Usability links
Last update : 7th October, 2008
We have selected here below several websites providing resources for implementing usability methods during web site or user interface design.
The sites are listed in alphabetic order. It is not the best choice from the usability point of view! ;) However according to the various services provided by this sites, a consistent grouping is difficult since most of them find their place in several categories at the same time...
If your site also provides resources related to Usability Engineering, we will be glad to add it in the list.
ACM SIGCHI - Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction
When one seeks for information about the man-machine interfaces,
the best starting point is, in my opinion, the site of the ACM Special
Interest Group one Computer-Human Interaction which provides numerous
links to sites related to interface design and development.
http://www.acm.org/sigchi
Adaptive Path - User experience design & consulting
Adaptive Path, consulting agency specialized in web usability,
provides a newsletter dealing with web design and usability engineering.
On the site, several case studies show the benefits of usability.
http://www.adaptivepath.com
AskTog - Practical real-world design
The site of Bruce Tognazzini, who has been "user
interface evangelist" during 14 years at Apple, includes many articles
about usability engineering and provides advices for the design of the
man-machine interfaces.
http://www.asktog.com
Baddesigns.com - Bad Human Factors Designs
The site of Mr. J Darnell describes several usability
issues comming from every day life.
http://www.baddesigns.com
Cortexte - Formation et ressources en rédaction Web
On this site, Cortexte Communications company which provides
training and consulting services for web writing, proposes resources to
publication managers and web designers in order to ease training of web
writing techniques.
http://www.cortexte.com
Design for Lucy - Web usability and interaction design
Frédéric Fuchs site provides guidelines
for efficient web sites design and several examples of ergonomically designed
web pages.
http://www.designforlucy.com
Ergologique - News, articles and guidelines about usability and user-experience
Ergologique's purpose is to help designers and developpers to improve
their design by knowing some of the usability main rules. The site provides
some advices for a user-centered and usable design as well as news about
usability and general interest for designers.
http://www.ergologique.com
Ergonomie du web
Alain Robillard-Bastien exposes on this site the basic
concepts of web site design and Ergonomics in general. A user-oriented
method for developing a website is detailed.
http://www.ergoweb.ca
HCI Index - Resources on Human-Computer-Interaction on the Internet
Hans de Graaff has collected on his site a considerable
number of links to the multiple aspects of human-computer interaction.
http://degraaff.org/hci
Human Factors International - We make software usable
The site Human Factors International provides, among other,
a summary, illustrated by examples, of the main ergonomics rules to be
followed when designing a man-machine interface.
http://www.humanfactors.com
Ilatoofo - Apprenez par l'erreur ... des autres !
Ilatoofo's purpose is to help web designers to improve
their site by showing mistakes of professionnal websites. A site to visit
when you are looking to something that has absolutely not to be done.
http://www.ilatoofo.com
Industrial Usability Reporting
This site created by the U.S. National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) aims at increasing the visibility of software usability
by developing a common usability reporting format for sharing usability
data with consumer organizations.
http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/iusr
Interaction - Le portail des IHM et de l'ergonomie logicielle
Interaction is a rich portal on man-machine interfaces
and software ergonomics.
http://www.multimania.com/interaction
Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines
Sun proposes a guide of style for the design of Java man-machine
interfaces.
http://java.sun.com/products/jlf
Microsoft Usability Research
On Microsoft Usability Laboratory web site, you will find
main articles and style guides published by Microsoft researchers. It
is also possible to be registered as guinea-pig for tests ;)
http://www.microsoft.com/usability
Recipe for has Successful Website
Nathan Shedroff explains us, with "a recipe",
how to make a good site.
http://www.nathan.com/thoughts/recipe
Société d'Ergonomie en Langue Française
The site of the Francophone Ergonomics Society (SELF)
presents the association and provides useful information on Ergonomics
and the work of ergonomicist.
http://www.ergonomie-self.org
STC Usability Special Interest Group
The STC Usability SIG site provides numerous resources
about usability engineering.
http://www.stcsig.org/usability
Temesis - La qualité des services en ligne
Quality Assurance is closely linked to Usability. Temesis
is one of the few sites dedicated to web quality. It provides numerous
articles on this subject.
http://www.temesis.com
Usability.gov - Your resource for designing usable, useful and accessible Web sites and user interfaces
This site, designed by the National Cancer Institute (NCI),
provides an impressive set of resources on usability, accessibility, and
related topics. In particular, it provides a collection of web
guidelines. A notable feature of this collection is to associate with
each guideline two ratings: its 'Relative Importance' to the success of
a website, and the 'Strength of Evidence' supporting the guideline. These
criteria will help design choices and unavoidable compromises during site
development.
http://usability.gov
Usability First - Your online guide to usability resources
The site of the web agency Diamond Bullet introduces usability
engineering and present resources about it.
http://www.usabilityfirst.com
Usable Web - Links about web usability
This site, maintained by Keith Instone, provides numerous
links about usability engineering, particularly about web design.
http://www.usableweb.com
Useit.com - Usable information technology
The site of Jakob Nielsen is probably the most well known
in the field of the usability engineering. He regularly publishes a letter
providing his thoughts and advices about web sites and associated technologies.
http://www.useit.com
User Interface Engineering - Getting development teams the information they need to make design decisions
The site User Interface Engineering contains a series
of articles about man-machine interfaces usability.
http://www.uie.com
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
The consortium W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) has published
on this site a set of guidelines in order to make the web pages readable
and accessible to disabled people.
http://www.w3.org/tr/wai-webcontent