Help me get more information on Web Usability Studies

Question

I am very interested in human computer interactions and mainly web interaction. Can you please tell me some studies, web sites, papers, links or research groups that are investigating Web pages design metrics similar to this http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/tarase/TaraseMetrics.pdf.

Answer 1

useit.com

Answer 2

Jakob Nielsen is an incredible usability expert with many excellent publications in Usability. He has written great books like Designing Web Usability.

The other guy I would really recommend is Steve Krug. He wrote Don't Make Me Think and many other really great books on usability.

The other aspect to think about is User Experience Design is as much about observing and then reacting as it is about design patterns and methodologies. In that vein I have to recommend Observing the User Experience

You could also consider joining a group like the Usability Professionals Association which is devoted to promoting best practices in the field of Usability.

And after all that, how could I forget Boxes and Arrows?

of course, the field of User Experience Design is rather huge and expansive. Think of these as starting points on a long and rewarding journey :)

Answer 3

I started reading a book that might be close to what you are looking for.

Measuring The User Experience - Tom Tullis and Bill Albert

I was hoping - when I purchased the book - that it would provide a simple way to score site usability. After starting it though, it is clear that it is targeted towards teams doing user testing - helping you measure the results of your testing.

If you are looking more towards the "Don't Make Me Think" type books (that one is awesome) you might also try "Designing the Obvious" by Robert Hoekman.

The research papers that Jakob Nielsen's group publishes are also very valuable. These studies can be pretty pricey, but if you compare the costs of actually doing the research, they are relatively inexpensive.

Another pretty comprehensive resource would be at usability.gov. There is a pdf file on that site that contains a large number of usability guidelines based on research.