Entries from July 2008 ↓

CUIL is a new search engine that’s been getting a lot of press these last few days because it’s different, it’s not Google, and it’s supposed to be a more useful tool. The premise is some ex-Googlers have decided to make a new and improved Search Engine, one that (I’m assuming) has had some consideration about users who need to find stuff, and what is user-friendly for them. In this regard, the user interface is supposed to be different (better?) than Google’s. Ever wondered what David must have felt when he faced up to Goliath? Just ask the team at CUIL!

Have you tried CUIL? How would you measure the overall usability? And how would you compare CUIL’s usability and ease-of-use vs Google’s, or Yahoo’s?

CUIL uses a multi-columnar format to present data, but Google uses a single column format (but with ads along the top, side and bottom. So, if you were to create a usability study to compare ease-of-use for CUIL vs let’s say Google, how would you proceed?

• Would you measure both the ability to analyze search results, as well as the ability to determine the relevancy of the results?
• Would you analyze the time it takes to find specific information on each search engine?
• Would you measure the overall satisfaction of interacting with the search results only, or interacting with search results AND finding the relevant information, or only determining the usability of actually finding the relevant information?

Since the fomatting of the search results of both engines is quite different, would it even be possible to consider evaluating both with a single set of tasks?

What do you think? How would you organize the usability study?

Are you interested in getting the latest information on the field of usability and user-centered design? There’s a few conferences and seminars around that you might wish to check out. Here’s a list of a few you might want to consider, just in case you decide to get out of your cube (or home-office) to hob-nob with other usability geeks (I’m of course including myself in that geek category):

HFI Putting Research into Practice Courses:

First and foremost, I am an advocate of the HumanFactors International “Putting Research into Practice” courses. They are 2 day courses that review the latest usability and related research, but then provide the “so what” of what it all means to you and your day to day practice of usability.

User Interface Engineering Events:

Usability guru Jared M Spool and his team wows us with usability insights and best practices. Do you read his blog? I do! Anyway, you can hang-out and hob-nob with the UIE team in the flesh and blood, and a host of other usability practitioners, at the UIE annual User Interface Conferences.

Usability Professionals Association Conference:

I’m a member of the UPA, and proud of it, and you may wish to consider joining if you are also interested in usability and user-centered design. But you don’t have to be a member to register and attend their premier conference, the UPA International Conference.

Other Usability Events:

Here’s a few other organizations that have either conferences or seminars you may want to learn more about. By the way this list comes from that excellent Usability.gov resource I mentioned, see how helpful that site is?

Web Manager University Training Program (formerly Usability University Seminar Series)

Society for Technical Communication (STC)

American Society for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) Conferences

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Conferences

Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Groups (ACM SIGs) Events and Conferences

Society for Technical Communication (STC), Washington, DC Chapter, Calendar of Chapter Events

So, now that you’ve got the information don’t be a loner! Get out there and do the social, er, I mean educational scene and learn about the latest and greatest happenings in usability and user-centered design! Remember, feeding your brain with updated usability research makes you a better and more rounded usability practitioner.

CUA Central, the Hangout for Certified Usability Analysts

I don’t know about you, but I’m not much of a community nut. I don’t hang out at cool Blogger watering holes, I don’t go to cool clubs with a bunch of cool friends, and I seldom join in the cool chatter at any hang-outs like myspace, facebook or twitter. I’m just this kind of quiet usability guy, ya’ know?

So, it was with some interest that I recently ran across a new feature on the humanfactors web site. What new feature? The CUA Central community.

CUA Central is a community for all Certified Usability Analysts where different topics of conversation around the usability profession can take place. An email and password are required, and you must be accepted into the community by providing your CUA number. What’s a CUA number? That’s the number that comes on the certificate you received after successfully completing and passing the Certified Usability Analyst test that Human Factors International administers.

If you’re a CUA, I urge you to join and check it out. By coming together as a community we can not only grow our profession as a whole, but also grow ourselves by learning from other CUAs out there.

Don’t have a CUA certificate? No problem, just enroll in the online certification test, you can find it on the HFI Certified Usability Analyst training web page. Of course, you have to take (and actually pass) the test. I should warn you in advance however, that you might want to take the courses HFI offers if you’re new to usability. The test is about 2.5 hours, and when I took it I needed almost all of that 2.5 hours.

However, the time and energy you spend in learning about usability and user-centered design is in my humble opinion time very well spent, so I urge you to consider the courses and certification test, or if you’ve already received a CUA to join the community.