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Home > Meetings > June 1999 > CHI 99 Conference Highlights

CHI 99 Conference Highlights

Stan Page (PageSR@ldschurch.org)
May 15 - 20, 1999    Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Tutorial: User Interface Design for the Web

David Shen, Irene Au, Brian Buschmann (Yahoo!)
  1. Know who is using your site and design for the least common denominator
    1. HTML 3.2
    2. Netscape and IE 3.x Browsers
  2. Blue underlined text increases "Click Through."
    1. By adding blue underlined text to their graphic buttons at the top of the Yahoo! pages they significantly increased the click through rate for those features.
    2. Internet users have been well trained to look for the blue underlined links.
  3. Jakob Nielsen (1997) found that over half of Internet users are searching for specific information rather than browsing or "surfing."
    1. Yahoo! provides search and browse functionality on every page.
    2. Shoppers tend to browse rather than search.
  4. Consistency has pros and cons
    1. Users can transfer knowledge from one site or section to another (positive and negative transfer).
    2. In Yahoo! store users expected links to go to another site -- not to an order page in Yahoo!
    3. Yahoo! strives for a consistent look throughout their sites and likes to evolve the interface rather than change it drastically.
  5. The selection model is different on the Web than in traditional desktop applications which can cause problems in Web Applications or Java Applets.
    1. Desktop applications have a noun/verb model of selection. The user selects the object and then selects the action they want to perform.
    2. The Internet has a single click model of selection. Links immediately perform their action.
    3. If users double-click (desktop model) it can cause problems in Web Applications.
    4. Mix of web behavior and desktop application behavior didn't work for those expecting one or the other (Java Mail Application).
  6. People tend to focus attention immediately on densest areas of the page.
    1. By moving their bar with personal links from the top of the page to underneath the banner ad and next to densest area of page increased click-though rates on those options by 13%.
  7. Do not put multiple forms with multiple submit (or search) buttons on the same page.
    1. Yahoo! used a tab interface to solve problems when they needed multiple forms.
  8. Test your site by removing all graphics and looking at the visual grouping of content. Do the groupings make sense?

Tutorial: Web Sites that Work: Designing with Your Eyes Open

Jared Spool and Carolyn Snyder (User Interface Engineering)
  1. Site logs provide tons of valuable data about what users enter in their searches and where they click, but they do not tell us:
    1. why they came
    2. what they wanted
    3. if they found it
    4. if they knew why they found it
    5. why they stopped looking
  2. Because each Web site is unique there is no substitute for doing your own usability testing.
  3. Internet Business Models
    1. Commercial sites sell stuff
      1. Sell their own stuff: Dell, Lands' End
      2. Sell stuff for others: ISN, eBay, FirstAuction
    2. Advertiser-Paid web sites
      1. Yahoo, CNN, Edmund's
      2. Paid by advertisements, referrals
      3. The users are not the customers
    3. Corporate web sites
      1. AT&T, Pepsi World, Microsoft
      2. Promoting a business or brand, but not generating significant independent revenue
      3. Want to increase revenue or reduce costs
        1. Improve communications with consumers
        2. Reduce call/support center traffic
  4. Disney site (and others) has multiple models
    1. Sell Disney Products (Commercial)
    2. Sell Advertising Space (Advertiser)
    3. Provide information on products and services (Corporate)
    4. Disney site hasn't tested well
      1. Not clear to users or designers what priorities are
      2. When asked to book a stay at the cheapest Hotel with access to the monorail in Disney World nearly half of those tested would have ended up booking their stay in Disneyland by mistake and not known it.
  5. Design for Your Site's Business Goals
    1. Every element on Amazon.com is designed to make the purchase of books easy
    2. Yahoo's simple design keeps users focused on their task
  6. Most sites contain both Content and Applications
    1. Content
      1. Book descriptions on Amazon.com
      2. Car information on Edmund's
      3. Vacation ideas on Travelocity
    2. Applications
      1. Order form on Amazon.com
      2. Insurance quotes on Edmund's
      3. Booking travel on Travelocity
  7. Web Applications have special issues
    1. Do users understand how to complete forms/dialogs
    2. What happens with back button or if sequence isn't completed?
    3. Do users trust it enough to be forthcoming?
  8. User Goals
    1. We think users have 4 distinct goals when using the Internet:
      1. Buy stuff
      2. Sell stuff
      3. Research stuff
      4. Kill time
      5. Maybe administrative?
    2. Users switch goals in seconds (i.e., research to buy and back to research)
  9. Users have two time scopes in connection with their goal
    1. One shot: "I'm looking for this now. I'll never look for it again."
    2. Continuous: "I'm always looking for these. Let me know when there is something new."
  10. Knowing authority, or where the data comes from, is very important to users
    1. Example: rumor mill on stock market is actually better predictor of stock performance than analyst predictions
  11. Scent of Information
    1. Users have a sense of when they are on the right track for finding their desired information
    2. As long as the scent is strong users will continue to look
    3. Scent of information is measured through users' confidence
      1. Before they click that they're on the right tack
      2. After they click that they're closer to the answer
  12. Types of links
    1. Content link - goes to page containing content
    2. Category link - goes to page containing primarily other links
    3. Keyword link - part of a search (what user types in)
    4. Back or Home link - goes to home or previous page
  13. Users are most successful when using Content links
    1. Most sites have more Category links than Content links
  14. Links that are nine or ten words long (including associated text) seem to work best
    1. Associated text follows and/or precedes the link and helps user choose among links (from 2 studies involving 30 users, 12 sites, and 1500 links)
    2. Shorter links can also be effective is they provide the proper scent
    3. Don't add too much noise to links
      1. Bad: Bring the action of the Discovery Channel into your living room with our complete list of Discovery Channel Home Videos.
      2. Good: Complete list of Discovery Channel Home Videos.
  15. Users scan rather than read
    1. Eye-tracking studies confirm
    2. Good grammar don't matter
  16. Links should be organized
    1. Grouping
      1. Web pages with more groups performed better
    2. Structure
      1. Alphabetizing, providing taxonomy, familiar groupings
    3. Differentiation
      1. Make certain links are distinct
        1. Bad Example: Travelocity site (These are not redundant links - they each go to a different page)
          1. 3 Best Itineraries
          2. Flights and Prices
          3. Fares
    4. Redundant links can help
      1. Give multiple scents to single target
  17. Left Panels
    1. Generally designed for navigation, not scent
    2. Often same links on every page
    3. Longer links help
  18. Bullets and Brackets
    1. Help users chunk groups of information
    2. Help with scanning
    3. When links are wrapped across multiple lines bullets help distinguish links
  19. Longer Pages with More Information tend to work better
    1. CNN has long home page - more scent
      1. Can easily find info on Israel - redundant links, descriptive text
    2. MSNBC has hidden scent
      1. Pop-out menus, must search down levels
  20. Minimize White Space
    1. Higher density pages lead to greater success
    2. Similar to Newspaper model
    3. White space pushes content outside viewing area
    4. Purely decorative graphics are white space
  21. What users don't see
    1. Information on right side of screen tends to be invisible
    2. Links above banner ads at top of screen are unseen
    3. Links below banner ads at bottom of screen are unseen
  22. Beware of creating false page bottoms - users stop scrolling if they think they are near the bottom of the page
    1. Large gaps
    2. Horizontal lines
    3. Small print that looks like copyright info
    4. Banner ads
  23. Graphics
    1. Navigation graphics
      1. Help provide scent
      2. Example: Map
    2. Content graphics
      1. Convey information of interest to user
      2. Example: Product photos
    3. Decorative graphics
      1. Anything else
    4. Graphics links do not do better or worse than text links
    5. Always test site with graphics turned off
  24. Animation is bad
    1. Users hate it - cover it with hands
    2. Prevents them from seeing other information
    3. Interferes with information retrieval
  25. Users will wait long periods of time without complaining for information that is important to them
    1. Example: Downloading photographs of products

Tutorial: Current Issues in Web Design

Jakob Nielsen, Rolf Molich, Bruce Tognazzini

Recommendations and predictions from Jakob Neilsen

  1. Users of the Internet converge on the most usable sites
  2. Support people with disabilities
  3. Number of repeat users is better measure of success than number of hits/pages/sessions
  4. Mobile access to the Internet with portable devices will become increasingly common
    1. Privacy will become precious
    2. Should not design for fixed screen size
  5. Automated customer service will become ever more important part of Internet content
  6. Users will start to use vertical portals for specialized tasks [like FamilySearch.org] rather than general portals like Yahoo!

Panel: How Can We Make Technology "Elder-Friendly?"

  1. Studies/Statistics on use of computers by aged
    1. Older people can aquire computer skills
    2. Take longer and don't become as efficient with computers
    3. Users over 55 are largest growing population in the Internet
    4. 37% of older adults use ATM machines (Detroit Survey)
      1. 15% more want to learn
    5. 25% of older adults use the Internet (Detroit Survey)
      1. 38% more want to learn
  2. Barriers to computer use by older users
    1. Limited access
    2. Insufficient knowledge of benefits'
    3. Insufficient training
    4. Difficult to use instruction manuals
    5. Poor input devices (mouse)
    6. Size of fonts/icons on screen
    7. Demands on memory/perception
  3. Characteristics of Older Learners
    1. Decline in working memory, response time, attention
    2. Most abilities stay intact
      1. Verbal ability
      2. General knowledge
      3. Voice response
      4. Previous experience
      5. Not disabled
    3. Older users are willing to pay more for devices that have fewer features and are easier to use
    4. Older users do not buy technology for technology' sake
      1. Desire security
      2. Make life easier
        1. household automation
        2. interested in quality
    5. Tomorrow's older will be different but their physical characteristics and problems will not
  4. Training needs
    1. Active learning
    2. Teach procedures - not concepts
    3. Use modeling/examples
    4. Small groups
    5. Provide practice
    6. Environmental supports (site maps, etc.)

Man learning a Word Processor at age 55: "You can teach an old dog new tricks but its awful hard on that old dog."

Papers of Interest (6-8 pages each)

  1. Footprints: History-Rich Tools for Information Foraging (Alan Wexelblat, Pattie Maes; MIT Media Lab)
    1. Maps, paths, annotations and signposts are used in a browser to indicate the paths others have taken to find similar information
  2. The Reader's Helper: A Personalized Document Reading Environment (Jamey Graham, California Research Center)
    1. Reader's Helper is a tool that analyzes documents and produces a relevence score for topics of interest to help the reader decide whether to read or skim
    2. Thumbar tool provides visualization of the entire document to assist in skimming
  3. FotoFile: A Consumer Multimedia Organization and Retrieval System (Allan Kuchinsky, et. al.; Hewlett Packard Laboratories)
    1. Electronic multimedia "scrapbook" with characteristics of interest
      1. Face recognition - when new photos are added to the scrapbook the system attempts to match the identity of the face. System learns as new pictures are added.
      2. Photos can be organized using a visual tree (similar to a pedigree chart)
      3. Automatic extraction of key frames of video content to create visual storyboard in the scrapbook
      4. Automatic grouping of photos based on characteristics (color, textures, etc.)
  4. The Tangled Web We Wove: A Taxonomy of WWW Use (Michael Byrne, et.al.; Carnegie Mellon Univ.)
    1. Provides a useful taxonomy of user tasks in using the World Wide Web
  5. An Empirical Evaluation of User Interface for Topic Management of Web Sites (Brian Amento, et al; AT& T Labs)
    1. Created and tested a topic management tool called "TopicShop" which made it easy for users to find and group related web pages by topic
  6. Visualizing Implicit Queries For Information Management and Retrieval (Mary Czerwinski, et. al.; Microsoft)
    1. Created a system that used "implicit queries" to automatically highlight stored web pages that are related to the currently selected web page

Products of Interest

  1. Mimio Electronic Whiteboard Attachment
    1. Mimio is a $500 product that attaches to side of any white board, uses standard dry erase pens, and allows you to capture what is written on the white board to a PC.

Best Quote of the Conference

"Sixty-seven percent of statistics are made up." Jakob Nielsen