Casey Schacher & Paige Mano of the University of
Wisconsin and Tony Aponte of UCLA presented the results of a small scale study they did of library websites and what usability standards they violated. All of the websites (20 different sites) violated at least one out of the 2006 version of usability.gov's guidelines that they tested. They then compiled a list of the top seven violated guidelines from their subset and enumerated them in their presentation. They were:
1. Does not
comply with Section 508 of rehabilitation act. -- They recommended using the WAVE accessibility
tool to highlight accessibility problems.
2. Avoid
unexplained library jargon that typical users will not understand
3. Ensure that the
format of common items is consistent form one page to another. One example is the inconsistent presentation of phone numbers
4. Elements such
as colors, fonts and content location should be consistent across
pages. Menus shouldn't
change (College of Southern Idaho was used as a negative example of this)
5. Organize
information at each level of the web site so that it shows a clear
and logic structure to your typical user. Avoid the junk
drawer (the page where you stuff all of the stuff that doesn't fit
somewhere else) at all costs.
6. The page layout
should help users find the most important information. Use analytics to discover what the most important information is.
7. On an
uncluttered display, all important search targets are clearly visible. “Pretty graphics
don't negate overabundance of text.”
I particularly liked the way they approached their project of determining the "7 deadly sins" and found the information provided quite good.
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