Web Usability
From WikEd
Usability studies
Web usability refers to the relative ease with which a user of a web site is able to understand its purpose, navigate it, and otherwise use it for its intended purpose. Web usability studies are standard practice in the corporate world and are the subject of scholarly study in college curricula. Formal, expensive usability analyses can be conducted according to a number of different protocols and by internal experts or highly paid consultants. Usability studies are intended to find pitfalls with web sites, such as navigation problems, presentation inconsistencies, and even structural design issues. Formal usability studies involve bringing a number of users to a usability lab (consisting of a testing room with a computer, complete with video camera and a feed to another room where additional observers are) who then go through a series of tasks assigned to them with minimal guidance. The observers watch for problems the users have and develop a revision plan based on their observations. There are frequently multiple iterations of usability testing and revision. The ultimate goal of usability testing is to make web sites easier for their users to use.
Educators seldom have the time or resources to devote to a formal usability study, but many projects that educators engage in (think of class web sites or project-related sites) could use the sort of refinement that a usability study would provide. Steven Krug's Don't Make Me Think is an excellent primer in the basics of usability studies and offers advice on conducting simple, cheap usability testing that will garner positive results. This text is readily accessible to a web usability novice.
Additional resources include:
