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It’s been less than four months since I launched the new website. In that time our traffic has increased dramatically. Each month both unique visitors and total visits have nearly doubled.

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Yams

Usability is both a practice and a process that gained wide popularity in the 1980s as personal computers became widely used. Usability has been promoted under several different buzzwords, including "usability engineering," "user experience engineering," and "user-centered design," and has been used to create better hardware, software, and documentation products. However, many companies see usability as a "nice to have" feature rather than something that should be an integral part of product design processes. This choice can lead to dissatisfied customers and a serious hit to your bottom line.
If you're new to usability, here is some useful information from the "Principles of Usability" course I designed and currently teach for the California State University, Sacramento College of Continuing Education Online Technical Writing Certificate Program.

Chauncy Wilson, a senior member of the Society for Technical Communication (STC), notes that the word "usability" can be traced back to 1382 according to the Oxford English Dictionary online (http://www.oed.com), and that the first reference to usability can be traced back to 1842. (Wilson, Chauncey. "Usability and User Experience Design: The Next Decade." Intercom (January 2005): 6-9.)

Usability experts Joseph Dumas and Janice Redish provide a straightforward definition of what usability is: "The people who use the product can do so quickly and easily to accomplish their own tasks." Dumas and Redish (1999) base this definition of usability on four points:

1. Usability requires focus on the users.


2. People use products to be productive.


3. Users are busy people trying to accomplish tasks.


4. Users decide when a product is easy to use.

But what makes something usable? Users have three general goals when they use something, be it hardware, software, or documentation:

1. An easy to learn experience.


2. The product solves the user's needs.


3. Help is easily accessible.

Usability Testing
When a company seeks to test the usability of its products, they usually employ a usability test. Dumas and Redish list the five characteristics of every usability test:

1. You set specific goals when you plan the test.


2. The participants represent real users.


3. The participants perform real tasks.


4. You observe and record what the participants do and say.


5. You analyze the data, diagnose the problems, and then recommend changes to resolve those problems.

The results of the test are only useful if they identify areas for improvement. The end result of the usability test should be that you have improved the product and the process—and the side effect is that you make your customers happier.

When you want to test the usability of something against the user's goals, testing falls into three different categories (Bias et al., 2005):

1. Quick and dirty: This type of usability testing is usually performed after the product has been produced. These tests can be in the form of print or online questionnaires and/or direct feedback from the users through customer support calls or e-mail messages—and if the users don't like the products, you'll know from angry customers' phone calls and/or low product sales.


2. Formative: This type of usability testing occurs during the development of a product. You've likely heard of the term "beta testers" for those people who test the usability and functionality of software, and these testers provide direct feedback about the good and bad of the product.


3. Summative: Summative testing takes place when a product has reached a certain stage of development and the testers want to find out how much progress has been made in the product's development.

Some usability tests are performed "in the field," either when you're developing a product using beta testers who are at remote sites or after a product has been released, and others are performed in more formal environments where the users are recruited and testing takes place in a "lab" setting.

The development of the World Wide Web and Web technologies has also introduced technical writers and usability professionals to the need for accessibility. The term accessible in the context of usability means to make something effective, efficient, and satisfying for more people in more situations (Thatcher et al., 2002).

The needs of your users will determine what level of accessibility your products and documentation will need. As many companies are now turning toward the Web as a cheaper and more effective way of reaching users, many sites must adhere to Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act so the most people can get the same information on all the sites. For example, a graphic must include an "alt" tag, which is text attached to the graphic that explains what the graphic is trying to communicate. This tag can help sight-impaired people understand what a graphic is by hearing the text in the alt tag if the user has the appropriate hardware and software.

Usability Trends
Wilson (2005) identified six trends for usability that technical communicators should pay particular attention to in the months and years ahead.

1. The focus of product design and evaluation will be the total user experience.


2. Employers will ask usability practitioners to provide more evidence of their impact on the company's return on investment (ROI).


3. Social psychology is becoming more important in the design of new collaboration and e-commerce technologies.


4. Business skills and savvy will become important criteria in hiring usability and user experience practitioners.


5. Facilitation skills will become as important as design and evaluation skills.


6. The validity and reliability of cherished usability methods will be examined. There aren't very many standards currently for procedures, data analysis, or reporting, so much of usability testing and research is still in its formative stages.

Even though usability testing and research is still formative, there are still plenty of usability methods that provide meaningful answers to the questions that usability provides. And the most important trend in the list above is to provide evidence of the impact on the company's return on investment (ROI). After all, if you promote usability studies in your company, you're likely to encounter the same question from one or more people: "So what?"

The Case for Usability
Usability expert Karen Donoghue (2002) has a list of eight guidelines to successfully attach profitability to usability studies in your company. These guidelines include:

1. Drive the design and development closely against the business case.
   
2. Make sure all project team members (including business, technology, and design) clearly understand the business goals and how usability affects those goals.


3. Connect financial metrics to customer satisfaction and usability metrics, and measure them in an ongoing fashion.


4. Make the success measurement the responsibility of one person. Share this information with the team as an index (or set of indexes) of usability.


5. Share knowledge among the project team and create a learning culture so each team member understands what other team members contribute to the user experience.


6. Build the user experience for scalability—so it can evolve as the business model changes and the user population expands and evolves—and make capital investments in architecture before look and feel.


7. Know the customer's needs, tasks, and goals—and make sure the user experience satisfies them.


8. Only add features and functionality that blend value for the customer with value for the company.

You should make the case to start the usability process at the same time the project design process begins, if you can. Starting the usability process at the beginning gives you the ability to couch the design of not only the usability tests but also of the product interface and documentation in terms of the total user experience. The user experience is a five-step process that encompasses the entire customer experience:

1. The process starts with the business goals, including customer conversion, increasing retention, and increasing transactions.


2. The project team factors in the customer goals, including an easy to learn experience, a solution that solves the users' needs, and access to help when needed.


3. The appropriate project team members design the user interface and/or documentation to meet both the business and customer goals.


4. Once the interface is ready for testing, the team participates in the engagement and interaction processes and provides feedback.


5. After testing, the customers' goals are satisfied.
   

At the end of the five-step process, the satisfaction of customer goals naturally leads into the satisfaction of business goals.

Books Cited in this Article
A Practical Guide to Usability Testing, by Joseph S. Dumas & Janice C. Redish, ISBN 1-84150-020-8
Built for Use, by Karen Donoghue, ISBN 0-07-138304-2
Constructing Accessible Web Sites, by Jim Thatcher et al., ISBN 1-904151-00-0
Cost-Justifying Usability, Second Edition, by Randolph G. Bias and Deborah J. Mayhew, ISBN 0-12-095811-2

Eric Butow is CEO of Butow Communications Group, which provides technical and marketing communication services for businesses. Butow is an instructor in the California State University, Sacramento College of Continuing Education Online Technical Writing Certificate program. He designed the "Principles of Usability" course in summer 2005 and will begin teaching the course in October 2005.

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Thanks for stopping by and checking out the site. Here you'll find resources for Webmasters and Web Developers. I've played up some of my favorite technologies, primarily ExpressionEngine Development.

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This license is a legal agreement between you and Poweryams.com for the use of Poweryams.com software. By downloading Poweryams.com software, you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this license. Poweryams.com reserves the right to alter this agreement at any time, for any reason, without notice.

Revised on: March 26, 2005

Permitted Use

Non-commercial license holders may use Poweryams.com software on any Web site, with the restrictions outlined in the terms for a commercial software license. Non-commercial license holders are those who received free software as part of a promotion.

Restrictions

Unless you have been granted prior, written consent from Poweryams.com, you may not:
- Reproduce, distribute, or transfer Poweryams.com software, or portions thereof, to any third party.
- Sell, rent, lease, assign, or sublet the software, or portions thereof.
- Grant rights to any other person.
- Use Poweryams.com software in violation of any U.S. or international law or regulation.

Display of Copyright Notices

Though it is not required, we ask that you provide a hyperlink to Poweryams.com on the Web site. Any and all copyright and proprietary notices and logos in the Control Panel and within the scripts must remain intact.

Software Modification

You may alter, modify, or extend the software for your own use, or commission a third-party to perform modifications for you, but you may not resell, redistribute, or transfer the modified or derivative version without prior written consent from Poweryams.com. Components from Poweryams.com software may not be extracted and used in other programs without prior written consent from Poweryams.com.

Technical Support

Poweryams.com does not provide direct e-mail or phone support. No representations or guarantees are made regarding the response time in which support questions are answered.

Refunds

Poweryams.com does not give refunds. Before purchasing a license, you are advised to research the suitability of the product for your purposes, and verify that your server meets the system requirements.

Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Poweryams.com and James Nash for any third-party claims, actions or suits, as well as any related expenses, liabilities, damages, settlements, or fees arising from your use or misuse of the software, or a violation of any terms of this license.

Disclaimer Of Warranty

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. FURTHER, POWERYAMS.COM DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SOFTWARE OR ANY RELATED SERVICE WILL ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE.

Limitations Of Liability

YOU ASSUME ALL RISK ASSOCIATED WITH THE INSTALLATION AND USE OF THE SOFTWARE. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS OF THE SOFTWARE BE LIABLE FOR CLAIMS, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY ARISING FROM, OUT OF, OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE. LICENSE HOLDERS ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR DETERMINING THE APPROPRIATENESS OF USE AND ASSUME ALL RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH ITS USE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE RISKS OF PROGRAM ERRORS, DAMAGE TO EQUIPMENT, LOSS OF DATA OR SOFTWARE PROGRAMS, OR UNAVAILABILITY OR INTERRUPTION OF OPERATIONS.

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Jobs move. Throughout human history, jobs have moved. Hundreds of years ago, jobs moved because of the availability of natural resources or food, or from natural or tribal threats. Within the last half century, manufacturing jobs moved for economic, regional, or workforce advantages.

Today, many believe if you prepare enough, educate yourself enough, and make enough of the right decisions and build the right relationships, your job is safe. However, the movement of jobs overseas combined with the dot.com crash has produced, perhaps, the largest number of educated unemployed ever. Many of these educated unemployed believe they have done what they were supposed to do; yet they still lost their jobs.

Job loss in such circumstances comes with an exceptional emotional cost. Our culture has sent the clear message that education leads to job security and greater opportunities. Many view this cultural axiom as an implied promise, with significantly more emphasis on the "promise" and much less emphasis on the "implied." However in today's economy, change is the only constant. Increased competition drives decisions that were previously thought flawed.

The emotions that come with a single professional losing their job are considerable. Multiply the effects on one professional by the thousands who are out of work and you have a form of social ailment; an ailment whose symptom is not moving on. It is healthy to mourn job loss. It is even healthier when moving on comes with a sense of renewed purpose and motivation.

Imagine the energy and effectiveness of such an individual. Imagine the energy and effectiveness of the thousands of educated unemployed. The sum total of this talent and motivation is considerable, considerable enough to spur the kind of innovation that led the United States to become the world's wealthiest nation.

However, there are indications that a much too large sector of this highly educated unemployed who have thus far passed up this opportunity in exchange for a collective xenophobic stupor. America is spending too much energy on where the jobs are going and not enough on where the market needs talent.

Rather than identifying how to deliver value, unemployed professionals picket speeches by technology executives. Rather than drafting laws to support entrepreneurial efforts and small business, lawmakers consider laws that stifle competition. Rather than look ahead and prepare for the unmet needs of tomorrow, too many are still stuck in the emotions of job loss. Some cling to slippery slope logic, and suggesting the preposterous notion that exporting jobs will result in the preposterous notion that the United States is becoming a third-world economy.

If you are under- or un-employed, where are your energies best spent? Identifying your value in the workplace or preventing a company from doing what you and I do every day: find the greatest value for our hard-earned dollar?

While Forrester Research, a technology research firm, estimates that as many as 3.5 million jobs will be offshored by 2015, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there will not be enough American workers to meet our country's demand by the end of this decade. It was only a few short years ago that demand for talent outstripped supply. Now, the tables have turned. It appears, with the aging of the American population; the tables will turn yet again. The demand for talent could be high enough to make use of a well-trained foreign workforce.

The cyclical and corrective nature of markets is as natural as death and taxes. Why fight it? We live in an age very unlike our parents and their parents. Companies no longer employ for a lifetime. Few are even around that long. The loss of lifelong employment has coincided with one highly beneficial outcome. Americans are now more highly educated, with educational opportunities and access to those opportunities plentiful.

In this age of a higher collective degree of education and knowledge, lifetime employment resembles a parent-child relationship where the child never grows up and leaves home. Given that analogy, "growing up" looks like the individual job seeker finding a way to deliver value to the marketplace.

If the value of what we did before is inferior because of lower cost competition, even overseas, then we better find a way to enhance our value.

If we set aside the issue of personal responsibility for a moment, offshoring jobs has a significant upside to the world, and U.S., economy. First, formerly third-world economies are now providing value to the global marketplace. They are now more self-sustaining requiring increasingly less subsistence from developed countries.

Second, their buying power increases-albeit slowly. Countries benefiting from expatriated jobs are in the beginning of the same cycle that increased the cost of living, buying power, and value of thousands of U.S. communities who benefited from the importing of jobs from corporate enterprise. As their value to the global business community increases, so will their salaries, so will their collective buying power. Ultimately, new markets support the creation of new jobs.

Third, who would you rather a young adult work for: a multi-national corporation or the local terrorist cell?

With your purchasing power, you wish to find the greatest value for your hard earned dollar? Corporations are applying the same sound principles to their own business in a highly competitive landscape. Long-term success is largely dependant on how one reacts to change. If you wish to change your situation-find meaningful employment, for instance-how best should you devote your energies?

Now that spring is here, you're probably trying to determine whether your business identity needs updating. Your business identity can include the standard means of identifying your business such as business cards and other printed materials, and today your identity also includes computing technologies.

When I say "computing technologies," the first thing that probably springs to mind is your company Web site. Information on a Web site needs to be updated regularly, and a new Web site design is a good idea every 18 months to 2 years. Yet one technology that can complement your Web site that you may not think of is the business card CD-ROM.

Businesses use their Web site for multimedia presentations of their business and the work they've done. Technologies for creating these presentations include Microsoft's ubiquitous PowerPoint, Adobe's Portable Document Format, and Macromedia Flash, which is the standard animation program for the Web. You can embed these files in your Web site and/or make them available for download.

The problem with using these documents on your Web site is that they can be rather large. If your customers use dial-up modems instead of high-speed access like DSL or cable, waiting for these files to appear on site or download to their computer can take more time than a customer has patience for. What's more, a customer may have to download a plug-in component for their Internet browser, such as the Flash plug-in for Internet Explorer. All this extra time can cost you customers.

I'm not suggesting that you delete your online examples from your Web site, but a business card CD-ROM is a good way to give the customers you meet your examples without them having to wait to see them. Business card CD-ROMs are compact discs cut to the approximate size of a business card-roughly 3� inches by 2 inches. These business card CD-ROMs hold a minimum of 40 megabytes. Slightly larger CD-ROMs can hold 50 to 80 megabytes.

If your computer has a CD-R drive so it can both read and burn CDs, you can burn the business card CD-ROM with the information you want. The business card CD-ROM fits into any CD or CD-R drive, and a 40-megabyte CD-ROM can hold PDF samples, a Flash movie, and PowerPoint presentations. You can also use software that creates a front-end menu so viewers can choose the presentation they want to see.

You can present the business card CD-ROM in a clear plastic case with your own business card, or you can place a label on the CD-ROM inside its own fitted sleeve.

This is all well and good, but does it take the place of a regular business card? You can't staple a business card CD-ROM to a Rolodex, though you can slip one into a business card book. Business card CD-ROMs are also much more expensive than business cards. I recently received an e-mail offer from a company in Florida that will print 5,000 full-color business cards for $99. The cheapest business card CD-ROMs I've found cost 79 cents each; if you were to pay for 5,000 of those cards you would pay nearly $4,000, and that's without paying for the CD-ROM labels.

What's more, I haven't seen any studies that suggest that business card CD-ROMs are more effective at conveying a message or providing a reminder than a paper business card. Humans process paper and electronic media differently, and paper is easier to read a phone number from than a business card CD-ROM.

So what's the best solution? I've found a combination of paper and CD-ROM is best. I've ordered many more paper business cards than business card CD-ROMs so I can give the paper cards to anyone and everyone. For those customers who seem genuinely interested in my services, I follow up by presenting a CD-ROM so they can see what I can do when they get back to their office.

When you give your own custom business card CD-ROM, you give your preferred customers the ability to learn more about your company quickly-and that improves your bottom line.

So you're a small or medium sized business and your wondering what community development could possibly do for you. Well let's use more familiar terminology. Read that first sentence again and replace community with customer base. Does it all make sense now?

The popular buzzword is CRM or Customer Relationship Management. Is that really the best perspective? Rather than trying to manage our customers, let's take a different tack.

Imagine a place where your customers can interact in real time, a venue, where they could talk about how they use your product, what they like about it and what they don't like about it. This information would be invaluable in product development.

If customers could use this venue to deliver first level support to each other then you could significantly reduce your customer support costs. You may also be able to further reduce costs by delivering second level support through this same venue.

Rather than trying to control your customers, you've empowered them to support each other and to guide product development. The benefits to this model are clear. However, there are risks.

While the strength of this model is customer empowerment, we have to put this in the weakness column as well. Power corrupts and people can be unpredictable, especially in an Internet venue. Many of the social structures that mitigate and restrain behavior in real-world settings have not been developed for cyber settings.

It doesn't help that the tools currently available for community development are the same tired lot that have been around in one form or another for years. Look at Yahoo Groups. It's the same tools we've seen everywhere else wrapped in a clunky interface that everyone hates. What a sad state of the art.

Let's make the community more site-centric, giving it an opportunity to individuate. Rather than being part of some larger multi-tiered mega community, it would be its own system. Communities would be more likely to develop their own character. After all, what is the value of a community that is exactly like every other community?

Over time different functionality would be developed based on the needs of specific communities. For example a community that is developing software would likely incorporate their bug tracking system.

Next let's build some software structures that replace or at least shore up the social structure that are only beginning to develop. We could model them after the real-world structures. Something that laid out a judicial process would be helpful. How about software that was structured on Robert's Rules of Order?

Through written history new media have come into existence targeting general audiences and then developed targeted audiences over time. Magazines are a very good example. The first modern magazines were TIME and LIFE. They had diverse stories and powerful images intended to capture large audience over a wide spectrum of demographics.

Through the evolution of media and market factors, magazines morphed into the specialized media they are today. Magazines target a very narrow demographics or interests. For example Teen magazines target young teenage girls.

Huge selections of computer magazines target themselves at many different proficiencies and specific interests. I get a computer magazine targeted at a single computer language and it's not the only player for that language.

You can see how the ground shifted from general audiences to targeted audiences. This same shift has occurred in Newspapers, Movies and Television. The Internet is somewhat of an exception. Because of its distributed nature and its low cost, it started out as a good channel for targeted audiences.

IM or instant messaging is a technology that was pioneered by AOL back when it was still an online BBS. It allowed users who were logged in to communicate with each other in real time.

Then in 1996 four young Israelis started Mirabilis with a product they called ICQ. Eventually AOL bought Mirabilis. Now they along with Microsoft's MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger dominate the market.

Given the already targeted nature of the Internet, and the current market domination, I think that IM is ready to make the same shift from general audiences to targeted audiences.

When we can offer site owners their own IM environments then the target audience will begin to shift. Who knows, maybe this shift will start whole landslide of community development software built around communities rather than companies?

In our culture, someone who is a poor verbal communicator will tend to be labeled as slow or incapable. A poorly constructed email can have the same effect.

Effectively communicating through email is becoming an increasingly more important skill. Often it will be the first impression of a new client or business relationship.

Even in casual correspondence, it's important to communicate effectively. After all if you are not trying to get a message across, why send an email.

In the real world our impressions are based on facial expressions, tone of voice, accent, body language and other subtle clues. Even clothing, style and gait carry strong supporting messages relating to culture and background.

These redundant channels of communication serve to provide context and support a consistent message. This process builds credibility and confidence in the message sender.

If the traveling widget salesman showed up in a tie-die shirt and dreadlocks, you probably wouldn't be buying any widgets that day. However, if you were looking for a band to play your party, and your contact showed up similarly dressed you wouldn't bat an eye.

On the Internet, there are no dreadlocks, or any other visual or cultural clues. With email, you get verbiage. That's your canvas. Clarity is king.

So what can you do to improve your email communication? First you can follow some simple formatting rules to make your writing more readable.

Don't make your reader stare down a wall of words. Break down your text into digestible chunks by using paragraphs generously. Double spacing between paragraphs gives your reader a much-needed beat to absorb each thought before moving on to the next.

The subject line should clearly convey the content of your email or in some way provoke its reading. Never leave the subject line blank. If you do you are missing an opportunity to engage your reader. By denying it a label you are also making it more difficult to relocate the email at a later time.

Set your email client to format email no wider than 60 characters. Shorter lines of text are easier to read. This will also prevent your text from wrapping in odd and unreadable ways in some older email clients and computers.

Now that you've got the formatting nailed you can begin to focus on the message.

Never send an email angry. Clarity is impossible. Never forget that there is a human being at the other end. Chances are it's a misunderstanding anyway. It all comes back to that context issue.

Examine your message. What are you trying to say? Have you stated it clearly? Have you provided the necessary context?

Like anything else in life the more time and attention you invest in an email the better the end product and the richer the long term return. Take the time to make the right presentation.

We believe that the way to repeat business is to be honest and fair in all our actions. We will endeavor to be clear and concise in all our communications. We will honor our pacts, both written and verbal.

In turn we expect high ethical standards from our business partners and clients. We will sever ties with organizations which we find to be dishonest or deceptive in their practices, no matter how lucrative the relationship may seem.

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During a visit to our website a small text file called a cookie is downloaded along with the pages and images. This is a common practice. Cookies enable many of the features users have come to expect.

The cookie file contains a unique code which is used to recognize a specific user. We primarily use a certain kind of cookie called a session cookie. Session cookies only exist as long as the browser program is open. Once all the browser windows have been closed the cookie file is deleted.

From time to time we will also more permanent cookies for specific user features. If for example you took a pole we might set a cookie to mark that fact in order to display the results.

Poweryams.com reserves the right to record statistical data while you use the website and view it in aggregate form. This means that we will look at the data in an overall way to identify trends in order to better understand user needs.

Most commonly we collect the number of times an article is viewed in order to better understand what content interests users.