The Latest Web Usability Findings from Fidelity Investments' Lab
Presentation 3
Tom Tullis, Fidelity Investments

This presentation will highlight some of the latest findings related to Web usability and accessibility from the Usability Labs at Fidelity Investments. Fidelity’s Human Interface Design department conducts about 50 different usability studies per year, some of which are targeted to specific Web development projects (for internal or external use) and some of which are more strategic in nature. This talk focuses on studies conducted in the past year and the “lessons learned” from them, including some answers to the following questions:

• What do users spend time looking at on a Web page vs. what do they ignore? Evidence from our latest eye-tracking study indicating how users scan Web pages today.

• Does user-centered design actually make a difference? Data from a case study in which we conducted a usability test of an existing Web site, went through a user-centered redesign process of the site, and then conducted a comparable usability test of the new site.

• How reliable are the results from a usability test? Evidence from a study in which we had two experienced usability teams independently conduct a usability test of the same Web site. How much commonality was there between the two test reports?

• What are the most effective navigation mechanisms for a Web site? Evidence from a large-scale study in which six different approaches to navigation (drop-down menus, fly-out menus, tables of contents, etc.) were evaluated with over 700 participants using the same site contents.

• Does a haptic mouse help older adults use the Web? Data from a study in which we compared the performance of older adults on a Web site when using a normal mouse vs. a mouse that vibrates when it is over a link. What about providing much more obvious visual highlighting of links on mouseover?

• How can you improve the usability of a Web site for users with low vision? Lessons learned from a series of very recent usability studies with low-vision Web users. Since many low-vision users don’t want to “give up” on the visual interface, what can we do to make it work better for them?

• How can you improve the usability of a Web site for older adults? Results from a series of studies we’re now completing in which we are evaluating the use of visual and auditory help features on a Web site, intended mainly to assist older adults in completing their tasks.

When possible, these studies and their findings are illustrated with video clips from the actual usability tests.

Speaker:

Thomas S. (Tom) Tullis, Ph. D., is Senior Vice President of Human Interface Design at Fidelity Investments. Dr. Tullis joined Fidelity in 1993 and was instrumental in the development of the company’s Human Interface Design Department, whose facilities include a state-of-the-art Usability Lab. Dr. Tullis received his B.A. from Rice University, M.A. in Experimental Psychology from New Mexico State University, and Ph.D. in Engineering Psychology from Rice University. With more than 28 years of experience in human-computer interface studies, Dr. Tullis has published over 35 papers in numerous technical journals. He is a regularly invited speaker at national and international conferences. Dr. Tullis holds eight United States patents. Prior to joining Fidelity, he held senior technology positions at Canon Information Systems, McDonnell Douglas, Unisys Corporation, and Bell Laboratories. Dr. Tullis is an active participant in a variety of technical societies, including the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), the Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM SIGCHI), and the Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA). He and Fidelity’s Human Interface Design Department have been featured in a number of publications, including Newsweek, Business 2.0, Money, and the New York Times.

 

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