Usability?

You might be asking, what is usability? You have the overall concept, but what are the finite aspects of usability and why does it matter? Well, usability means that the people using a product or service can do so quickly and easily to accomplish their goals. Usability is part of any product or service, from Web design to how factory workers accomplish their tasks productively. The definition rests on the following four points:

Nine Simple Heuristics

The following heuristics are tailored to Web site interface testing, but they can be used for many different aspects of evaluating a customer's experience when using a product or service; this includes all elements of technology testing and template/document design, as well as how people work together to accomplish specific goals. Ultimately, incorporating a good set of heuristics and following a rigorous usability testing procedure saves money because development takes place only after user requirements are fully detailed.

For more detailed heuristics and review criteria, you can access a generic usability review template as well as a standard usability testing template with an outlined task and timing list.

In addition to detailed usability testing, evaluations can be performed by OakenDoor using, for example, the following methods:

Color

Everyone is familiar with color, yet it is difficult to define the true impact of color on eye, brain, and mind. Although color is very real and concrete, we are compelled to reach for abstract terms when we want to grasp its inherent nature.

We talk about color when we have a particular sensation of the brain, caused when light radiation of a certain wavelength reaches our eyes. This definition is built up from two parts that are respectively quite different. The first one is of a psychological nature. It deals with the way the sensation of color is processed by the mind. The second one is merely the eyes detection of physical radiant energy. So, color is in fact a psycho-physical phenomenon. It interrelates both a psychological and physical process.

The Psychological Point of View

Artists and designers have a wealth of knowledge concerning the complicated interaction of color: how colors are affected by the environment in a composition; how they can create harmony, contrast and rhythm. Color can be talked about in subjective terms: hue, saturation, and brightness. The terms hue and saturation are collectively referred to as the color's chrominance. The hue of a certain color is its intrinsic nature. When we observe a colored surface, hue is that attribute of visual sensation that makes us say a surface is red, or green, or whatever color.

The saturation of a given color is expressed in chromatic color intensity. A vivid color is highly saturated, as opposed to a pastel color of the same hue and with the same brightness. The colors of the rainbow have the highest saturation a color can ever have, whereas the complete absence of saturation results in a shade of neutral gray, regardless of the hue. The shade of gray depends upon the brightness. Brightness relates to the sense that a color appears to be reflecting more or less light energy. We talk about bright colors, in contrast to dim colors. Black is the complete absence of brightness for any hue. Every horizontal cross-section of the cone is a color wheel over which the different hues are spread The highly saturated colors are located on the circumference of the wheel. Moving along the radius towards the center of the wheel, the saturation of every hue decreases, with a certain shade of gray as absolute minimum. The brightness, at last, is represented by the height of the cone. The apex corresponds to the absence of any brightness, thus black. The base of the cone is the color wheel that corresponds to the highest possible brightness.

For step-by-step information on color choices, click the following links:

• Making Color Choices for Web sites (PDF)
• How can I get my page to look better? (HTML)