The more I learn about the importance of testing, the more frustrated I get when I come across a site or an application that obviously has not been tested thoroughly enough. Phase 4: Build and Integrate of Web Redesign 2.0 by Kelly Goto, focuses on the technical hurdles of the build phase of the Web site and the importance of quality assurance testing before the site launches.

Goto gives the optimal formula for QA testing, though she does admit that companies with smaller budgets can still make use of testing with less formality and with less money. The recommended 10 percent to 20 percent of project cost for formal testing for projects with budgets over $70,000 seemed a little unreal to me. But I suppose there are sites out there that have those sorts of budgets. I guess I'm just used to working at companies where the online staff consists of two or three people who put the entire site together, so when Goto starts talking about a staff for QA testing my brain doesn't have the capacity to fathom such a thing. The sort of testing I usually see is launch the site and fix it later. It works I guess. But the entire online staff of two or three is usually stressed beyond belief.

I think a lot of this chapter would make more sense to me if I had more of a background in HTML and CSS. The more I get into this book, the more I think that I should be learning some basic coding skills. One of the things I do like about this book is that there are a lot of additional resources where Goto points to where to get more information about HTML or javascript or browser specs. These are very helpful for trying to implement some of the steps that Goto recommends.

Government genre Web sites

The most obvious indicator of a government genre Web site is the .gov ending. Most government Web sites are information portals that are designed to provide users with more information. They provide a public service function by linking to resources that visitors may want to use. For example, the Library of Congress Web page, www.loc.gov, in addition to having links to news and events at the library, has resource links broken down into several categories, including links for librarians or categorical links such as braille and audio materials. There is also a link to legislative information where you can search for bills using key words or sponsors.

Because government Web sites must be accessible to a broad audience, including those with disabilities, they are more likely to have pages that will load quickly on slow browsers and make the site easy to access. When I looked at www.house.gov, I noticed that there was a button for people to make the text larger and another icon that said the site was speech enabled with a BrowseAloud plug-in. Because I have never had to use a site reader, I'm not sure if the site is easy for someone who is blind to scan, but it seems like they have at least taken people with disabilities into account on this site. There is also a hand with a pen icon next to the "Write your representative" link that I assume is for people who don't know much English.


The Access Washington site, http://access.wa.gov/, includes a list of "How do I" topics with links to sites that will allow the visitor to take the action they want. This is a great way of helping people who don't use the Internet much to find everything they are looking for in one place. The site also includes information in six foreign languages.

While looking for some state legislature sites I found out that many do not match the .gov characteristic. In fact there does not seem to be a standardized naming convention for state legislatures at all. While the Washington Legislature is www.leg.wa.gov, the Louisiana Legislature site is www.legis.state.la.us and the Texas Legislature site is www.capitol.state.tx.us. These aren't intuitive or consistent at all!

When I got to the county level, the sites were even more diverse. King County, www.metrokc.gov, had a lot of current press releases and links to local sources of news and transportation tools in addition to public records. The Whatcom County site, www.co.whatcom.wa.us, didn't look like it had been updated in awhile and included mostly links to county agencies and public records and PDFs of reports such as the budget and comprehensive plan.

Most government sites do seem to be sincerely trying to make information accessible to as many people as possible, though clearly some do a much better job than others. It would help if government Web site naming conventions were a little bit more standardized, though that's not something that is likely to happen anytime soon.

Aesthetic experience

Give customers short paths to what they want
Mistaking the forest for the trees?
Aesthetic Experience and the Importance of Visual Composition in Information Design

"Give customers short paths to what they want" focuses on keeping site menu structure flat by having desired content within two or three clicks. Some of this seemed to contradict Steve Krug a little bit at first, because Krug says that it's not so much how many clicks one must go through, but how easy it is to click on. As I continued through the essay, however, I realized that the study was less about clicks and more about smart usability practices.

For instance, the essay talks about devoting home page space to navigation, not decoration. At first I was worried this meant put so much on the home page that the user no longer knew what the main purpose of the site is. I'm not a big fan of overcrowded home pages. However, the essay goes on to say that the designer should prioritize and group content so that users can skip over entire lists of links they don't need. By grouping content users may not realize that there is so much on the home page, especially if two or three most important things on the home page are highest in the hierarchy.

As a musician I am familiar with ABA form. I'm trying to figure out how that would translate into Web site design as explained in "Aesthetic Experience." Would the user go from the home page to a different page and then to a page that's like the home page again? I'm curious how that would work in practice. I do understand, however, the need to maintain consistency within the site so that variations of the site do stand out and cause the user to recognize what's different.

Seeing the forest through the trees is important when designing a Web site. A designer must keep the big picture in mind, and must always be thinking about what the site is to accomplish. It's also becoming more important to realize how people are using the site in relation to the Web as a whole. One interesting site I came across recently is answers.com, which doesn't really use original content, but draws from wikipedia, google and other sources to provide a definition or information when a user double-clicks on a word. The site even has a download that allows users to use a key combination (mine is ctrl+alt+click) to have a bubble pop up in any application on the computer. I've tried it in word, QuarkXPress - it works in all of them. I love it because it means I don't actually have to leave the document I am in to quickly check the definition of a word or the spelling of a famous person's name online. I'm able to use this Web application without ever having to go to the answers.com site.

Don't Make Me Think, second edition, by Steve Krug

In Don’t Make Me Think, second edition, Steve Krug follows his own usability guidelines to create a book that is practical and approachable. The title of the book is also Krug’s first law of usability. The purpose of Web pages should be evident without spending a lot of effort trying to determine what it’s about.

One of the most enjoyable parts of Don’t Make Me Think is Krug’s sense of humor. With cartoons and humorous quotes to help him make his point, I never felt like reading this book was a chore. The illustrations and humor help to reinforce the concepts of the book in my memory and apply them to other sites I visit.

Krug says the reality of Web pages is that people will scan to find something that seems to match what they are looking for and simply hit the back button if it doesn’t work. For this reason, he says Web sites should be designed like billboards by: having a clear visual hierarchy, making use of conventions, having clearly defined areas, making it obvious what’s clickable and minimizing noise. Krug also says that users don’t mind clicking — as long as they don’t have to think about what they are clicking.

Another rule that Krug emphasizes is to omit needless words. He advises removing half of the words on each page and then getting rid of half of what’s left. As an editor and as a Web site visitor I appreciate having concise information that directs me to where I want to go without a lot of unnecessary noise.

Krug’s book is ideal for both beginners and experts. While the book offers an easy-to-follow overview of Web usability for the novice, it helps veterans to look at Web pages from the point of view of the user and offers common-sense approaches to such daunting tasks as usability testing and designing for people with disabilities.

Information architecture

Cognitive Psychology and IA: From Theory to Practice by Jason Withrow
Visible Narratives: Understanding Visual Organization by Luke Wroblewski
Usability experts are from Mars, graphic designers are from Venus by Curt Cloninger

There were several themes in the group 3 readings that seemed to repeat:

1. Readers like categories: Different people will categorize things differently but generally people categorize things by visual similarity, shared purpose or proximity.
2. To create site hierarchy, there must be visual contrast. This can be created by differing colors, textures, shapes, directions and sizes. A hierarchy allows readers to see visually what the most important element on the page is and to navigate through the page without wondering where to look next.

One of my responsibilities is designing newspaper pages so I deal with page hierarchy often. When readers pick up the paper, they (theoretically) look at the largest, boldest headline first and the lead photo on the page. At that point they may read the article if they find the headline interesting or they may scan the rest of the headlines to determine what they want to spend their time reading. If they like a photo, they may look at the cutline to see what is going on. This may lead them to read the story that goes with the photo. By organizing content so not everything is visually the same, readers have cues as to what they should look at first. This is important because readers don't want to think when they are trying to figure out where to go in a Web site. Having a hierarchy leaves readers with fewer options to mentally sort through.

Curt Cloninger gives us insight on the misunderstood graphic designer and how usability experts have gotten all the publicity while the inarticulate, right-brain graphic designer has not gotten enough credit. The main thing that stood out for me in this article was the emphasis on branding. While Web site usability may be the top priority for content sites, corporate sites that have branding as their primary goal may do better with a site with more creativity that advances the brand of the product. A brand tries to convey a certain tone and emotion - something that designers are likely to be better at than information architects. The article emphasizes the important role that both usability experts and graphic designers play in the creation of a Web site.