HCI Tools Online

Introduction

This report contains pointers to hci tools found on the internet. The list is comprehensive and as complete as possible within the time constraints. By tools, what is meant is a direct help in the development of an interface, including guidelines, methodologies, and software tools. These tools are primarily divided into four categories: interface design, interface usability, web design, and web usability. These categories reflect more the tasks of designers and developers rather than the divisions of information. (Usability is a subdivision of design (and evaluation) and the web is a subarea of interface design.) These task categories are further divided into the types of tools mentioned: guidelines, methodologies, and software. Resource lists are also included in the interface design and interface usability categories since they are the sources of many of the tools in this report. For each tool there is a title, the url for the web site, and a brief description.

Interface Design

Guidelines

First Principles of Design

http://www.asktog.com/basics/firstPrinciples.html Tognazzini's first principles of design.

IBM Design Guidelines

http://www.ibm.com/ibm/hci/guidelines/web/web_design.html IBM Ease of Use design guidelines using the UCD process for product development.

Apple Human Interface Guidelines

http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/HIGOS8Guide/thig-2.html Guidelines for Mac OS 8.

Ameritech GUI Standards and Guidelines

http://www.ameritech.com/corporate/testtown/library/standard/std-guix.html Interface guidelines based on bridging the gap between the traditional style guides and the human-computer interaction literature.

 

Methodologies

UMD Methodologies for Development

http://www.otal.umd.edu/guse/methodologies.html Descriptions and pointers to several methodologies for different aspects of interface development.

Requirements Engineering

http://www.ucc.ie/hfrg/projects/respect/urmethods/methods.htm A list of methods for user-orientated requirements specification. The methods are categorized by both software lifecycle timing and by special needs groups. The descriptions include benefits, limitations, costs, and how to get it.

Contextual Design Methodology

http://www.incent.com/connection.indx/techniques.html,

http://www.incent.com/ Step-by-step details of contextual design methodology.

Tools

IBM UCD Workbench

http://www.ibm.com/ibm/easy/design/lower/f050100.html A set of tools that simplify and expedite carrying out User-Centered Design in the development of products and applications. Currently, two tools are available for use outside IBM: UCD Satisfaction Survey and UCD Questionnaire Resources.

MR Toolkit

http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~graphics/MRToolkit.html A set of software tools for the production of virtual reality systems and other forms of three-dimensional user interfaces.

User Interface Software Tools

http://www-cgi.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/bam/www/toolnames.html A comprehensive list of software tools for UI development.

UIMS and UIB Tools

http://amin.soongsil.ac.kr/~shyeam/hci/hci-home.htm A list of software tools for UI development.

CLARET

http://archive.uwaterloo.ca/~tcarey/HCIforTL.html A research project to develop new learning systems architectures and supporting technologies for interactive multimedia case studies of organizational processes and design artifacts.

CADRETel

http://archive.uwaterloo.ca/~tcarey/cadretel.html A knowledge-building support environment to support learning that takes place in knowledge building communities and to support the environment in which the community interacts.

 

Resource Lists

ACM SIGCHI HCI Resources List

http://www.acm.org/sigchi/hci-sites/RESOURCES.html An extensive list of resources.

HCI Resources: Guidelines, Styleguides, Standards

http://www.ida.liu.se/~aslab/groups/um/hci/guidelines.html An extensive list of HCI-related guidelines, styleguides, and standards.

Dot Paragon Tips and Tools

http://www.dotparagon.com/resources/hci.html A list of HCI resources.

 

Interface Usability

Guidelines

Ten Usability Heuristics

http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html Jacob Nielsen's ten usability heuristics.

Participatory Heuristics

http://members.aol.com/MMuller393/phe/phe.html Michael Muller's extension of Jacob Nielsen's ten usability heuristics.

Sun Usability Guidelines

http://www.sun.com/usability/about.html#methods Itemized items for the software development cycle.

Resource Guide for Accessible Design of Consumer Electronics

http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/accessible_consumer_electronics/guide.html Design guidelines for consumer electronics.

 

Methodologies

Usability Methods Toolbox

http://www.best.com/~jthom/usability/usable.htm A list of methods used in the HCI development process. It is divided into four sections: inquiry, inspection, testing, and related, which includes prototyping. All topics in each section are organized around four questions: "What is it?"; "How do I do it?"; "When should use this technique?"; and "Who can tell me more?"

Usability Evaluation Methods

http://www.cs.umd.edu/~zzj/UsabilityHome.html Methods divided into three categories: testing, inspection, and inquiry.

 

Resource Lists

ACM SIGCAPH Guidelines

http://www.acm.org/sigcaph/links/#GUIDELINES SIGCAPH list of guidelines for accessible interfaces.

 

Web Design

Guidelines

Web-Site Design Audit

http://www.eng.buffalo.edu/~ramam_m/au_fr.html Website design guidelines in ten categories organized in a question & answer format.

Yale Web Style Guide Site

http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/index.html Web site design guidelines that combine traditional editorial approaches to documents with graphic design, user interface design, information design, and the technical authoring skills required to optimize the HTML code, graphics, and text within Web pages.

Ameritech Web Guidelines

http://www.ameritech.com/corporate/testtown/library/standard/web_guidelines/index.html Website design guidelines including working principles, examples, and checklists.

Others

There are numerous other sources of website guidelines.

 

Tools

There are numerous tools for building web sites and pages.

 

Web Usability

Guidelines

Usability Heuristics

http://webreview.com/wr/pub/97/10/10/usability/sidebar.html Keith Instone's analysis and application to website design of Jacob Nielsen's ten usability heuristics.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/ WC3 guidelines for making Web content accessible to people with disabilities.

Microsoft Guidelines for Website Usability

http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/management/planning/improvingsiteusa.asp Microsoft's guidelines for website usability and appeal based on usability and marketing research and research in the broader software-research community.

 

Tools

Accessability Prompt Toolkit

http://aprompt.snow.utoronto.ca/ Software that prompts HTML authors to write accessible documents.

Bobby

http://www.cast.org/bobby/ A web-based tool that analyzes web pages for their accessibility to people with disabilities.

 

Resource Lists

Usable Web

http://usableweb.com/ Keith Instone's collection of resources for web usability and more.