The Design of Everyday Web

Getting web usability right isn't easy. Until recently, user experience design and usability testing were shunned in lieu of shiny, exciting, sexy tactics. "If the technology will allow it, do it" was the mantra of the early web.

However, the study and design of usability in the physical world has been in practice for awhile. Long ago, product designers recognized the importance of designing for usability, and this practice has studied and talked about for decades.

One of the seminal books on usability and user experience design is Don Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things". In the book, Norman discusses foundational concepts of usability in physical objects (and some computer interfaces), introducing concepts like affordance, conceptual models, mapping, error handling and more.

In this session, we'll take a look at some of the concepts introduced by Norman, and look at how these same ideas can be applied to the web as they're applied in the physical world. At the end of this session, you'll never look at a door handle or a web page the same way.