Usabilityweb

He repeated his argument that the risks of shoulder surfing are overrated, but he added: "This is not to say that shoulder surfing isn't a threat. It is. And, as many readers pointed out, password masking is one of the reasons it isn't more of a threat." Schneier now backs an approach taken by BlackBerry devices and iPhones, which display each character briefly before masking it. "That seems like an excellent compromise," he said

The mobile web is about as tough to navigate as traditional websites were 15 years ago.

Marketers have long been wary of the negative consequences that might arise when consumers associate their products with others not aligned with the desired positioning," write the authors. "Conventional wisdom suggests that birds of a feather should flock together. Our research cautions against over-relying on this rule of thumb. It suggests instead that this is sound advice only when the product is new to the consumer, allowing perceptions of it to be readily molded by what is around it.

Revealing personal information helps service providers create connections and initiate conversations with customers. When information is provided on nametags (as Disney does with employees' hometowns) or on websites (as many health organizations and fitness centers do), most consumers react positively.

Nederland is nog geen succesvolle internetsamenleving. Niet alleen ouderen, ook jongeren hebben moeite met het vinden en interpreteren van de informatie die ze zoeken.

Men prefer websites designed by men and women prefer those designed by women, according to a new study from Bucks New University.

Complex design is far easier and takes much less planning than simple design. It encompasses what your user might want to do, rather than understanding exactly what your user needs. Simplicity, it seems, requires more thought, planning, research and vision.

More than half of websites selling electronic goods were breaking European laws aimed at protecting consumers, according to an EU investigation.

The psychology of change

Much of the early work has been done tracking online behavior. The Web provides researchers with vast data sets for tracking the spread of all manner of things - news stories, ideas, videos, music, slang and popular fads - through social networks. That research has potential applications in politics, public health, online advertising and Internet commerce.

Many organisations limit the success of their websites, purely because their branding guidelines do not provide enough colours for designers to utilise

What separates a healthy, effective design practice from the horror stories we hear about when talking to others in the industry. We came up with two lists; the first list (below) talks about doing certain actions in the right order. The second list is one of relative values. While all of the items on both sides of this list have value, we value the items on the left more than the items on the right:

When the economist's guidance was available, choices were powerfully affected by this expert's advice. The reason was revealed in the brain activation patterns of the participants. In the presence of expert advice, the areas of the participants' brains linked to critical thinking and counterarguing flat-lined.

when designing eye tracking research be careful what task you give to the participants, and when drawing conclusions from eye tracking outputs be aware of the task given. It is not easy to control your eyes, but it is actually fairly easy to control what people look at during an eye tracking exercise simply by giving particular tasks. That said, you need to be careful that the outputs are not a result of inappropriate tasks.

Companies already recognize the importance of "voice" and style in manifesting their brand through marketing communications and other messaging. As they think about delivering great customer experiences, we show them how they need a component analogous to voice for how they interact with their customers.

Few companies, indeed, are more secretive than Apple, or as punitive to those who dare violate the company's rules on keeping tight control over information. Employees have been fired for leaking news tidbits to outsiders, and the company has been known to spread disinformation about product plans to its own workers.

The organization behind an edgy car has to be edgy. This is called brand integration (the outside and the inside have to align). To create edgy things, people have to take risks and push the envelope. Edge is by definition NOT THE MAINSTREAM.

That sort of thinking, though, is counterintuitive. Not adding a new feature to a product, not creating a new rule to elicit a desired behavior--these notions rub against the Western sensibility. "A bias for action naturally leads us to want to do something," writes May. Which often leads us away from simplicity. Less may be more, but that doesn't mean it's easy.

Een 68-jarige Italiaan was de kuren van zijn computer zo ongelooflijk zat, dat hij bij de zoveelste vastloper zijn pistool tevoorschijn haalde en het apparaat compleet aan diggelen schoot.

Veltkamp's research shows that, without being aware of it, besides being motivated by influences from our surroundings, the way in which we perceive the world around us can change. Earlier research had shown that people perceive objects of worth to be larger than objects that are worthless. Veltkamp's research demonstrates that it is not so much the actual worth of the objects which is important but the motivational worth; if an object is relevant for attaining your goals then you will perceive it to be bigger than it actually is. In one of Veltkamp's experiments, glasses of water were estimated to be bigger, if the participants had not had a drink for some time.