Annual User Interface Update Training
The annual User Interface Update training course consisted of outlining, analyzing, and reporting on 50 to 100 published articles published each year. Beginning in 1985, we offered the course to companies and government organizations throughout the world. We have presented this very popular two- or three-day training course to thousands of computer system designers, developers, managers and usability professionals.
The course was intended for computer professionals, including:
- User interface designers and developers
- Web designers and developers
- Software programmers
- Project managers
- Systems analysts and systems engineers
- Documentation and training specialists
After taking this User Interface Update course, participants were:
- Able to understand most of the recent advances in user interface, usability and user experience technology, particularly those issues of greatest interest to practitioners,
- Able to understand the contents of over 50 important research reports that were published in the past year or so,
- Aware of numerous websites that offer up-to-date tools and usability information, and
- Able to state how the major research findings can be applied to improving the usability of computer systems, including websites and web apps.
Criteria for selecting articles for the User Interface Update course
- Articles that have reliable (statistically significant) evidence for stating: “Do this” or “Don’t do that,”
- Articles that contain useful design and/or evaluation examples,
- Articles that successfully critique the current user interface development process,
- Articles that suggest improvements to the user interface development process,
- Articles that contain useful usability metrics, and
- Articles that provide helpful insights into user characteristics, e.g., age of users, gender differences in website use, etc.
Usability Model
The usability and user experience (UX) research can be organized into the following ‘User Interface Design Model’. The model is (obviously) user centered, and shows an iterative approach to design, where a developer creates a prototype and then does usability testing. After changes are made to the prototype, another test is conducted, then more changes, etc.
The right side of the model refers to system functionality or feature issues (what the system does), characteristics of typical users, and ‘big’ computer issues, such as the operating system, different browsers, and connectivity. The left side of the model is related to three main ‘design’ issues, including the display, interaction and navigation, and content.
Favorite Research Articles
These published articles represent the ‘best of the best’ as it relates to developing high-quality user interfaces for websites and web apps.
—————————-2012————————–
DISPLAYS
Aesthetic design of e-commerce web pages: Webpage complexity, order and preference
Liqiong Deng (University of West Georgia) and Marshall S. Poole (University of Illinois)
Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 11, 2012, 420-440
The role of visual complexity and prototypicality regarding first impression of websites: Working towards understanding aesthetic judgments
Alexandre N.Tuch, Eva E. Presslaber, Markus Stocklin, Klaus Opwis, Javier A. Bargas-Avila (University of Basel – Switzerland)
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 70, 2012, 794-811
Is beautiful really usable? Toward understanding the relation between usability, aesthetics, and affect in HCI
Alexandre N. Tuch, Sandra P. Roth, Kasper Hornbæk, Klaus Opwis, Javier A. Bargas-Avila (University of Basel – Switzerland)
Computers in Human Behavior, 28, 2012, 1596-1607
INTERACTION AND NAVIGATION
Mouse tracking: Measuring and predicting users’ experience of web-based content
Vidhya Navalpakkam and Elizabeth F. Churchill (Yahoo! Research)
Proceedings of CHI 2012, 2963-2972
USABILITY TESTING
Analysis in practical usability evaluation: A survey study
Asbjørn Følstad (SINTEF-Norway), Effie Lai-Chong Law (University of Leicester-UK) and Kasper Hornbæk (University of Copenhagen-Denmark)
Proceedings of CHI 2012, 2127-2136
How effective are heuristic evaluations?
Jeff Sauro (Measuring Usability [http://www.measuringusability.com/])
September 6, 2012
What do users really care about? A comparison of usability problems found by users and experts on highly interactive websites
Helen Petrie and Christopher Power (University of York-UK)
Proceedings of CHI 2012, 2107-2116
The effect of experience on System Usability Scale (SUS) ratings
Sam McLellan, Andrew Schlumberger and S. Camille Peres (University of Houston)
Journal of Usability Studies, 7(2), February 2012, 56-67
USER ISSUES
Perceptions of web knowledge and usability: When sex and experience matter
Kelly Page (Cardiff University-UK), Mat Robson (University of Leeds-UK), Mark D. Uncles (University of New South Wales-Australia)
International Journal of Human Computer Studies, 70(12), 2012, 907-919
—————————-2011————————–
DISPLAYS
The impact of color on website appeal and users’ cognitive processes
Nathalie Bonnardel, Annie Piolat and Ludovic Le Bigot (Aix-Marseille University – France)
Displays, 32, 2011, 69-80
An exploration of relations between visual appeal, trustworthiness and perceived usability of homepages
Gitte Lindgaard, Cathy Dudek, Devjani Sen, Livia Sumegi, and Patrick Noonan (Carleton University-Canada)
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 18(1), 2011, 1-30
Color matters: Color as trustworthiness cue in web sites
Wouter Alberts and Thea van der Geest
Technical Communication, 58(2), 2011, 149-160.
Text advertising blindness: The new banner blindness?
Justin Owens, Barbara Chaparro and Evan Palmer
Journal of Usability Studies, 6(3), 2011, 172-197
INTERACTION AND NAVIGATION
Diminishing returns? Revisiting perception of computing performance
Glen Anderson, Rina Doherty and Eric Baugh (Intel)
Proceedings of CHI 2011, 2703-2706
No clicks, no problem: Using cursor movements to understand and improve search
Jeff Huang (University of Washington), Ryen W. White and Susan Dumais (Microsoft Research)
Proceedings of CHI 2011, 1225-1234
Diminishing returns? Revisiting perception of computing performance
Glen Anderson, Rina Doherty and Eric Baugh (Intel)
CHI 2011 Proceedings, 2703-2706
When left might not be right
Xristine Faulkner and Clive Hayton
Journal of Usability Studies, 6(4), 2011, 245-256
Vertical vs. dynamic menus on the World Wide Web: Eye tracking study measuring the influence of menu design and task complexity on user performance and subjective preference
Stefan Leuthold, Peter Schmutz, Javoer Bargas-Avila, Alexandre Tuch and Klaus Opwis (University of Basel – Switzerland)
Computers in Human Behavior, 27(1), 2011, 459-472
Seeking information online: The influence of menu type, navigation path complexity and spatial ability on information gathering tasks
Mari Puerta Melguizo, Uti Vidya, and Herre van Oostendorp
Behaviour & Information Technology, 2011, 1-12
Does ‘letting go of the words’ increase engagement: A traffic study
Martin Colbert (Kingston University – UK) and Angela Boodoo (Kingston Upon Thames – UK)
Proceedings of CHI 2011 – Extended Abstracts, 655-667
USABILITY TESTING
An improved usability measure based on novice and expert performance
Karl F. MacDorman, Timothy J. Whalen, Chin-Chang Ho and Himalaya Patel (Indiana University)
International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 27(3), 2011, 280-302
Conducting iterative usability testing on a web site: Challenges and benefits
Jennifer Romano Bergstrom (Fors Marsh Group-Virginia), Erica Olmsted-Hawala (U.S. Census Bureau), and Elizabeth Murphy (Human Solutions-Washington DC)
Journal of Usability Studies, 7(1), November 2011, 9-30
When designing usability questionnaires, does it hurt to be positive?
Jeff Sauro (Oracle Corporation) and James R. Lewis (IBM Software Group)
Proceedings of CHI 2011, 2215-2224
USER ISSUES
Rethinking reading for age from paper and computers
Robert Ball (Stephen F. Austin State University) and Juan Pablo Hourcade (University of Iowa)
International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 27(11), 2011, 1066-1082
Skim reading by satisficing: Evidence from eye tracking
Geoffrey B. Duggan and Stephen J. Payne (University of Bath-UK)
Proceedings of CHI 2011, 1141-1150
Online viewing and aesthetic preferences of Generation Y and the Baby Boom generation: Testing user web site experience through eye tracking
Soussan Djamasbi and Jeanine Skorinko (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), Marisa Siegel and Tom Tullis (Fidelity Investments)
International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 15(4), 2011, 121-158
Making web-based multimedia health tutorials senior-friendly: Design and training guidelines
Bo Xie, Ivan Watkins and Man Huang (University of Maryland)
Proceedings of CHI 2011, 230-237
DISPLAYS
Understanding user preferences based on usability and aesthetics before and after actual use
Sangwon Lee (Pennsylvania State University) and Richard J. Koubek (Louisiana State University)
Interacting with Computers, 22, 2010, 530-543
Facets of visual aesthetics
Morten Moshagena and Meinald T. Thielsch (University of Duesseldorf)
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 68(10), October 2010, 689-709
Symmetry and aesthetics in website design: It’s a man’s business
Alexandre N. Tuch, Javier A. Bargas-Avila, Klaus Opwis (University of Basel – Switzerland)
Computers in Human Behavior 26(6), November 2010, 1831-1837
Effects of aesthetics and playfulness on web usability: An empirical investigation
Contantinos Coursaris, Sarah Swierenga, and Graham Pierce
Proceedings of the 2010 American Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS)
Color appeal in website design within and across cultures: A multi-method evaluation
Dianne Cyr, Milena Head and Hector Larios
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 68(1-2), 2010, 1-21
Does color impact how users view a portal web page?
Justin W. Owens and Sav Shrestha (Wichita State University)
Usability News, 12(1), June 2010
Designing with Interactive Example Galleries
Brian Lee, Savil Srivastava, Ranjitha Kumar, Ronen Brafman and Scott R. Klemmer (Stanford University HCI Group)
Proceedings of CHI 2010
Perceived and actual web page loading delay what difference do predictive feedback information (PFI) cues make?
Mohamed El Louadi
Journal of Information Technology Research, 3(2), 2010, 50-66
Mental models for web objects: Where do users expect to find the most frequent objects in online shops, news portals, and company web pages?
Sandra Roth, Peter Schmutz, Stefan Pauwels, Javier Bargas-Avila and Klaus Opwis (University of Basel – Switzerland)
Interacting with Computers, 22(2), March 2010, 140-152
Useful junk? The effects of visual embellishment on comprehension and memorability of charts
Scott Bateman, Regan L. Mandryk, Carl Gutwin, Aaron Genest, David McDine and Christopher Brooks (University of Saskatchewan – Canada)
Proceedings of CHI 2010, 2573-2582
INTERACTION AND NAVIGATION
A longitudinal study of how highlighting web content change affects people’s web interactions
Jaime Teevan, Susan T. Dumais and Daniel J. Liebling (Microsoft Research)
Proceedings of CHI 2010
Modeling new and existing hierarchical menu designs
David Ahlström (Klagenfurt University – Austria), Andy Cockburn (University of Canterbury – New Zealand), Carl Gutwin (University of Saskatchewan – Canada) and Pourang Irani (University of Manitoba – Canada)
Proceedings of CHI 2010, 1371-1380
How age affects pointing with mouse and touchpad: A comparison of young, adult, and elderly users
Morten Hertzum (Roskilde University-Denmark) and Kasper Hornbæk (University of Copenhagen-Denmark)
International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 26(7), 2010, 703–734
Examining the order effect of website navigation menus with eye tracking
Alex DeWitt
Journal of Usability Studies, 6(1), 2010, 39-47
Simple but crucial user interfaces in the World Wide Web: Introducing 20 guidelines for usable web form design
J.A. Bargas-Avila, O. Brenzikofer, S.P Roth, A.N. Tuch, S. Orsini and K. Opwis (University of Basel – Switzerland)
User Interfaces, INTECH, 2010, 1-10
Comparison of date entry methods: An update for the internet age
Tom Tullis and M. Siegel
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting Proceedings, 54(6), 2010, 620-623.
Factors affecting response rates of the web survey: A systematic review
Weimiao Fan, and Zheng Yan (State University of New York at Albany)
Computers in Human Behavior, 26(2), 2010, 132-139
USABILITY TESTING
Think-aloud protocols: A comparison of three think-aloud protocols for use in testing data-dissemination web sites for usability
Erica Olmsted-Hawala, Elizabeth Murphy, Sam Hawala and Kathleen Ashenfelter (US Census Bureau)
Proceedings of CHI 2010
Number of people required for usability evaluation: The 10±2 rule
Wonil Hwang and Gavriel Salvendy (Purdue University)
Communications of the ACM, 53(5), May 2010, 130-133
The influence of laboratory set-up in usability tests: Effects on user performance, subjective ratings and physiological measures
A. Sonderegger and J. Sauer (University of Fribourg – Switzerland)
Ergonomics, 52(11), November 2009, 1350-1361
Rent a car in just 0, 60, 240 or 1,217 seconds? Comparative usability measurement, CUE-8
Rolf Molich (DialogDesign-Denmark)
Journal of Usability Studies, 6(1), November 2010, 8-24
Understanding web site satisfaction for older adults
Nicole Wagner, Khaled Hassanein and Milena Head (McMaster University)
Proceedings of CHI 2010
USER ISSUES
Measuring internet skills
A. J. A. M. van Deursen and J. A. G. M. van Dijk (University of Twente – Netherlands)
International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 26(10), 2010, 891-916
Interactive effects of age and interface differences on search strategies and performance
Jessie Chin and Wai-Tat Fu (University of Illinois)
Proceedings of CHI 2010
Readability of state-sponsored advance directive forms in the United States: A cross sectional study
Luke Mueller, Kevin Reid, and Paul Mueller
BMC Medical Ethics, 11(1), 2010, 6
Interactive effects of age and interface differences on search strategies and performance
Jessie Chin and Wai-Tat Fu (University of Illinois)
Proceedings of CHI 2010, 403-412
Enhancing web page readability for non-native readers
Chen-Hsiang Yu and Robert Miller (MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab)
Proceedings of CHI 2010, 2523-2532
Predicting the cost of error correction in character-based text entry technologies
Ahmed Sabbir Arif and Wolfgang Stuerzlinger (York University – Toronto)
Proceedings of CHI 2010
MOBILE USABILITY
Quantitative assessment of mobile web guidelines conformance
Markel Vigo, Amaia Aizpurua, Myriam Arrue and Julio Abascal (University of the Basque Country – Spain)
Universal Access in the Information Society, 10(1), 2011, 33-49
Mobile or desktop websites? Website usage on multitouch devices
Max-Emanuel Maurer, Doris Hausen, Alexander De Luca, and Heinrich Hussman (University of Munich)
Proceedings of NordiCHI 2010, 739-742
—————————-2009————————–
DISPLAYS
Visual complexity of websites: Effects on users’ experience, physiology, performance, and memory
Alexandre N. Tuch, Javier A. Bargas-Avila, Klaus Opwis, Frank H. Wilhelm (University of Basel – Switzerland)
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 2009
What do you see when you’re surfing? Using eye tracking to predict salient regions of web pages
Georg Buscher (DFKI), Edward Cutrell and Meredith Ringel Morris (Microsoft Research)
Proceedings of CHI 2009
Webpage aesthetics, performance, and usability: Design variables and their effects
Kristi E. Schmidt and Yili Liu (University of Michigan) and Srivatsan Sridharan (Marsh, Inc.)
Ergonomics, 52(6), June 2009, 631-43
A blessing, not a curse: Experimental evidence for beneficial effects of visual aesthetics on performance
Morten Moshagen and Jochen Muscha (University of Dusseldorf) and Anja S. Goritz (University of Wurzburg – Germany)
Ergonomics, 52(10), October 2009, 1311-1320
The role of context in perceptions of the aesthetics of web pages over time
Paul van Schaik (University of Teesside) and Jonathan Ling (Keele University)
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 2009
INTERACTION AND NAVIGATION
To scroll or not to scroll: Scrolling, working memory capacity, and comprehending complex texts
Christopher A. Sanchez (Arizona State University) and Jennifer Wiley (University of Illinois)
Human Factors, 51(5), October 2009, 730-738
Feedback preferences and impressions of waiting
Russell J. Branaghan and Christopher A. Sanchez (Arizona State University)
Human Factors, 51(4), August 2009, 528-538
USABILITY TESTING
Performance-based usability testing: Metrics that have the greatest impact for improving a system’s usability
Robert W. Bailey (Computer Psychology, Inc.), Cari A. Wolfson (Focus on U!), Janice Nall (CDC), Sanjay Koyani (FDA)
Proceedings of Human-Computer Interaction International (HCII), 2009
Scrutinising usability evaluation: Does thinking aloud affect behaviour and mental workload?
Morten Hertzum and Kristin D. Hansen (Roskilde University-Denmark), and Hans H.K. Andersen (Risø National Laboratory-Denmark)
Behaviour & Information Technology, 28(2), March-April 2009, 165-181
An empirical evaluation of the System Usability Scale (SUS)
Aaron Bangor (AT&T Labs), Philip T. Kortum (Rice University) and James T. Miller (AT&T Labs)
International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction – 2009
Determining what individual SUS scores mean: Adding an adjective rating scale
Aaron Bangor and James Miller (AT&T Labs) and Philip Kortum (Rice University)
Journal of Usability Studies, 2009
The Factor Structure of the System Usability Scale
James R. Lewis (IBM Software Group) and Jeff Sauro (Oracle)
Proceedings of Human-Computer Interaction International (HCII), 2009
Comparison of three one-question, post-task usability questionnaires
Jeff Sauro (Oracle) and Joe Dumas (IBM)
Proceedings of CHI 2009, 1599-1608
A survey of software learnability: Metrics, methodologies and guidelines
Tovi Grossman, George Fitzmaurice and Ramtin Attar (Autodesk Research)
Proceedings of CHI 2009
USER ISSUES
Age-sensitive design of online health information: a comparative usability study
Richard Pak, Margaux Price and Jason Thatcher (Clemson University – South Carolina)
Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2009
Patterns of functional loss among older people: A prospective analysis
David Seidel, Nathan Crilly, Fiona Matthews, Carol Brayne and P. John Clarkson (Cambridge) and
Carol Jagger (University of Leicester)
Human Factors, 51(5), October 2009, 669-680
Gender differences in website production and preference aesthetics
G.A. Moss (Bucks New University-UK), R.W. Gunn (Glamorgan University-Wales)
Behaviour & Information Technology, 28(5), September-October 2009, 447–460
DISPLAYS
A scale invariant measure of clutter
Mary J. Bravo (Rutgers) and Hany Farid (Dartmouth College)
Journal of Vision, 8(1), 2008, 1-9
How do users browse a portal website? An examination of user eye movements
Justin W. Owens and Sav Shrestha (Wichita State University)
Usability News, 2008
On the portability of computer-generated presentations: The effect of text-background color combinations on text legibility
Massimo Greco, Natale Stucchi, Daniele Zavagno, and Barbara Marino (University of Milano – Milan, Italy)
Human Factors, 2008
INTERACTION AND NAVIGATION
Feedback, subjective time estimates and user satisfaction
Russell J. Branaghan and Christopher A. Sanchez (Arizona State University)
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 2008
USABILITY TESTING
A study of the ‘evaluator effect’ in usability testing
Kasper Hornbæk and Erik Frøkjær (University of Copenhagen)
Human-Computer Interaction, 2008
How much to share with users during usability testing
Linda Roberts, Natasha Barrett and Emily Marr (AT&T Labs – Atlanta)
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 2008
USER ISSUES
Development and validation of a computer expertise questionnaire for older adults
K. Arning and M. Ziefle (Aachen University – Germany)
Behaviour and Information Technology, 2008
Designing an information search interface for younger and older adults
Richard Pak and Margaux M. Price (Clemson University)
Human Factors, 2008