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Recently SmashingMagazine has a delightful and interesting post, “10 Useful Usability Findings and Guidelines” which compiles valuable usability findings and illustrates with screenshots. I would like to tip my hat to the author and I have something to add to this article.

The 10 usability findings and guidelines are
1 Form Labels Work Best Above The Field
2 Users Focus On Faces
3 Quality Of Design Is An Indicator Of Credibility
4 Most Users Do Not Scroll
5 Blue Is The Best Color For Links
6 The Ideal Search Box Is 27-Characters Wide
7 White Space Improves Comprehension
8 Effective User Testing Doesn’t Have To Be Extensive
9 Informative Product Pages Help You Stand Out
10 Most Users Are Blind To Advertising
Bonus: Findings From Our Case-Studies

The Author concludes that “Form Labels Work Best Above The Field” and the graph is pretty self-explanatory. However, this will works primarily in simple & short data form; in other words, registration & login page. If we take more scenarios into consideration, we can see that a more data intensive form requires a different distribution. LukeW’s famous book Website Form Design is a perfect reference: If the form is long but only asks for simple data, opt for right-aligned labels placed to the left of the field.

The second point is the tendency of users’ focusing on faces. This is a debatable issue; According to William Hudson, the existence of human face may increase the possibility of users’ recognizing it as an ad; which can also possibly apply to the tenth point.

I agree with the third issue aesthetics as an indicator of credibility; and don’t forget usability may also be an important factor here.

The eighth finding “Effective User Testing Doesn’t Have To Be Extensive” conincides with Jakob Nielsen’s classical conclusion, five to seven is the optimal number for usability testing. The author brings an addition: any usability testing is than none. This is a great point and I would like to add: do usability testing as early as possible, hence alleviating the amount of changes in software architecture or product industrial design.

Btw, the bonus point “typography”, the optimal ratio of Line height (in pixels) to body font size (in pixels) is 1.48. I would highly recommend this finding. The 1.5 line-height eases reading and reduces visual load, it’s a great practice.

Lastly, I would like to conclude that this article is a great introduction to people new to the world of web usability. If you are potentially interested in more studies or more generic usability research, Jakob Nielsen’s alertbox is a perfect resource.

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