Introduction to Good Usability

tank you a lot!

Good job man, nice to see you’ve been busy with something.
I could you some inspiration to get back to work, haven’t done anything really productive in ages. =(

Thanks for the comment sw and Joel.

[...] ejemplo es el Introduction to Good Usability, un paper (pdf) de escasas 21 páginas donde se exponen algunos problemas clásicos de usabilidad y [...]

[...] Introduction to Good UsabilityPeter Conradie offers his Introduction to Good Usability as .pdf-file for free download. The .pdf covers interface design guides (breadcrumbs, tabs, linking, overlays, drop down menu, scroll etc.) as well as author’s principles of good usability. [...]

It’s great to see more and more accessible guides to good design for beginners/intermediates; hopefully a new, sensible set of conventions will develop as a result of texts like this.

To nitpick: you need to proof read the document (your ‘a’ and ’s’ keys appear to be making mischief), and I’d disagree with a few of the recommendations, e.g. you suggest a leading of 120% of the font size – which is most browser’s default value – but I would suggest at least 140% for optimal readability. You also neglect to mention font size, a pretty fundamental aspect of legibility and accessibility.

Surely useit.com should get a mention in the reading list?

Oh – and congratulations on getting linked to by Smashing Magazine!

[...] excellent (and free) pdf book on interfaces and usability with lots of screenshots and real-world [...]

Good job man. Good to see you working on stuff like this. Besides a good reference for beginners/intermediates, it also spreads some inspiration among colleauges and fellowstudents

Thanks for the comments and trackbacks everyone.

@im suden: Yeah, I suppose 140% could also work.
@Dennis: Thanks mate!

Nice work, Peter; it’s been on my to-do list for a couple of days, and I finally got around to reading through it all. I think you achieved a good balance of having a document long enough to be comprehensive and useful while still a relatively easy read. Some really solid content.

A great resource – nice and succinct with some good examples. Thanks.

Nice list, but you should know that pdf breaks the user’s flow, so there should be a link to a html-version.

Thanks Dr Pete. I did have to cut some content, at some point it became far too long.
@Dan: Thanks a lot.
@Robin: Yeah, it is true that it breaks the user’s flow but in html form it is just simply too large to be read comfortably. I might put up a html version online though.

[...] Introduction to Good Usability: è un pdf che raccoglie i post del 2007 di Peter Conradie, esperto di interazione e usabilità [...]

[...] peterpixel writings » Blog Archive » Introduction to Good Usability (tags: usability webdesign design) [...]

[...] Introduction to Good Usability Peter Conradie offers his Introduction to Good Usability as .pdf-file for free download. The .pdf covers interface design guides (breadcrumbs, tabs, linking, overlays, drop down menu, scroll etc.) as well as author’s principles of good usability. [...]

Hi there, just wanted to say that I enjoyed your ebook. Lots of good points there for beginners and us who’ve done way too many no-thinking-allowed jobs lately. Just a little bit of critique ahead, though. Isn’t that what comments are for?

About tabs you say that “color indication works best”. I agree, but you could also mention that it shouldn’t be used alone. Consider color blindness and some other vision deficiencies.

I’d also like to see a chapter about images, alt tags, accessible flash usage and stuff like that. The little things that make big difference when it comes to accessibility (and if it’s not accessible, it certainly isn’t usable either).

Very useful, thnks a lot.

[...] Introduction to Good Usability – Peter Pixel [...]

[...] Introduction to Good Usability – Peter Pixel [...]

[...] Introduction to Good Usability – Peter Pixel [...]

[...] Introduction to Good Usability – Peter Pixel [...]

[...] Introduction to Good Usability – Peter Pixel [...]

[...] Introduction to Good Usability – Peter Pixel [...]

It’s great that you’ve done this. I’m not in total agreement with everything in here but I loved page 5.

Hi David, thanks for the comment!

Good words.

I think tabs and breadcrumbs are the most important parts of a site. I hate it when I don’t know where I am and how to get back to where I was. It’s annoying to have to go all the way back to a homepage and track my steps again. Usability is such an important topic – thanks for the quick overview and good resources at the end.

[...] much for the power of intuition and usability. Here is a link to some light reading about good usability by peterpixel, which has been sitting in my “To Read” folder for far too long! It is [...]

[...] Una primicia sobre medios de comunicación social – SmashLAB Diseñando para contingencias Introducción a la buena usabilidad – Peter Pixel Como ser creativo – Hugh [...]

[...] Una primicia sobre medios de comunicación social – SmashLAB Diseñando para contingencias Introducción a la buena usabilidad – Peter Pixel Como ser creativo – Hugh [...]

[...] Introducción a la buena usabilidad – Peter Pixel [...]

[...] and the Technological Network of Andalusia (RETA) in Spain with the request to translate my e-book Introduction to Good Usability into Spanish. Off course I was thrilled about this and less than a week later I received a pdf in [...]

[...] profesor de la Universidad de Rotterdam de Ciencias Aplicadas, Peter Conradie, autor, además, de “Introduction to Good Usability”, ya traducida y disponible en español, Joel Laumans, estudiante de Communication and Multimedia [...]

[...] 9) Introduction to Good Usability – Peter Pixel [...]

[...] – Mark McGuinness A Primer in Social Media - SmashLAB Contingency Design - 37signals Introduction to Good Usability – Peter Pixel How to Be Creative – [...]

[...] Science and Enterprise and the Technological Network of Andalusia (RETA) in Spain translated my Introduction to Good Usability ebook into Spanish. Needless to say, I am very happy about this (flattered also comes to [...]

[...] Gracias al Programa Eva, dependiente de la Conserjería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa de la Junta de Andalucía, podemos contar con una traducción de la guía Introducción a la usabilidad de Peter Conradie. [...]

[...] Introduction to Good Usability – Direct download. [...]

Very usable, thank you

[...] Introduction to Good Usability – Direct download. [...]

Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. Cheers! Sandra. R.

[...] Introduction to Good Usability Visual impact is necessary but a good usability approach is what makes a website or application functional to the end-user. Introduction to good usability by Peter Pixel works well as a handy e-book for basic usability guidelines. [...]

[...] Introduction To Good Usability [...]

[...] Introduction To Good Usability [...]

[...] Introduction To Good Usability [...]

[...] Introduction To Good Usability [...]

Thank you! I’m an italian designer, and your pdf helped me a lot!!! GREAT!

[...] Introduction To Good Usability [...]

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[...] Introduction to Good Usability [...]

[...] Introduction to Good Usability [...]

[...] Introduction to Good Usability [...]

[...] Introduction To Good Usability [...]

[...] Introduction To Good Usability [...]

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