Blog Topic #5: What is Usability?

It's amazing how many sites there are that are frustrating to the end user - even (or especially, since they are often more complex) sites owned by major corporations. It seems like every few days I'll tell my wife, "this site is really retarded." Most of the time it's a matter of a link simply not doing what it syas it's supposed to do, or a failure to function within my favorite browser (Opera).

Often it's something as sample as an inability to respond to the "Back" button, especially after failing to launch a new page when you click on a URL. Other times it's the bandwidth-hog Flash ads that have very small light-gray "skip ad" buttons. But mostly it's a poorly organized structure that makes the site difficult to navigate.

I have followed Surfline for years now, and have watched them grapple with adding features and complexity while trying to maintain navigability. I think that overall they have done a great job, primarily in that they:

• allow me to personalize my experience by saving pages I visit most and offering them in a conveniently placed menu
• allow me to customize my preferences for locations I want to monitor (surf reports with live video feeds as well as surf forecasts)
• allow me to have multiple live-video feeds from as many as four surf locations all on one screen