.mobi

.mobi (also known as DotMobi) is a mobile top-level domain approved by ICANN and managed by the mTLD global registry dedicated to delivering the Internet to mobile devices via the Mobile Web.

DotMobi domain names were made available for public registration on September 26, 2006.So far more than 700000 .mobi domain names have been registered..mobi has already made headlines with several 6-figure domain sales, including,
Flowers.mobi for $200,000
Sportsbook.mobi for $129,800
Fun.mobi for $100,000

These results demonstrate the strong role .Mobi is playing in driving the creation of mobile content on the Internet.

Since 100% of .mobi sites must be optimized for viewing on a mobile phone, the main advantage of .mobi, from the users' perspective, is that they are guaranteed a site optimized for their smaller screens alone.

It is financially backed by Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Telecom Italia Mobile, Orascom Telecom, G Samsung, Ericsson, Vodafone, T-Mobile, Telefónica Móviles, SM Association , Hutchison Whampoa, Syniverse Technologies.

Bad Usability in Road Dividers

Look at this Picture , Road divider has no reflector to indicate that there is Divider and the height is also more, number of accidents occur due to this reason, Many NH roads have the similar problem.

Consider a scenario when the driver is coming at a good speed in that road during night time, the road is smooth and there is no divider or anything so he continues to go with the same speed or more, suddenly he sees a divider which is only a few meters away from him and he could not stop or slow the vehicle finally he ends up with an accident which is similar to the image above.

If there is a reflector in the divider or board he would have seen that much before coming near to the divider and avoided the accident.

Usability in T.V Remotes

Why most of the T.V Remote doesn’t have a indicator or marker in the Number 5 button

All other devices like mobile phones, Keyboards, Landline Phones has a indicator or marker in the number 5 button to easily identify for the visually challenged People.

There is a serious need to have an indicator in TV remotes, when compared with the sighted people the visually challenged people don’t watch TV, but "There is always a possibility for them to listen to news, conversation, or music on TV."

Even when the sighted people use TV remotes during night hours and when the light is off, often there is a chance of pressing the button 2 or 8 instead of 5.

Consider a scenario the user is watching the T.V during night hours and he want to change the channel to his favorite channel which is in channel number 55, he have a chance of pressing 85, 52, 25 for pressing 55.

So it is mandatory to have an indicator in the number 5 button in TV remotes.

Look at the size of the power button, it is of same size of the number buttons, they have changed only the color to green, there is a chance of pressing button 1 or instead of pressing 1 you may end up with pressing the Power button.

The size of the power button can be made larger when compared to number buttons.

Reverse Cardsort

In this method we present the list of categories in the Information Architecture and a list of selected items in the site's content and asking the participant to palce where each item can be found in the list.

By this method we learn:
User's mental model of how they expect content to be organized
User grouping of what item's most user's grouped together
Whether the structure suports navigation
Whether the label makes sense to users.

Reverse cardsort can be done in face to face UT, In a remote UT, By email.

CAPTCHA

CAPTCHA" is an acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart".

If you posted a comment,or ordered something online you have seen captcha.CAPTCHAs have also found active use in stopping automated posting to blogs or forums.

A method prevent robots from automatically submitting forms on a Web site by requires a person to visually view text in an image and enter its value in the form, which robots cannot do.

The Worst part of CAPTCHA is User's are not able to understand what is written in the image,yet there are some irritating captchas, which results in user gets frustrated and leaves the site. Drop-off rate increases due to bad captchas.

Good captcha should be easy to understand and straight forward.User should be able to view the text in a image when they see.

KISS Principle

The term KISS stands for "Keep It Simple, Stupid", and the KISS principle states that design simplicity should be a key goal and unnecessary complexity avoided. It serves as a useful and frequent verbal exhortation (or even dedicated policy) in software development, animation, engineering, and in strategic planning.

Other versions of the phrase include "Keep It Simple & Stupid", "Keep It Sweet & Simple," "Keep It Short & Simple," "Keep it Simple, Sweetheart," and "Keep it Simple, Sherlock," and the obvious scatological variation.

ROI of Usability

ROI (or return on investment) refers to the returned value in profit or productivity that can be attributed to a given investment. When the investment is lower than the resulting gains, we get a positive ROI.

The returns generated from investments in website and software development are measured. Improving the usability of a website can
increase sales,
reduce customer service calls,
increase customer satisfaction.

For intranets and timesheets systems, improving usability can
increase productivity by reducing the time to complete a task,
reducing the error rate,
increasing satisfaction.
Most of these improvements can be quantified by measuring saved time, gained revenues, and increased productivity.Building usability into the processes can reduce development costs, reduce development time, and ultimately improve the end product.

Ten Usability Heuristics

These are ten general principles for user interface design. They are called "heuristics" because they are more in the nature of rules of thumb than specific usability guidelines.

Visibility of system status
The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.

Match between system and the real world
The system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.

User control and freedom
Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.

Consistency and standards
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.

Error prevention
Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.

Recognition rather than recall
Minimize the user's memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.

Flexibility and efficiency of use
Accelerators -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.

Aesthetic and minimalist design
Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.

Help and documentation
Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user's task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.

me at HFI Bangalore

I attended the HFI session held at Bangalore on july16 to july21.

Usability methods

There are variety of methods which can help improve the usability of your site.They can be divided in to two categories: one which gather data from the usersand the other which is applied without actual user.

The follwing are the types of methods:
Cognitive walkthrough
Task analysis
Focus groups
GOMS
Heuristic evaluation
Individual interviews
Usability testing
Prototyping
Online survey

Usability evaluations can be done at many stages during design and development process. it depends upon which method you choose.

GOMS

GOMS stands for Goals, Operators, Methods and Selection rules.It is an approach to Human Computer Interaction observation developed by card, moran and newell in 1983.

Goals represent the goal that the user is trying to achieve
Operators are the set of automatic-level operations with which user use's to attain the goal.
Methods represent the sequence of operations grouped together toattain a goal.
Selection rules it is used to decide which method to use when several are applicable for solving a goal.

Variations of GOMS:
CMN-GOMS Variation
KLM-GOMS Variation
CPM-GOMS Variation
NGOMSL variation

Human Computer Interaction

It is the art and science of making computer applications more usable to user's to achieve their goals.If the interaction is not usable to the user they leave the site,if they are employees company's productivity decreases.

Benefits of usable interaction:
Increased sales and revenue
Increased customer satisfaction
Increased Productivity
Reduced maintenance costs
Decreased training costs

User Centered Design

User-centered design is a structured product development methodology that involves users throughout all stages of Web site development, in order to create a site that meets users'needs.It considers Company's business objectives and user's needs.

User-centered design has various phases for development:
Requirement Phase
Planning Phase
Design Phase
Implentation Phase
Testing Phase
Release Phase

10 Best Intranets of 2006

Allianz Australia Insurance, Australia
ALTANA Pharma AG, Germany
Bank of Ireland Group, Ireland
Capital One, USA
IBM, USA
Merrill Lynch, USA
METRO Group, Germany
O2, UK
Staples, USA
Vodafone Group, UK
Source:useit.com

Focus Group

A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their attitude towards a Website. Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other group members.

From this we can learn users' attitudes, beliefs and their reactions to prototypes.

Task analysis

Task analysis is one of the User centered design methods of learning about user's goals,what they want to do at the site, and their ways of working.

From this we will come to know the user's goal, what they do to achieve the goal and how they are influenced by their physical environment.

Importance of Usability

usability is a necessary condition for survival. user's leave if a web site is difficult to use, If the homepage fails to clearly state what a company offers and what users can do on the site, they leave.

By following a usability engineering process, user's abilities to find information and satisfaction with Web sites improve significantly, which in turn increases company productivity.

10 Best Intranets of 2007

American Electric Power (AEP), United States
Comcast, United States
DaimlerChrysler AG, Germany
The Dow Chemical Company, United States
Infosys Technologies Limited, India
JPMorgan Chase & Co., United States
Microsoft Corporation, United States
National Geographic Society, United States
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), United Kingdom
Volvo Group, Sweden
Source:useit.com

User Centered Design Methods

Card sorting:
Card sorting is a way to involve users in grouping information for a Web site.
Participants in a card sorting session are asked to organize the content from your Web site in a way that makes sense to them.

Benefits:
Card sorting helps you build the structure for your Web site, decide what to put on the home page, and label the home page categories. It also helps to organize information of a site that is easy to use for the users.

Usability

Usability is the quality of a user's experience when interacting with a product or system—whether a Web site, a software application, mobile technology, or any user-operated device.

In general, usability refers to how well users can learn and use a product to achieve their goals and how satisfied they are with that process.