus Associates are closing down their information architecture consultancy operations. The company founders Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville pionered the information architecture discipline with their bestselling book Information Architecture for the World Wide Web published by O'Reilly in 1998. Since then the company has served a large number of prestigious enterprises.

March 12, 2001
Registration hard at gatetrade.net. gatetrade.net, a Nordic business-to-business market place, opens today. The market place is interesting because four Danish top 50 enterprises will announce their purchases on the site. Services include seller auctions, buyer auctions, vendor catalogs, and more. Access to the service requires registration and a $1.250 fee (approx.).

A quick tour through the site uncovers at least a few critical usability mistakes:

• The registration procedure is very long (7-8 pages). Also, when you enter the registration page it is hard to understand exactly how many steps you have to go through.
• Registration price is not obvious to registrants. Some users will get an unpleasant surprice when they get the $1.250 invoice.
• Users using smaller screens are not able to get a view of the content on each registration page. The page header is located in the middle of the window on my 17 inch screen.
• The legal agreement between user and gatetrade was not published correctly when I tested the system. My company name was replaced with some database code. Such a mistake should not be possible.
• Oracle Corporation, not gatetrade.net, has copyright on the site (Copyright © 1999, 2000 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.). This makes the site less trustworthy and make users wonder if Larry Ellison owns gatetrade.net.
• English-speaking users who enter the Danish homepage can only register in Danish because a cookie inhibit them from entering the registration page in English. (This bug has now been fixed.)
• The same URL is used for the Danish and English site version. So, Danish suppliers cannot provide their international business partners and subsidiaries with a homepage URL in the correct language. For instance, a Danish employee living in the US will see the homepage in English, not Danish.

March 10, 2001
Haburi wins prize despite usability mistakes. Haburi.com makes several design mistakes such as small/non-scalable windows, non-standard link colors, and fixed text size. Now, the ecommerce site has won a prestigious Danish ecommerce prize. My conclusion, awards and prizes do not guarantee that a website is usable.

March 5, 2001
Searchable PDF-files. Google now include PDF-files in their search results. This enable Google users to search corporate white papers and brochures, academic papers, and other PDF publications available online. Google has also expanded their service by acquiring Deja.com thereby applying Google search technology to Usenet discussion groups from 1995 till today.

I predict Google will start charging users for some of their service within the next six months on a subscription basis or per query basis. Google, may you earn lots of money for your excellent service.

March 4, 2001
Mailing-list. UK-based usability forum offers a new mailing list focused on user testing methods and evaluation of the best/worst in current web design: Subscribe.

February 22, 2001
Internet words. I recently had a hard time learning to remember Andersen Consulting's new name, Accenture. At first glance the name looks energetic and appealing. But I found it very difficult to recall the company name. This informal test will reveal if you experience the same problems. - Please select Andersen Consulting's new name from this list:

• Adventure
• Axcapta
• Accentuate
• Accentor
• Accelerate
• Agile
• Edventure
• Accenture
• Acceptance
• Accentuates
• Accenting

I apologize for using Esther Dyson's EDventure in the list. I love this company name for its simplicity (one easy word), sense of curiosity (makes me think of adventures), close relation to the owner's name (initials ED), and close relation to one of the companies core business activities (venture capital).

February 6, 2001
Don't Make Me Think. Don't Make Me Think. Steve Krug's new book made me think. About usable web design. Should main sections on a website -- sometimes called general navigation -- be presented on each page? Krug says yes. He advocates general navigation as a means to present the entire site on all pages. While I enjoyed Krug's clear arguments I also disagree. General navigation provides unrelated opportunities that add confusion to the user experience. It is true that search engines, affiliate sites, and emailed URLs make an increasing number of users go directly to pages deep within the website. Still, this is no argument to confuse users through the option overkill created by general navigation. Despite this smaller disagreement I highly recommend the book. Don't Make Me Think deserves to be read due to it's insightful examples, useful analytical tools, and concise presentation. Highly recommended. Thanks to Mark Da Cunha for recommending the book.

January 26, 2001
Methodology. Usability heuristics and testing methodology used by Bohmann Usability when conducting usability tests and reviews. The methodology is exclusively focused on fast and error-free user performance.

• July-December 2000 (32) - Homepage goals - Miss Boo is back - Competing against patents - Future living - Amazon use fewer store tabs
• January-June 2000 (20) - Google claims market leadership - Are hyperlinks patented? - Modelling user tasks - Eye Tracking Study