paper & pencil

Contextual Help

The membership creation screen on the BBC web site is an interesting example of providing contextual help. There are links such as "What is a secret question" beneath the field labels. And additional explanatory text appears to the right of a field when it is in focus. Lastly, audio help is available.

(via IxDA Discuss)

Navigation Patterns

UIE describes The 8 Types of Navigation Pages they've seen during their years of studying users.

1. Content Pages
2. Galleries
3. Departments
4. Stores
5. Gallery-level Search Results
6. Department-level Search Results
7. Search Entry Page
8. Home Page ( Landing Pages)

Enterprise Usability

New useit.com article on Enterprise Usability:

• Three levels to consider (Individual, Group, and Enterprise)
• Examples of usability issues at the Enterprise level
• Methods for measuring usability at the Group and Enterprise Level

Individual usability is pretty much a solved problem. We have the usability methods down pat, and anybody can learn the most important ones in a few days. We also have thousands of guidelines that are known to enhance usability for individual users.

Group-level usability and enterprise usability are less well defined: they've been researched less and are more variable. This doesn't mean that you should ignore these levels. On the contrary, it means that you should make sure to study them in your own organization.