Shizucor » Web Design

Interesting Site: five second test

Corinne — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:18:25 +0000

Usability testing is important for any web project that’s in the development or finishing phase. Sometimes, it can be costly but there are cheap alternatives! One (free) example I’d like to mention today is five second test – A simple online usability test.

Create a Test

There are three versions of the five second test: Classic, Compare, and Sentiment. For the Classic option, you just upload an image of your interface and then testers will have to view the image for five seconds and list 5 features they can remember. With the second option, Compare, you upload two different pictures and testers have 2 and a half seconds to view each image. Then they decide which image they prefer. With the Sentiment option, testers have five seconds to view your interface and then they decide which one is their least favorite feature and most favorite feature.

Do a Random Test

This is fun! I’ve done all three tests and I can’t for the life me remember the features every time I do the classic or sentiment tests. If the design is successful, however, I can list all five features that stood out to me. Make a designer happy and do a random test!

I have yet to upload a project but I definitely will future projects both personal and work related. Have you tried five second test? If not, how do you or your company conduct usability testing?

Questions for the Web Designer

Corinne — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 02:52:44 +0000

I’ve always had a hard time trying to find a color scheme for a website. I find that Colourlovers is a great site to go to and I keep a copy of Jim Krause’s Color Index handy, as well. However, with all the choices I have in front of me, I still can’t find a color scheme I like. If I’m using an image for a layout, I usually try to use the colors found in that image. I think it kind of brings harmony if I do that.

Anyway, on to my questions for the web designers out there:

Where do you go to find color inspiration?
Do you ever have a mood in mind when choosing colors?
What color have you found you use the most?
What color schemes do you think that web designers should stay away from?

I don’t know if those are good questions to ask but I think it’ll get the ball rolling. So, answer away!

Weborexia

Corinne — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 03:50:50 +0000

I decided to take a little break from my re-designing and decided to talk about the new term “Weborexia”. I just learned about it here. Now, I’ve recognized this growing problem of skinny layouts and tiny text but I’ve never given it a name and I thought it was quite popular with a lot of kids who had personal websites. I never liked it and tried to stray from those kinds of layouts. I’ve recently learned about accessibility and the importance of it on the internet. I’m definitely siding with the people who are against Weborexia but I kind of understand why the people who are guilty of this epidemic are totally defending their bad design choices.

However, I think we (who care about the web standards) should realize that most of these people will not have a career in web design. If they do, they definitely need to learn about web standartds and accessibility. Professionally, most of these sites will not make it but their layouts still work because it’s a personal website. It’s what the author wants so that’s what the visitor gets, right? WRONG! But whatever. I guess the only choice I have is to press the ‘X’ button. If they want to use small text and a design that just doesn’t make good use of the computer screen, fine.

It just seems to me though that they’re so ignorant of the MILLIONS of designs that are getting so much recognition for good design and to be honest, none of them showcase Weborexia characterisitics. So, I’ll leave these people be and just let ‘em enjoy their (what they think to be wonderful) layouts and I’ll make decent websites that actually feature good use of coding and design. I still think I need improvement, though. If they want help, there are obviously people out there (not elitists) who are willing to do so.

With all that said, I’m off to work on my website again. :-) Have a great evening everyone!

PS I apologize for my bad writing skills.