How easy something is to use. Both software and Web sites can be tested for usability. Considering how difficult applications are to use and Web sites are to navigate, one would wish that more designers took this seriously. See user interface and usability lab.
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2009 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- Ashampoo 3D CAD Architecture 2.0.0.2 (Windows)
- Design family homes, shopping malls, high-rise buildings or just an apartment within a real 2D/3D environment using all the available tools for planning and visualizing buildings. With its simple usability, exact results and yet reasonable price tag the software clearly stands out of the crowd. Ashampoo 3D CAD Architecture 2...
- Software downloads 2009-11-22
- Vinoteka 1.5.2 (Mac)
- Vinoteka is the ultimate wine cellar management software for Mac. In a unique and gorgeous interface showing bottles, cellars and tasting notes, Vinoteka brings the best wine cellar management experience to Mac users. Extremely easy and fun to use, Vinoteka offers a fantastic and realistic environment to manage your...
- Software downloads 2009-11-21
- Amazon slashes price of Palm Pre to $79.99, Pixi to $24.99
- I don't want ......ANY misleading bargain with a two or three year contract. Sell me the HW at a fair price and let me select the carrier and package of my choice.I am not an idiot. RE: Amazon slashes price of Palm Pre to $79.99, Pixi to $24.99When you limit...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-19
- Do we need a 'beautiful mess' in operating systems? Yup
- To make a good soup, you've got to stir the pot...Ok, sure - it turns cloudy, short-term. Just be sure to filter it or let it settle, before serving.Whereas the classic 'design-by-committee' model so often fails, its always useful to have multiple, talented teams working on similar projects, independently. With...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-19
- Office 2010 Beta 2: More than just a bunch of pretty icons
- Of course its better, they stole ideas fromOf course 2010 is better, they stole (oops, innovated) most of the new ideas from Office MVPs that built add ins to previous versions. (There is a very silent revolt going on in the MVP ranks over it and many long term...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-18
- Google Image Swirl: Looks neat, but useless
- I have a problem with things like Google Image Swirl. Not the offering itself, just the strange notion that somehow cool design equals usefulness. There are tons of examples floating around that have the exact same problem -- things like Bing's "Visual Search". I'm the...
- Blog posts 2009-11-17
- New ultra-thin laptops ready to catch on?
- They still seem a bit over priced for what they do. I feel the same way about the netbooks too.They will NEVER take off like Netbooks becauseThey violate the netbook Trinity. These are the three contributing factors which are required for the extreme mass market appeal of a netbook....
- Discussion threads 2009-11-17
- Hackers bypass Windows 7 activation
- lol...and double lolwhoever thinks that windows 7 is any better than any previous disaster they created will be dispelled soon.Google will take over and leave MS in the dustGoogle is going to take over and leave the lethargic Windows in PC dust.loverock's mother herei must apologize for my 44 old...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-16
- My First Week With DROID
- The DroidI am curious-do you feel an application is coming along that will allow you to do to email what the Blackberry is already doing? Perhaps a software upgrade by Google? Having the ability to pull all your email accounts into one app is much better than what...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-15
- WordPress 2.8.6 (Windows)
- WordPress is a personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, Web standards, and usability. WordPress was born out of a desire for an elegant, well-structured personal publishing system built on PHP and MySQL and licensed under the GPL. It is the official successor of b2/cafelog. WordPress is fresh software,...
- Software downloads 2009-11-13
- Cyberduck 3.3 (Mac)
- Cyberduck is an open source SFTP SSH Secure File Transfer and FTP browser licenced under the GPL. It has been built from the ground up with usability in mind, having the same consistent graphical user interface for both SFTP and FTP browsing. Multiple connections are supported. Drag and drop is...
- Software downloads 2009-11-13
- Nokia 3711 photos
- The Nokia 3711 puts style over usability, but it offers functional features and decent performance. by CNET News.com
- Image galleries 2009-11-11
- XP Tweaks Unlocked 1.3 (Windows)
- XP Tweaks Unlocked is an excellent application that any Microsoft Windows user whether beginner or advanced will find useful when an improved Microsoft Windows experience is wanted. This software provides permanent, instant access to a wide range of Windows settings you can easily customize to help you save time and...
- Software downloads 2009-11-11
- GNOME delays 3.0 release
- normal people use kde anywaygnome should never have existed at all, it's just a waste of developers time.they should have join XFCE and KDE projects.KDE 4.3 ....Just plain stinks ... not ready for prime time.Me, I prefer 3.5.10 ...kde 4.3. doesn't stinkyou are just spoiled by the extremly high standards...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-10
- PowerTrainer Professional 3.8 (Windows)
- The eLearning authoring tool for highest demands. Experience working with the multiple test winner in usability, productivity, functionality and priceperformance ratio. Quickly and efficiently combine your newly created or existing content with exercises, interactions and tests to Web-enabled eLearning courses. Automatically create the table of contents and the learning interface...
- Software downloads 2009-11-10
- NASA app 1.0 (Mobile)
- By downloading this first-ever NASA application for the iPhone, you will enjoy fast, direct access to accurate, up-to-date space mission content from a wide range of U.S. Space Agency sources - all in one easy-to-use mobile platform. The NASA software makes extensive use of built-in iPhone features and usability to...
- Software downloads 2009-11-06
- Twitter and web forgery
- Last evening as I was winding down after a long journey imagine my surprise when I started to receive a tsunami of @ replies on my Twitter account. Apparently I was direct messaging a stack of people I don't know with a link to something that...
- Blog posts 2009-11-05
- ARI Asynchronous Remote Interface 1.0 (Windows)
- ARI, which stands for Asynchronous Remote Interface is a .NET Ajax library that eliminates all of the complexity of Ajax programming for .NET based web sites. ARI is a drop-in solution that allows you to make remote calls to all of the server side code residing in the App_Code directory...
- Software downloads 2009-11-04
- Parallels Desktop 5.0 (Mac)
- Parallels Desktop for Mac is the first solution that gives Apple users the ability to run Windows, Linux or any other operating system and their critical applications at the same time as Mac OS X on any Intel-powered iMac, Mac Mini, MacBook or MacBook Pro. Unlike dual-boot solutions, in...
- Software downloads 2009-11-04
- Power Solutions Article: High-Availability Virtualization with Dell EqualLogic Arrays and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V
- The Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 Release 2 (R2) Hyper-V™ platform introduces capabilities designed to deliver high availability for virtualized data centers. Integrating a Dell™ EqualLogic™ PS Series storage area network into Hyper-V virtualized environments helps organizations capitalize on new Hyper-V capabilities, including live migration, hot-add storage, and storage platform features...
- White papers 2009-11-04
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