UNIVERSAL USABILITY IN PRACTICE

Designs to help novice web users

Tzu-Ting Chen (jacktar@cs.umd.edu )
Department of Computer Science
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742 USA
April 2001

        We can characterize web users in different stages from novice to expert in terms of use frequency and knowledge of web specifics. To design a web site to handle all stages of users smoothly is a form of art in computer science. We must address all types of users in designing the web interface such that novices would not be alienated or intimidated, while experts would not be bored with triviality or laden with unnecessary overhead.

Novices, by definition, access a particular web site for the first time. In some situations, novices can feel extremely unpleasant. [4] They must figure out how to use the interface and interpret the new information on the screen. If the web site is poorly designed, novices may find themselves completely stumped, unable to succeed, frustrated at wasting precious time without achieving a goal and may react with an extreme fear of looking stupid. So if novices are overwhelmed by the complexity of the web site and cannot find needed help, then the web designer has failed. On the other hand, if experts find the interface redundant and the information repetitive, they may quickly lose interest and move on to alternatives. The designer is not successful either.

The novice users have been found to [2]

• Depend upon system features that assist recognition memory: menus, prompting information, and instructional and help screen;

• Need restricted vocabularies, simple tasks, small numbers of possibilities, and very informative feedback;

• View practice as an aid to moving up to expert status

Whereas, experts

• Rely upon free recall;

• Expect rapid performance;

• Need less informative feedback; and

• Seek efficiency bypassing novice memory aids, reducing keystrokes, chunking and summarizing information, and introducing new vocabularies.

It is clear that the requirements and expectations of a novice and an expert are quite different. A web site designer must analyze the possible responses and the behaviors of both types of users, address them in the simplest and most straightforward manner, and come up with the best compromise. The resulting design would be comprehensible for the new users, cultivate their continuing interest in the system, and eventually train them to become experts for the subject web.

It is never an easy task to design a web site for all classes of users. However if designers can follow certain well-established guidelines, they can overcome the obstacles in an efficient and effective way.