Rethinking Usability for Web 2.0 and Beyond
by William I. Wolff, Katherin Fitzpatrick, and Rene Youssef
Introduction
1. In a groundbreaking 1983 presentation that initiated a user-centered
focus on designing computing systems, Gould and Lewis suggested four
main principles for designers.
2. First, designers should know who their users will be. This could be
achieved by careful study of users “cognitive, behavioral,
anthropomorphic, and attitudinal characteristics” . Second, designers
should work with a group of suspected users at the early stages of the
design of the computing system. Third, in the early stages of the design
process, those users should interact with prototypes and their
performance should be evaluated. Fourth, when users have problems
using a computer system, designers must fix them.
3.Nielson has argued for the considerable focus on the usability of Web
sites because they reverse the traditional producer-consumer
relationship.
Nielsen and his partners have “identified literally thousands of usability
problems and developed as many guidelines for avoiding them” (xvi).
These problems have been located in three main areas: page design
(how individual pages are laid out), content design (how the content is
written and presented), and site design (how the entire Web site is
organized).
4. Much, however, has changed in the world of computer human
interaction since Gould and Lewis announced the need for user-
centered design. Indeed, much has changed with the Web since Nielsen
and others began testing Web site usability. The primary change has
been the emergence of Web 2.0, which alters how users interact with
Web sites. Traditional Web sites (like cnn.com) are passive in that the
user can only read the content, click a few links, and then move on.
Blogs, however, are active: users have the ability to enter their own
content, comment on the others’ content, and share their content with
anyone with an Internet connection.
5. We have also seen a drastic change in the materiality and
functionality of the Web browser. No longer merely a rectangle used to
display Web pages, browsers are spaces that expand to include multiple
tabs, dynamic sidebars..
6. In Web 2.0, the shift from passive to active participation has radically
transformed the way we interact and understand how the Web works.
7. Many have noted how Web 2.0 applications tend to ignore (and in
many cases thwart) current usability standards (Hart et al.; Pilgrim;
