HFI UI Design Newsletter November 2010

November, 2010

Visionary Usability: Making Friends With Graphic Design How often do you talk with your graphic designer? Every minute? (You are the graphic design and usability person!) Twice daily? (They sit next to you!) Three times a week? (You're in the same office.) You have to make appointments? (Yikes, how busy can you get? Or maybe, "get to know more about graphics.") Whatever your answer, we have some good updates on the science of visual appeal and how to make it work in a usability context. Does usability overcome a poor visual impression? You're in a rush to get the application or website up and running. Just how much time should you allocate for your graphic designer? You might say "well, our usability testing showed people could find what they needed." But that's just half the story, according to recent findings by two researchers at the Wichita State University Software Usability Research Center (SURL). Christine Phillips and Barbara Chaparro knew from prior research (which we reported in the September, 2009 newsletter) that first visual impressions are very important in determining whether someone likes the site – even the first one-twentieth of a second! Prior research did not cover, however, these two questions: Can a poor initial visual impression be reversed when given an excellent usability experience? Does the usability of a site influence someone more when they are accomplishing a task rather than freely exploring it? Let's see what they found, and then explore some guidelines for visual design Newsletter Suggestions, comments, questions... Past issues Subscribe Change email address HFI Community Join HFI Connect the UX community CUA Central for Certified Usability Analysts Follow us on Twitter Visit us on Facebook See us on YouTube   Message from CEO I've worried about some of the usability gurus' websites that so obviously receive no graphic attention. They seem to make a statement that "Usability is just effective presentation of content." But now John points out the reality. Our user experience field is about much more... More... Training Schedule Design for the Big Bangalore - Jan 17-19 New York - Feb 28-Mar 2 San Francisco - Apr 25-27 Utrecht Mar - 15-17 PET design London - Dec 7-9 Utrecht - Dec 14-16 New York - Jan 31-Feb 2 Bangalore - Apr 25-27 User-Centered Analysis Chicago - Dec 6-8 Bangalore - Dec 13-15 Mumbai - Jan 3-5 San Diego - Jan 17-19 Utrecht - Jan 18-20 London - Jan 25-27 Bangalore - Feb 7-9 Atlanta - Feb 7-9 Kraków - Feb 8-10 Pretoria - Feb 15-17 Web & Application Design Chicago - Dec 13-15 Bangalore - Dec 16-18 Mumbai - Jan 6-8 San Diego - Jan 24-26 Bangalore - Feb 10-12 Atlanta - Feb 14-16 London - Feb 22-24 Practical Usability Testing Chicago - Dec 9-10 Bangalore - Dec 20-21 Mumbai - Jan 10-11 San Diego - Jan 20-21 Atlanta - Feb 10-11 Bangalore - Feb 14-15 Putting Research into Practice Chicago - Dec 16-17 Bangalore - Dec 22-23 Mumbai - Jan 12-13 San Diego - Jan 27-28 Bangalore - Feb 16-17 Atlanta - Feb 17-18 View full schedule... Don't want these monthly newsletters? http://www.humanfactors.com/unsubscribe.asp?Email=xxxx.eg@gmail.com or copy the above URL into the address line of your browser and hit return.