I’ve been on the road recently, teaching my ‘Editing that Works’ workshops to teams of web content providers in a government department. ‘Choose what to say,’ I urge them. And do it like this: apply temporary headings to your text,Continue reading… Good headings help, bad headings hurt
Author: Caroline Jarrett
How to get clients to look at wireframes properly
It was the same old story. I was working with Whitney Quesenbery on some wireframes for a client’s website. As usual, she’d done a lovely job on the design. As usual, I’d fussed around with content. We’d done our usualContinue reading… How to get clients to look at wireframes properly
How to look at a form in a hurry, UPA 2006
Anyone who has heard or read more than one of my presentations will be familiar with my mantra: ‘test, test and test again’. It’s the only way to find our whether something really is usable, and yet we’re sometimes putContinue reading… How to look at a form in a hurry, UPA 2006
Colons at the end of labels – revisited
In 2006, I wrote twice about colons on the end of labels on forms. This is the second of those posts. I’ve updated it in 2025 to reflect on how the topic has changed in the past 19 years. InContinue reading… Colons at the end of labels – revisited
Colons at the end of labels?
This post dates from May 2006. I’ve updated it with my views in 2025. A month later in June 2006, I wrote another one: Colons at the end of labels – revisited, and in 2025 I updated that one too.Continue reading… Colons at the end of labels?
Teaching beginners to find usability problems
Although it’s pretty easy to get students to perform competently as facilitators in usability tests, it seems to be a lot harder to get them to analyse the data that they gather in the tests. I heard about this atContinue reading… Teaching beginners to find usability problems
Matters of life and death: an investigation of “living wills” and other advance directives
Earlier this year, we learned of the bitter legal battles over Terri Schiavo. Her husband and her parents disagreed on whether to continue to give her treatment after she collapsed into a coma seven years ago. Like Terri, I haveContinue reading… Matters of life and death: an investigation of “living wills” and other advance directives
Sentence or title case in ISO-9241:1998
Update in 2025. This article was published in 2005 and reflected the standards available then. ISO 9241:1998 was withdrawn in 2021. Back in the 2000s, we referred a lot more to ISO standards, Twenty years later, we’re more likely toContinue reading… Sentence or title case in ISO-9241:1998
Survey response rates? 2% is harder to defend
Update in 2026: I wrote this years before I did the research for my own book on surveys. At that time, I thought absolute response rates were important – but now I understand that the representativeness of the response isContinue reading… Survey response rates? 2% is harder to defend
User Interface Design and Evaluation: Open University textbook
“User Interface Design and Evaluation” began life as the Open University distance learning course M873, part of the postgraduate diploma. More than 1000 professionals studied the course and the University decided to make the core course materials available as aContinue reading… User Interface Design and Evaluation: Open University textbook