Wireless Usability etc

William Hudson of Syntagm and CHI-WEB makes good points in Crossing the Wireless Chasm about the wireless industry ignoring usability. My favorite bit: "WAP (Wireless Access Protocol or What A Palaver)" —emphasis and definition link mine.

Other tasty reads on the Syntagm site include: Welcome to Nirvana: Naïve Beliefs of Usability ("Many web sites would rather force users to click ten times with the mouse than to allow them to type in a simple date - and usually in the middle of a series of alphanumeric fields.") and one in which I have a personal interest: Navigate on the right? The jury is still out.

He also has a nice Usability 101 page, with a very British-sounding computer saying "Shan't." in a dialog box. It includes the Jakob Nielsen five dimensions of usability: Learnability, Efficiency, Memorability, Errors, and Satisfaction. (from Usability Engineering, one of the first books I read, although my favorite book so far on the practical side of usability testing is Jeffrey Rubin's Handbook of Usability Testing, particularly the need to be zen during usability tests (more specfically, a detached observer).

Posted by Chad Lundgren on Thursday, December 26, 2002 (Link)

Comments

Posted by Chad Lundgren Sunday, December 29, 2002 at 10:20 PM

This wireless post was made live on the 26th, not the 21st. As I mentioned in my usability of movable type, I want an option to make the publish date the date shown, not the date the post was first started in draft mode.