Software Usability - Essay Example

Module 4 SLP Website Review: Usability.gov Usability is a United s government’s website, which is under the management of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The purpose of Usability is to address the need for government websites to improve the quality of user experience by enhancing their usability using user-centered web design. Modern web sites need to be more interactive, user-oriented, usable, and adaptive to the needs of the target market. The purpose of this paper is to review the content, structure, and usefulness of Usability; and offer a personal value assessment of the site.

Summary Description of Structure and Purpose of UsabilityUsability focuses entirely on providing information on how to design effective websites that offer better usability and accessibility to its users. Usability offers plentiful information on factors that enhance a user’s quality of experience of a site. The structure of the site offers easy accessibility to major information resources relevant to the site’s mandate. The pages have a consistent design format, which ease the process of finding information.

The purpose of Usability is to help government web designers create sites that have more usability and accessibility of the sites (Usability, 2011). Usability tries to address web design issues that touch on a site’s usability and offers help on how to design, plan, and evaluate the usability of a site. Overall Look and Feel of UsabilityThe overall look of Usability is that of a well-organized online information resource. The site is true to its purpose of enhancing usability of sites through user-centered web design.

Usability has no adverts on its pages, only links to content related to designing more usable web sites. The right column, which is usually full of adverts in many sites, has links to the site’s content and readers’ comments on the topic under discussion on the particular page. The feel of Usability is that of highly credible, informative, and user-oriented web site with great information architecture. The content on every page is purposely for the advancement of better web design that is adaptive to user preferences and requirements.

The information feels very high ranking in credibility, judging by the user comments, reviews, quality, and the elaborate referencing of the content provided. Apparent Target Audience for UsabilityThe apparent target audience for Usability is government web designers (Usability, 2011). However, as you delve deeper into the content of the site, you begin to lose the feeling that the content’s orientation is towards government web designers. The content is useful to all web designers in general, and could be especially useful to commercial web designers, since it offers lots of information on designing a site that gets a higher credibility rating from online buyers (O’Connell, 2008).

Usefulness of UsabilityThe site is a very useful resource for web developers in all sectors of web design, and the content is relevant for commercial and non-commercial web designers. The site is especially resourceful in information on how to adapt your site to your target audience (Sibley, 2008). The information provides great insight into the issue of internet users who have special needs, such as those who suffer from color blindness and the aged, who form a considerable part of the internet users (Sibley, 2008).

Links FollowedLinks from the Articles and Discussion on color blindness, adaptive learning environments, eye tracking, credibility, and aging underwent detailed scrutiny. Similarly, under Templates, links on website usability testing underwent review, as well as the link to user-centered design under the Basics tab. Links Intended for Follow upA link for further follow up was The Common Industry Format (CIF), which Usability defines as summative measure of a site’s usability in comparison to international standards (Usability, 2011).

Other Interesting Things about UsabilityInformation on the site offers interesting insight into some issues of concern to do with web design. For instance, the difference in displaying content in two-column instead of one column (O’Connell, 2008); why the seniors needs more attention in the future of web design (Sibley, 2008); and the factors that users apply to rank a site’s credibility (Furman, 2008).Personal value assessment of the siteThe overall assessment of the value of the site is that the site is very useful.

The site delivers beyond its promise by providing information unavailable in the conventional website design body of knowledge e.g., web experience of colorblind users (Liu, 2006). The content is extensive, high in quality, and remains highly relevant to the entire theme of the site. ReferencesFurman, S., (2011). Credibility. Usability.gov. Retrieved on October 29, 2011 from http://www.usability.gov/articles/102009news.htmlLiu, J., (2006). Color Blindness: Color Blindness and Website Design. Usability.gov. Retrieved On October 29, 2011 from http://www.usability.gov/articles/newsletter/pubs/ 022010new.

htmlO’Connell, C., (2008). Eye tracking and Web Site Design. Usability.gov. Retrieved on October 29, 2011 from http://www.usability.gov/articles/newsletter/pubs/032010news.htmlPerry, V., (2008). Adaptive Web-Based Learning Environments. Usability.gov. Retrieved on October 29, 2011 from http://www.usability.gov/articles/012010news.htmlSibley, C., (2008). Web Usability and Aging. Usability.gov. Retrieved on October 29, 2011 from http://www.usability.gov/articles/newsletter/pubs/122008news.htmlUsability, (2011). Home. Usability.gov. Retrieved on October 29, 2011 from http://www.usability.gov/index.html