Discuss The Common Usability Problems In Graphical System

Common Usability Problems:

Mandel (1994) lists the 10 most common usability problems in graphical systems as reported by IBM usability specialists. They are:

• Ambiguous menus and icons.
• Languages that permit only single-direction movement through a system.
• Input and direct manipulation limits.
• Highlighting and selection limitations.
• Unclear step sequences.
• More steps to manage the interface than to perform tasks.
• Complex linkage between and within applications.
• Inadequate feedback and confirmation.
• Lack of system anticipation and intelligence.
• Inadequate error messages, help, tutorials, and documentation.

The Web, with its dynamic capabilities and explosive entrance into our lives, has unleashed what seems like more than its own share of usability problems. Many are similar to those outlined above. Web usability characteristics particularly wasteful of people’s time, and often quite irritating, are:

Visual clutter. A lack of “white space,” meaningless graphics, and unnecessary and wasteful decoration often turn pages into jungles of visual noise. Meaningful content lies hidden within the unending forest of vines and trees, forcing the user to waste countless minutes searching for what is relevant. Useless displayed elements are actually a form of visual noise.

Impaired information readability. Page readability is diminished by poor developer choices in typefaces, colors, and graphics. Use of innumerable typefaces and kaleidoscopic colors wrestle meaning from the screen. A person’s attention is directed towards trying to understand why the differences exist, instead of being focused toward identifying and understanding the page’s content. Backgrounds that are brightly colored or contain pictures or patterns greatly diminish the legibility of the overwritten text.

Incomprehensible components. Some design elements give the user no clue as to their function, leaving their purpose not at all obvious. Some icons and graphics, for example, are shrouded in mystery, containing no text to explain what they do. Some buttons don’t look at all like command buttons, forcing the user to “minesweep” the screen with a mouse to locate the objects that can be used to do something. Command buttons or areas that give no visual indication that they are clickable often won’t be clicked. Language is also often confusing, with the developer’s terminology being used, not that of the user.

Annoying distractions. Elements constantly in motion, scrolling marquees or text, blinking text, or looping continually running animations compete with meaningful content for the user’s eye’s and attention—and destroy a page’s readability. Automatically presented music or other sounds interrupt one’s concentration, as do nonrequested pop-up widows, which must be removed, wasting more of the user’s time. A person’s senses are under constant attack, and the benefits afforded by one’s peripheral vision are negated.

Confusing navigation. A site’s structure often resembles a maze of twisting pages into which the user wanders and is quite soon lost. Poor, little, or no organization exists among pages. The size and depth of many Web sites can eventually lead to a “lost in space” feeling as perceived site structure evaporates as one navigates. Embarking on a side trip can lead to a radical change in context or a path with no signposts or landmarks. Navigation links lead to dead-ends from which there is no return, or boomerang you right back to the spot where you are standing without you being aware of it. Some navigation elements are invisible. (See mystery icons and minesweeping above.) Confusing navigation violates expectations and results in disturbing unexpected behavior.

Inefficient navigation. A person must transverse content-free pages to find what is meaningful. One whole screen is used to point to another. Large graphics waste screen space and add to the page count. The path through the navigation maze is often long and tedious. Reams of useless data must be sifted through before a need can be fulfilled. Massive use of short pages with little content often creates the feeling that one is “link drunk.”

Inefficient operations. Time is wasted doing many things. Page download times can be excessive. Pages that contain, for example, large graphics and maps, large chunky headings, or many colors, take longer to download than text. Excessive information fragmentation can require navigation of long chains of links to reach relevant material, also accelerating user disorientation.

Excessive or inefficient page scrolling. Long pages requiring scrolling frequently lead to the user’s losing context as related information’s spatial proximity increases and some information entirely disappears from view and, therefore, from memory. Out of sight is often out of mind. If navigation elements and important content are hidden below the page top, they may be missed entirely. To have to scroll to do something important or complete a task can be very annoying; especially if the scrolling is caused by what the user considers is an irrelevancy or noise.

Information overload. Poorly organized or large amounts of information taxes one’s memory and can be overwhelming. Heavy mental loads can result from making decisions concerning which links to follow and which to abandon, given the large number of choices available. Or from trying to determine what information is important, and what is not. Or from trying to maintain one’s place in a huge forest of information trees. One easily becomes buried in decisions and information. Requiring even minimal amounts of learning to use a Web site adds to the mental load.

Design inconsistency. Design inconsistency has not disappeared with the Web. It has been magnified. The business system user may visit a handful of systems in one day, the Web user may visit dozens, or many more. It is expected that site differences will and must exist because each Web site owner strives for its own identity. For the user’s sake, however, some consistency must exist to permit a seamless flow between sites. Consistency is needed in, for example, navigation element location on a page and the look of navigation buttons (raised). The industry is diligently working on this topic and some “common practices” are already in place. The learning principle of rote memorization, however, is still being required within many sites. For example, the industry practice of using different standard link colors for unvisited sites (blue) and visited sites (purple) is often violated. This forces users to remember different color meanings in different places, and this also causes confusion between links and underlined text. Design guidelines for graphical user interfaces have been available for many years. Too often they are ignored (or the designer is unaware of them). Examples of inappropriate uses abound in design. The use of check boxes instead of radio buttons for mutually exclusive options, for example. Or the use of drop-down list boxes instead of combination boxes when the task mostly requires keyboard form fill-in. The Web is a form of the graphical user interface, and GUI guidelines should be followed.

Outdated information. One important value of a Web site is its “currentness.” Outdated information destroys a site’s credibility in the minds of many users, and therefore its usefulness. A useless site is not very usable.

Stale design caused by emulation of printed documents and past systems. The Web is a new medium with expanded user interaction and information display possibilities. While much of what we have learned in the print world and past information systems interface design can be ported to the Web, all of what we know should not be blindly moved from one to the other. Web sites should be rethought and redesigned using the most appropriate and robust design techniques available.

Some of these usability problems are a result of the Web’s “growing pains.” For other problems developers themselves can only be blamed, for they too often have created a product to please themselves and “look cool,” not to please their users. Symptoms of this approach include overuse of bleeding edge technology, a focus on sparkle, and jumping to implement the latest Internet technique or buzzword. These problems, of course, did not start with the Web. They have existed since designers began building user interfaces.