Re: [Nautilus-list] Results of MIT usability testing

["Susan B. Jones" <sbjones MIT EDU>]

Just another point about this that occurred to me as I look at the
redesigned Company Store site
http://www.thecompanystore.com/index.asp?dept%5Fid=1130&?*code=CB0228O*

The lower left of a screen is the next to last place the eye travels in its
search for info.  Hiding the tabs there indicates that they aren't
particularly important.  That's theory.  And in fact, the testers did act
as though the tabs weren't particularly important.

(The tabs at the bottom of the Company Store site get lost as soon as you
look up at the products they want you to buy.  Is there important
information there?  Who knows...

Susan


At 9:10 AM -0500 3/2/2001, Susan B. Jones wrote:
>>A couple things about this one confused me though. Maybe somebody can
>>explain these?
>>
>>In the summary it says
>>
>>    Avoid backward metaphors such as popup menus as
>>    opposed to dropdown menus
>>
>>I see no other reference to this in the test results. Is this a complaint
>>about terminology (if so, where does this terminology appear?), or is
>>something working in an unexpected way? (Note that the next sentence of the
>>summary says "Don't allow important information to be covered by popup
>>windows/menus/...", which seems to imply that "popup" is the standard
>>terminology.)
>
>It's not terminology, it is the actual action that people had trouble with.
>(I too should watch my language, I guess)  the left panel window shade that
>"pops up" and covers other info in the left panel was not apparent to
>testers.  They didn't see the tabs at the bottom of the page.  My
>suggestion is that the tabs be at the top and that one should be able to
>flip through them like a rolodex rather than pull them up like, I suppose,
>a folder out of a file drawer.