This is not, strictly speaking, evidence-based librarianship. However, many
of us are involved in Web design at one level or another, so these new
guidelines for Websites should be of interest. Each of the recommendations
is ranked both with its relative level of importance, and the evidence for
the guideline itself.
Please let me know if you need additional information. The pdf file is
quite long, so be warned!
Pam Sieving
Pamela Sieving, MA, MS
Biomedical Librarian/Informationist
NIH Library
301 451-5862 [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
Date: October 27, 2003
For Release: Immediately
Contact: HHS Press Office (202) 690-6343
HEADLINE: HHS ANNOUNCES AVAILABILITY OF NEW GUIDELINES TO IMPROVE WEB-BASED
COMMUNICATION
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced the availability of a new
research-based guide to Web site design and usability. In partnership with
the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of HHS' National Institutes of
Health, HHS today issued Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines, a
resource that will help government, academic, commercial and other groups
involved in the creation of Web sites make decisions based on user research,
not personal opinions.
"Given the ever-growing level of Internet use by the public, there is a
critical need for authoritative guidance in designing federal Web sites and
in making them useful for the public," Secretary Thompson said. "These
guidelines are a wonderful resource for improving our communication efforts
to better meet the needs and expectations of all citizens who turn to HHS
for help."
According to recent statistics, there are more than 35 million Web pages at
more than 22,000 Web sites across the federal government alone, and more
than 60 percent of all Internet users in the U.S. interact with federal
government Web sites each year.
The Guidelines were originally developed by the NCI to help Web managers and
designers present cancer information on the Web in a more usable fashion.
Although the original intent was to develop guidelines for improving
specific federal sites on cancer, the project expanded in scope and resulted
in a set of peer-reviewed guidelines that are applicable to Web site
usability and design regardless of whether a site is developed by
government, commercial, academic or other entities.
"NCI staff compiled guidelines from a wide variety of sources, including
existing Web design and style guides, published research articles, publicly
available usability test reports, and lessons learned from in-house
usability tests," said NCI Director Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D. "This
guide contributes to the growing need to establish and utilize standards of
excellence for Web design and usability."
The new resource contains 187 guidelines for effective Web design and
usability and covers a wide range of Web site design issues, including
accessibility, home page design, page and site navigation, graphics and
images, Web content organization and effective Web content writing. Each
guideline contains:
* A brief statement of the overarching principle that
is the foundation of the guideline;
* Comments that further explain the
research/supporting information;
* Citations to relevant Web sites, technical and/or
research reports supporting the guideline.
* A score indicating the "Strength of Evidence" that
supports the guideline. These range from "Strong Research Support,"
indicating that there is at least one formal, rigorous study with contextual
validity and agreement among experts to "Weak Research Support," indicating
limited evidence and disagreement among experts.
* A score indicating the "Relative Importance" of the
guideline to the overall success of a Web site. These scores range from 1-5
and are intended to help guide usability experts and Web designers to
prioritize the implementation of these guidelines.
* One or more graphic examples of the guideline in
practice.
NCI solicited experts from across government, industry and academia to
contribute to the development of the guidelines. The complete set of
guidelines is available at http://usability.gov/pdfs/guidelines.html.
###
Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are
available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.
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