Card Sorting Results

I should have posted these results a while ago but here they are.
I have separated each top-level category in columns and the rows display the cards that were sorted out by the test participants. The numbers next to each card-row indicate how many participants placed the card under a particular category.


Only a few pages were sorted into categories I did not intend them for, but overall most of the cards were sorted as I expected. Although it was a good learning experience I did not use the results in my final report.
Initially I intended to design a dropdown menu for the site but then I analysed the results of the usability tests and almost everyone liked the menu to the side where they could see all the categories organised in one section. Therefore I changed the style of the menu and since only the top level categories of the menu will be displayed the card sorting results were not used except for one category that was explained in the storyboards.

Omit Needless Words

I absolutely agree with Krug! I usually don’t bother read those welcome blurbs etc but this poor website is way past just needless words. I would also say, PLEASE, omit needless colour, images, icons, tables and...

Hum, you be the judge!

Animal, vegetable or mineral?

This is Krug’s chapter 4 on website usability. Basically what it means is that visitors should not be forced to think long about what a link represents before clicking on it.
I went online and found plenty of websites, particularly Microsoft website that made me think a lot.




But this is one website I found that don’t make any sense to me at all. I am not sure if it is a web page or a website. It says Welcome to the Seekonk Police Home Page, but there are no links to more pages. The only link on this page is an email link for contact; well at least they have a contact link!
But seriously, this site is terrible!

and Krug says,

Breakup pages into clearly defined areas
Ok, I will forget about the ugly background, the menu, the colourful text, and the little images spinning, turning and flashing around. I will also disregard the use of the frame and just say; it does not have clearly defined areas!


http://www.bldsa.org.uk/

Krug says,,,,

Create visual hierarchy
According to Krug, website visitors should distinguish between the site’s most important feature and the less important features just by looking at it. Usually the most important feature is placed closer to the top of the page, is bolder, bigger and or in a different colour to the rest of the site’s features.

This website is unable to tell me where I should be clicking first and where to click second. It holds a list of identical links that annoyingly expands and reveals a little image alongside a description and other links that the user would not expect them to be there.

http://www.brown.edu/

Krug says,,,

Follow conventions
What are conventions?
On websites, conventions are the position, size, colour, appearance etc of features that web users are familiar with already and that don’t make users think.
For example you know that on most websites the menu is on the left while advertisements are on the right of the page. If these two change positions they will create confusion and make users think.

There are quite a few conventions to follow in web design and this website has almost certainly broken all of them.

http://www.jonespartners.com/

Krug says,,

Keep the noise down
I think anyone would agree with me on this website. It has got noise, lots of noise, ugly noise, but what about the noise that follows you?

HELP! GIANT EYES ARE FOLLOWING ME!

Once again, screen dump won’t work here. Visit the link at your own risk! Eyes may follow your every move.

http://www.tallyhouniforms.com/

Krug says,

Make obvious what is clickable

Ok, I agree with Krug on this one. I hate to visit sites where I have to move my cursor around the page until it turns to a hand in order to find a link. But this page has gone out of its way to make obvious what is clickable. Pasting a screen dump of the site will not work here, you just have to go there and see for yourself.

I do apologise for sending you there, but, here is the link anyway,
http://web.archive.org/web/20060613061524/http://moire.ch/



Conversely this website has not made it clear enough what is clickable. You see that the page headings and menu links have the same background images. At first, I did click on the headings but they are not links.

http://www.intlhomefash.com/index2.html

Don’t make me Think! It is Krug’s first law of usability

Krug says web pages should be self evident, obvious, self explanatory.



Web Pages that Suck introduced me to this beauty that really made me think. In fact, I am still thinking.

http://www.snarg.net/fraf_quang/squeee_quang/index5.html