StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Software Usability - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The purpose of Usability is to address the need for government websites to improve the quality of user experience by enhancing their…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER94.9% of users find it useful
Software Usability
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Software Usability"

Module 4 SLP Website Review: Usability.gov Usability is a United s government’s website, which is under the management of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The purpose of Usability is to address the need for government websites to improve the quality of user experience by enhancing their usability using user-centered web design. Modern web sites need to be more interactive, user-oriented, usable, and adaptive to the needs of the target market. The purpose of this paper is to review the content, structure, and usefulness of Usability; and offer a personal value assessment of the site.

Summary Description of Structure and Purpose of UsabilityUsability focuses entirely on providing information on how to design effective websites that offer better usability and accessibility to its users. Usability offers plentiful information on factors that enhance a user’s quality of experience of a site. The structure of the site offers easy accessibility to major information resources relevant to the site’s mandate. The pages have a consistent design format, which ease the process of finding information.

The purpose of Usability is to help government web designers create sites that have more usability and accessibility of the sites (Usability, 2011). Usability tries to address web design issues that touch on a site’s usability and offers help on how to design, plan, and evaluate the usability of a site. Overall Look and Feel of UsabilityThe overall look of Usability is that of a well-organized online information resource. The site is true to its purpose of enhancing usability of sites through user-centered web design.

Usability has no adverts on its pages, only links to content related to designing more usable web sites. The right column, which is usually full of adverts in many sites, has links to the site’s content and readers’ comments on the topic under discussion on the particular page. The feel of Usability is that of highly credible, informative, and user-oriented web site with great information architecture. The content on every page is purposely for the advancement of better web design that is adaptive to user preferences and requirements.

The information feels very high ranking in credibility, judging by the user comments, reviews, quality, and the elaborate referencing of the content provided. Apparent Target Audience for UsabilityThe apparent target audience for Usability is government web designers (Usability, 2011). However, as you delve deeper into the content of the site, you begin to lose the feeling that the content’s orientation is towards government web designers. The content is useful to all web designers in general, and could be especially useful to commercial web designers, since it offers lots of information on designing a site that gets a higher credibility rating from online buyers (O’Connell, 2008).

Usefulness of UsabilityThe site is a very useful resource for web developers in all sectors of web design, and the content is relevant for commercial and non-commercial web designers. The site is especially resourceful in information on how to adapt your site to your target audience (Sibley, 2008). The information provides great insight into the issue of internet users who have special needs, such as those who suffer from color blindness and the aged, who form a considerable part of the internet users (Sibley, 2008).

Links FollowedLinks from the Articles and Discussion on color blindness, adaptive learning environments, eye tracking, credibility, and aging underwent detailed scrutiny. Similarly, under Templates, links on website usability testing underwent review, as well as the link to user-centered design under the Basics tab. Links Intended for Follow upA link for further follow up was The Common Industry Format (CIF), which Usability defines as summative measure of a site’s usability in comparison to international standards (Usability, 2011).

Other Interesting Things about UsabilityInformation on the site offers interesting insight into some issues of concern to do with web design. For instance, the difference in displaying content in two-column instead of one column (O’Connell, 2008); why the seniors needs more attention in the future of web design (Sibley, 2008); and the factors that users apply to rank a site’s credibility (Furman, 2008).Personal value assessment of the siteThe overall assessment of the value of the site is that the site is very useful.

The site delivers beyond its promise by providing information unavailable in the conventional website design body of knowledge e.g., web experience of colorblind users (Liu, 2006). The content is extensive, high in quality, and remains highly relevant to the entire theme of the site. ReferencesFurman, S., (2011). Credibility. Usability.gov. Retrieved on October 29, 2011 from http://www.usability.gov/articles/102009news.htmlLiu, J., (2006). Color Blindness: Color Blindness and Website Design. Usability.gov. Retrieved On October 29, 2011 from http://www.usability.gov/articles/newsletter/pubs/ 022010new.

htmlO’Connell, C., (2008). Eye tracking and Web Site Design. Usability.gov. Retrieved on October 29, 2011 from http://www.usability.gov/articles/newsletter/pubs/032010news.htmlPerry, V., (2008). Adaptive Web-Based Learning Environments. Usability.gov. Retrieved on October 29, 2011 from http://www.usability.gov/articles/012010news.htmlSibley, C., (2008). Web Usability and Aging. Usability.gov. Retrieved on October 29, 2011 from http://www.usability.gov/articles/newsletter/pubs/122008news.htmlUsability, (2011). Home. Usability.gov. Retrieved on October 29, 2011 from http://www.usability.gov/index.html

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Software Usability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3”, n.d.)
Software Usability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/information-technology/1582772-software-usability
(Software Usability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words - 3)
Software Usability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words - 3. https://studentshare.org/information-technology/1582772-software-usability.
“Software Usability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words - 3”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/information-technology/1582772-software-usability.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Software Usability

Website with Interactive Plan and E-Tourism

? Even though using frames will improve the usability, the address bar does not change as you switch pages.... The current business enterprises for the most part take on e-commerce to accomplish diverse business goals, and for this motive, the procedure of upholding a high value and effectual website is very important for a business to reinforce its customer relationships and to outshine in business dealings....
11 Pages (2750 words) Essay

Interactive and E-Marketing

This essay describes the proposal in which the researcher wants launch an online company selling high quality headphones and delivering it all around the world.... The researcher focuses on describing the company's policy, operations, technology and ideology.... hellip; This essay discusses the E-business that is a business which allows the customers to sell trade and barter over the Web....
16 Pages (4000 words) Essay

Premium Prices for Apple Personal Computers

Suppliers also tend to have higher bargaining power due to technological sophistication as well as expertise they held in terms of providing the required hardware and software components to manufacture a personal computer.... Introduction and Key Issues The case study under review is regarding Apple Inc....
5 Pages (1250 words) Term Paper

Starting a Business Online

The usability and the convenience of the software used in e-commerce is a very critical aspect when it comes attracting and maintaining.... usability is how the easy the users can use the module of a system.... The criteria of creating a shopping are very critical since the usability and the effectiveness of a shopping process is very crucial.... The web usability can be increased by ensuring that the all the usability features of the different section are effectively attended to....
5 Pages (1250 words) Term Paper

Software Usability (HW)

No matter how aesthetically-designed a website is, if it only leads a user into the last information he/she needs; or if loading up eats too much of his/her time – hence the site is unusable, it may just be flooding the whole network pointlessly. usability is not just one key… It is perhaps the most important aspect to look at in creating one.... usability refers to how fast and easy a user (with no prior knowledge about the site) can employ a user interface to achieve a certain task (Nielsen, n....
2 Pages (500 words) Research Paper

Productivity Software Usability

Since Microsoft Office is a comprehensive suite of productivity software, I will use it as an example in explaining the usability of productivity software.... After that, I would be discussing more usability of these software by mentioning other examples.... Productivity software has gained such popularity that it is almost impossible for businesses and individuals to accomplish their day to day documental tasks without having them.... Initially, there were very few companies that were providing productivity software, whereas those software were difficult to use and could not perform advanced and complicated jobs....
4 Pages (1000 words) Research Paper

Software Usability SLP

Department of Health & Human Services is the major contributor) as an information source for web based activities such as web hosting, web designing, online… It provides guidance and tools specially targeting the people who involve in web developing activities including web managers, designers and usability specialists. The website has eight (8) main sections (including homepage and “about us”) directing Analyzing www.... It provides guidance and tools specially targeting the people who involve in web developing activities including web managers, designers and usability specialists....
2 Pages (500 words) Research Paper

Usability Evaluation

In the paper “usability Evaluation” the author describes the easy and difficult aspects of creating and conducting an online questionnaire.... While writing survey questions, there are three issues needed to consider types of questions, wording of questions and order of questions....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us