Interview with Jakob Nielsen, a web usability guru

He was called the "web usability master" in The New York Times and called the "King of ease of use" by Internet magazine. Since 1995, he has passed his alertbox
Email list and useit.com
The website teaches thousands of web designers about the ease of use of the Web, although some of his views may bring controversy, at least in the eyes of web designers, he is the top leader in the field of ease of use of the web, his name isJakob Nielsen
, This article is WDD
Interview with the website.

Can you talk about yourself? How did you enter this field?

I entered the usability field in 1983.
My first project is the character-based interface on the mainframe. Later, I focused on graphic user interfaces. For example, my students and I did a lot of research on Mac software. At that time, Mac software was not good enough. My early experiences are very helpful for future research, because the early web interface is similar to the ibm3270 mainframe program.

In general, for a professional in this field, experience in computer systems in various times is very useful, because you can look at problems in the development trend of macro human behavior.

In the first ten years of my technical career, I mainly solved two problems: how to make those easy-to-use methods more widely applied, and how to adapt to those who are greatly reduced in ease-of-use.
And how to improve the ease of use of online information. In view of this, I wrote my first book on hypertext in 1989.
(Published in 1990) and a usability engineering teaching material widely used in software projects
.

In 1994, I began to study the ease of use of web. These two kinds of interests were just merged. Early web usability was very interesting. People criticized it and said it could not be used on the web, this is for software programs.

On the contrary, in recent years, those who are easy-to-use have begun to claim that these studies can only be used on the web, and cannot push programs or Ajax
So people always want to ignore their users. Of course, the reality is that ease of use applies to anything that has a user interface, whether it is websites, programs, mobile phones, or DV.
Or something else. The specific rules may be different, but the general principles are derived from the way of thinking formed by humans over 10000 years.

 

In recent years, broadband has developed rapidly. Do we still need to pay attention to the page size and loading speed?

Yes, but it is not as harsh as 28.8 K dial-up Internet access.

However, the principles of response latency are the same in all times, because the Internet is connected to people, and even the studies during World War II are still established. One of the main principles is that when people click the next page
The delay should not exceed 1 second, otherwise it will feel stuck. In the Broadband Age, access users in the United States can download about 1 MB of data in 1 second (those in Asian countries will be faster, but not China-
Therefore, the current problem is not in the speed of the network, but on the server side. People add too many ornaments and dynamic objects to the webpage.

Remember, one second. Otherwise, the user will think of the card. In the case of the whole page, the embedded Ajax controls of those pages are more demanding than 01. Seconds. Otherwise, the user will think of the card.

 

In your opinion, what is the best way to test website usability?

Follow the three basic principles to find a trusted customer, let them actually visit your site, and then close your mouth and let them tell you. You only need five users to discover enough usability problems and keep you busy for a few months. Despite the three simple principles, many studies have found that people cannot fully abide by them.

For example, if you cannot allow your friends or colleagues to perform tests, you should find external users who do not know anything about your project. They cannot perform perfunctory operations and must actually use them. At the same time, you cannot influence them, no
Can imply how they should operate. This is why the shut-up principle is so important. The best way is to find experienced large test teams. Of course, small teams can still do well. This is very economical.
Developers can also perform usability tests well if they adhere to the basic principles.
.

 

How should people test website usability on mobile devices?

The basic principles are the same. Now we have 4th rules, that is, testing on a representative device. For the desktop, there are Mac and PC, but it doesn't matter, the key is what screen size, in recent years, we have primarily tested on 1024x768, but now we use one screen for all tests.

It is difficult for mobile devices to use a representative device because the difference between mobile phones is much larger than that between computers. In our mobile research
We tested three types of mobile phones, low-end mobile phones, smartphones, and touch screen mobile phones.

We recruited some users who came to the test with their own mobile phones. We need to test many users, because the differences between mobile phones of different categories are too big. Ideally, we recommend that the site designers
Class devices design three versions of the site, because they are too different, but only those sites that are particularly rich, so I hope they will at least design an independent site for mobile devices, for desktop computers
Websites designed by users are too difficult for mobile users.

The initial mission of Web was originally to emphasize cross-platform design so that access can be made anywhere. However, from the perspective of availability, this is not feasible. Even if it can be achieved technically, it is either too simple for desktop users, either it is too complicated for mobile applications. The two situations are too different and require different designs.

What is the best way to test the usability of an affordable website?

The only thing you cannot save is the recruitment test representative user, because if you find the wrong person, or those who do not use this website to participate in the test, either those who are too familiar with the background and will take the initiative to bypass usability issues, neither of these two types of testers is ideal.

Others can be discussed and saved. As I said, you can test it on your own, so you don't have to spend any money. In addition to the time spent, it takes only a few hours to complete the test for five testers. You don't need any equipment, no analysis software, or even a computer.
If not, a laptop or a general computer is enough. Such a test can be performed in a small meeting room or in a general office.

Of course, you need to close the door to avoid interruption.

 

In terms of navigation, is the bread navigation bar dead?

No. During the test, we often see that the user uses the bread navigation, either to confirm his current position or to return to the upper menu. Therefore, bread navigation is absolutely useful, but it is equally important not to affect users who do not need bread. Tests have found that this is not needed.

But that's okay, because the breadiness does not bring any trouble to these users, and they are simple and should be included.

 

For web designers, if they are designing art or works display sites, can they break the web usability rules?

Yes. First of all, the definition of art is that you can play it at will. Art is not visible to ordinary people. Even if it is a commercial land, such as a work presentation, there are two reasons:

First, the audience of such sites is generally used for more advanced Web technologies (designers, Internet managers, etc.). Second, when people visit such sites, they generally do nothing except respect. Therefore, it does not have to be as easy-to-use as those of civil sites. For civil sites, such as online banking, if it is not easy to use, it will be disastrous to transfer the wrong account.

 

Amazon.com is regarded as the most successful e-commerce site. What makes them so successful? Have you ever found usability errors on their site?

Amazon is a good example of having different user experiences on and off the site. Their success is attributed to the out-of-site effort, including a wide range of products and very detailed confirmation emails.
, Very stable order execution capabilities, their prices are also good, although not the lowest.

Their on-site experience is also good, including rich product information and customer comments. Amazon is the first company willing to accept negative comments from users. This Amazon has enhanced its credit, if you are not optimistic about a product, you can buy other products.

However, Amazon's model is not suitable for other sites
,
Its page is too crowded and has too many functions, so new users are often at a loss.
Users are old users who are familiar with e-commerce. They often buy things on top. Therefore, they can bypass these inconveniences, but new users still feel a little difficult to use. Because most other e-commerce sites do not
With Amazon's large scale, they need simple design.

Amazon's product zone is also difficult to use because they are a comprehensive online store whose predecessor is an online bookstore. For books, the information is much simpler. Amazon can present a single product to users, but it is not ideal for displaying all product directories. It is a good opportunity for specialized online stores of certain types of products.

Do usability rules treat all websites equally, or do they need to use different rules (such as technical sites or news sites) for different target users )?

Usability always involves two things: Who are users and what they want to implement with this UI?

Therefore, we cannot make a universal design. For example, if people only want to view a limited number of contents, you can list them all. If the content to be displayed is massive, you need some features for users to select, sort, and so on.

If it is a hotel with only three branches, it will be a bit better, but if it is McDonald's, you need a branch Query Tool
, Or even language options are required to differentiate different countries and regions.

Similarly, for users who are proficient in a certain field, we need to provide different designs than common users. The best example is, such as medical information, provide different things to doctors and patients.

 

Today, most websites are filled with a large amount of content, such as news summaries, Twitter, or RSS subscriptions. Are those pages with a large amount of content still easy to use?

Yes. However, the more things you add to the page, the more difficult it is to ensure ease of use.

Simplicity is always a better choice, but if your users really need so much content, you need to constantly perform usability tests. For these problems, you need to make more efforts, if you want to launch something that has not been tested by users, it is more complicated than simply containing more risks.

 

International Source: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/09/interview-with-web-usability-guru-jakob-nielsen/

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