Introduction to Usability

Are you an amateur (or professional) web designer looking for ways to improve your web designing? Well, you've come to the right blog. Usable Design Made Easy is a blog created with the intent of educating web designers in techniques that will make your websites... well, usable.

But what is usability, exactly? According to the International Organization for Standardization, usability is:

"The extent to which a product (in our case, a website) can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use."

Effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. These three attributes are key factors of any great design, and to know how to implement them properly requires research. Luckily, there is an abundance of usability research, to the point where there are blogs with hundreds of posts about usability; unluckily, the information out there is not organized well. This blog will attempt to organize information that can be readily applied to web design in a linear manner.

Things to know:

• This blog will be written in a tutorial format. Posts are meant to be read in chronological order, but will also be titled in such a way that readers can easily access the steps at their own pace.
• This blog will not explain web design tools such as HTML, CSS, or image manipulation software. Readers should already have a basic knowledge of the tools necessary to create a website. If you are new to web design and would like some more information on these, please refer to these resources:
• W3Schools : A website containing comprehensive information on HTML, CSS, and other web coding languages. 
• GIMP : A free image manipulation site. Tutorials for use can be found through the GIMP website, as well as through sites such as GIMP-Tutorials.

 Further reading for usability and web accessible design can be found readily here:

•  Usability.gov : An educational website containing well organized resources on usability.
• Jakob Nielsen's AlertBox : The blog of one of the most well respected usability professionals. 
• User Interface Engineering : A diverse website with its own usability blog, podcast, seminar database, and events.