Twitter Postings: Iterative Design

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for August 24 is now online at:
  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/twitter-iterations.html
	
Summary:
We made a timeline message more punchy, credible, and viral through 5
rounds of redesign.
		
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Usability Week 2009 conference

  > Edinburgh, Scotland: September 14-18
  > Las Vegas, NV: October 11-17
  > Berlin, Germany: November 15-20

Full program:
  > http://www.nngroup.com/events

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JOB OPENINGS

Nielsen Norman Group is hiring usability specialists (both experienced and
entry-level). For more information, please see the complete job
description:

  > http://www.nngroup.com/about/jobs.html

Please send applications by this Friday, because we already have more than
400 resumes (and 22 people who are good enough to be interviewed) for only
two openings, so we have to close down the process at the end of the week.

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EYETRACKING METHODOLOGY

159-page report on the best way to conduct valid eyetracking studies (and
discussing why many companies shouldn't use eyetracking at all):

  > http://www.useit.com/eyetracking/methodology

This material was originally envisioned as the methodology chapter for our
forthcoming eyetracking book, but we had so much to say that it had to be
yanked and made into a separate report. (The book manuscript is *very*
big, even so.)

I am making this report available for free downloading as a gift to the
Alertbox newsletter subscribers, as my thanks for your loyal support over
the years.

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REWRITE SAMPLES

The state of Rhode Island now requires health insurance documents to be
written at the 8th-grade reading level:

  > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/opinion/20cogan.html

We have long recommended writing Web content at this level for sites that
target a broad consumer audience:

  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20050314.html

Some designers complain about this guideline, claiming that it leads to
overly simplistic sites. But check out the before/after writing samples in
the RI article: you'll probably agree that the 8th-grade writing
represents the material just fine and is much easier to understand (even
if you personally have the skills to read university-level content).

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"CLUNKERS" FORM TOO COMPLEX

The 13-page form(!) is too complicated and many people fill it in wrong,
leading to double work in both car dealerships and the government agency
processing the applications.

Think of how much hassle and work they could have saved if they had spent
a few days on usability and iterative design before inflicting this form
on the public. The same user-testing methods can be used for paper forms
as for online forms, and the error rate could have been cut to half of the
current numbers by a day's worth of iterative design and testing. (It's
often possible to cut errors to one-fifth through a few weeks' work.)

  > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/business/21clunkers.html

"Workers have reviewed about 40 percent of the applications filed, and
many have been rejected and then returned to the dealer for possible
resubmission."
"dealers were not told why their applications had not been approved and
were having to review the entire form to determine what went wrong."