Michael R. Faddis
RSSHow online video stream quality affects viewer behavior
“Viewers begin to abandon if the video does not start up within two seconds. Beyond two seconds, every additional one-second delay resulted in roughly a 5.8 percent increase in the abandonment rate. They also found that viewers are less tolerant of startup delay for short videos such as news clips compared to longer ones such as movies. Also of interest is that viewers with better connectivity are less patient and will abandon a slow-starting video sooner, while mobile users have significantly more patience than others.”
This is how people use your site.
(Source: youtube.com)
Tommy Edison follows up his demonstration of the ATM’s inaccessibility with a look at the inaccessibility of the money he withdrew.
Edison makes an interesting observation: The government requires companies to adhere to the Americans With Disabilities Act — but the government itself is somehow exempt.
There are myriad everyday activities that we “sighties” take for granted. For instance: Withdrawing money from an ATM.
Tommy Edison the Blind Film Critic demonstrates the modern ATM’s accessibility, or, rather, its striking lack thereof.
(Source: youtube.com)
This sign needs to be everywhere all the time (these guys know what I’m talking about).
Jakob Nielsen’s eyetracking studies have documented a dramatic gap in how users approach website images.
In essence, big, feel-good images are purely decorative and completely ignored. On the other hand, photos of product details and real people (as opposed to stock photos of models) are treated as important content and scrutinized.
So the takeaway is: don’t use fluffy pictures to “jazz up” Web pages, and if you’re going to use images of people, use real people. Also, users pay attention to information-carrying images that show content relevant to the task at hand.
Sometimes Fashion Trumps Usability
Via Serco: “A while back, we studied two versions of a mobile phone menu screen. The first showed 12 icons, each with a name underneath it. The second showed the same 12 icons but without names. All the people who tried the two versions were much more successful using the version with the names. But they greatly and unanimously preferred the version without the names. Why? The version without the names was more fashionable-looking at the time than the version with names. And because the version without the names wasn’t too difficult to use, fashion trumped usability.”
About Michael R. Faddis
User Experience Architect