Developing a seamless web experience is one of the most challenging parts of website design and development. Not only does a website have to be attractive to end-users, but the interface must be intuitive for the users to find what they need or to discover what you, as a content provider, want them to discover.
This key question of “What Goes Where?” is the focus of usability testing. YouTube offered insight to their extensive usability process in the redesign of their “Watch” page (the page you see when viewing an actual video). Youtube’s user research revealed some important findings about the desires of their target audience.
MIT is lucky to have Usability services available to the community for free, and this is a great asset for both existing websites as well as new websites. The members of the MIT Usability Group are colleagues aiming to foster usability practices within the Information Technology community at MIT. The team is composed of human factors professionals, usability experts, accessibility specialists, information architects, and user interface designers. Definitely a great asset to the MIT Community!
This edited post was first published on the MIT WebPub blog on October 6, 2009