Thanks for your comments Pete. I locked the worksheets to prevent anyone making changes by mistake. To make the spreadsheet editable, you need to go to Excel's "Tools" menu and choose "Protection > Unprotect sheet". You won't need a password.
Excellent resource as usual, David. In particular I like the way you give reasoned guidelines. For example, if the site is large then consider a search. Usually you'd find a guideline saying that you need a search box and it needs to be on the top right hand side or whatever.
The most usable websites are delivered through understanding principles rather than supposed 'rules' and these guidelines recognise that fact.
Is the checklist available in other languages?
It's available in Spanish (thanks to our friends at InterGraphicDESIGNS). If anyone can translate it into another language, please let me know.
I keep getting error messages when downloading the file. It says the file data is lost. Any help?
This sounds like a problem with your version of Excel. Contact me with more details and I'll get this fixed for you.
hi, David
I have sent email to you to request for translate the checklist into chinese.
Wait for your response.
Designers are visual people. Put together some visual examples of each of the guidelines and it will be much more effective. Adding images are KEY to this type of article.
Great points all around. This is all important information for anyone thinking they can design/build a web site.
Versión web para llenar el test de usabilidad en línea (español)
Ya está disponible la versión web del material, anteriormente la traducción en español sólo estaba publicada en formato de hoja de cálculo, ahora ya se puede llenar via web por medio del siguiente enlace:
Esperamos que el material sea de gran ayuda para la comunidad de desarrolladores web e interesados en el tema de la usabilidad y el mejoramiento de la calidad de los sitios web en general.
I have found this to be a great start as a reference, though examples by illustration would also be great to add. Like for example: usability.gov. I am a developer and have worked on making government and other sites usable and accessible for over 8 years.
I have recently used your worksheet which is excellent. I wanted to changes some of the formatting but seem unable to change the green background colour that you�ve used for alternate rows for the checkpoints. Please advise.
Bev
I'm glad you're finding it useful.
Here's how to change the background colour.
On the Mac version of Excel:
1. Choose Tools > Protection > Unprotect Sheet
2. Select the cells with the green background (e.g. on the 'Home Page' sheet, select cells B10:E30)
3. Choose Conditional Formatting.
4. Choose Format...
5. Choose Patterns
6. Pick a colour, then OK, then OK again.
On the PC version of Excel:
1. Click the Select All button at the top of the sheet (a triangle button between the row numbers and column letters)
2. Choose Conditional Formatting
3. Choose Manage Rules
4. Click Edit Rule button
5. Click format button next to Preview
6. Pick a colour then OK, OK, then OK again
You'll need to do this for every sheet in the workbook I'm afraid.
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This is a great resource and I like the way you have organised the guidelines into home page, task orientation, IA, etc. This provides a logical way to feed the results back to the design team. Many thanks!
I'd like to edit some of the wordings in the Excel spreadsheet but it's locked. Can you let me know the password to make changes?