Shaping Web Usability: Interaction Design in Context

It's no longer enough to make your site easy to learn and use: Web designers need to help their users feel comfortable with every aspect of their site interactions: physical, mental, and emotional. Drawing upon advanced research in psychology and human-computer interfaces -- as well as extensive practical Web design experience -- Albert N. Badre shows precisely how to accomplish this. Badre goes beyond "mere usability," introducing a complete, Web-specialized framework that lets you "design for context," taking into account every aspect of the Web environment. Shaping Web Usability begins by reviewing essential human-computer interaction principles for the Web; then outlines a usability strategy that takes multiple contexts into account: extrinsic design, users, genre, site, and page. Badre offers deep insight into Web users themselves: their skill levels, personalities, and demographics; and presents a full chapter on the unique needs of older Web users. Along the way, he addresses the key issues that make Web usability so challenging, including security and privacy, platform independence, dynamic content, compatibility, and navigation. You'll learn how to ensure that aesthetics and usability complement each other; how to extend usability to handheld devices; and how to evaluate Web usability most effectively. For all Web designers, developers, usability specialists, marketers, and others concerned with the Web user experience.

Albert N. Badre is a leading contributor to the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). He is the founder and head of Interfacile, a consulting company specializing in Web usability, interface design, and HCI. In addition, he is a professor in the College of Computing and an adjunct in the School of Psychology at Georgia Tech, where he founded the university's master's program in HCI. He has written numerous papers in the field and lectures worldwide.