usability fail - psmg march 2012
DESCRIPTION
Mark Russell's usability talk given at PSMG on 6 March 2012TRANSCRIPT
#UsabilityFailStop wasting your marketing budget on bad usability #PrecSemMark Russell
Hearty Home Cooking Cookbook80+ expertsstrategy & research
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Perth, AustraliaMelbourne, Australia
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#PrecSem#usabilityfail
Usability and user experience
Usability
Desirability
User experience
“I can easily use it”
“I like the way it looks and feels”
“I like the product”
“Is the product useful
to me”
It starts by being useful...
Functionally people must be able to use it...
The way it looks must be pleasing...
The overall experience
Executing well on all of these areas creates a positive user experience. Research and testing is needed for each.
Utility
More than two thirds of companies (68%) recognise a strong link between long-term business performance and customer experience.Econsultancy Multichannel Customer Experience Report, 2010 http://econsultancy.com/uk/reports/multichannel-customer-experience-report
Hands up if you have a digital marketing budget
Quick straw poll:
Keep your hands up if you also have a usability or user experience budget
Quick straw poll:
Keep your hands up if your usability budget is the same or more than your digital marketing budget
Quick straw poll:
―Pay per click advertising
―Referrals from groomed sites
―Engaging social media
―Mobile sites & mobile apps
...and it’s a utter waste if they fail to convert
“Online ad spending set to hit $50B in 2015” – eMarketer, 2011
But it can still all be ruined by poor usability and experience
Is attracting visitors to your site inherently more valuable than making sure they have a good experience when they are there?
ConversionsThe funnel is getting fed but the wastage is high
Doubling conversions
=3,455 extra visitors
---- or ----53 extra conversions
Put another way, do you want to:Increase non-converting
(bad?) experience to 6,804---- or ----
Decrease the bad experiences?
Measuring the value of usability
Spend 10% = improve 83%Jakob Nielsen
Why usability fails
1. Lack of consistency2. Lack of clear navigation to
common goals3. Lack of orientation in the
process4. Lack of error handling5. A lack of clear closure6. No easy reversal of actions7. Lack of control8. Content is unclear and hard to
read9. Too much information/memory
required to perform an actionJakob Nielsen
Measuring the cost of bad usability
1. Use your analytics – check exits and bounces
― Brainstorm analytic findings
― Heuristic evaluation (“rules of thumb”)
― Conduct a (short) user survey
― Ask your customer services team/front line staff
― Track customer complaints (inc. on social media)
― Ask a (non-technical) colleague to do a task
― Assess site against your market/competitors
― Check how your site works without CSS
― Check what the experience is like on a mobile phone
― REMEMBER: You are not “normal” – you know too
much
2. Use DIY usability methods
3. Commission a professional study
What does it cost?
Examples
The University of Texas at AustinHow NOT to present a campus map http://bit.ly/eJOh8e (Expand) Sheesh! #UsabilityFAIL
Testing would have found this out
Mental modelfail
Common sense failure
Your examples?
1. Nothing should be more than three
clicks away
2. Your home page is seen the most; it
deserves more usability attention than
others
3. Written instructions simplify any online
process
4. People don’t scroll; anything “below the
fold” is missed
5. Every process must be simple
Some usability questions:
The golden rules
1. Users
You are not the user. Neither is your boss• What do they want to do?• What do you want them to do?• What barriers do they face?
The bad
What you can do
Dr Alan Mackintosh, GP, 40Key tasks• Alan is a busy man with little free time between work and
family life. He subscribes to updates from alumni relations and the events section of the site to keep up to date with new information
• He keeps an eye on upcoming events and lectures, trying to find time to attend one or two a year
• He finds and keeps in touch with other alumni though the website and especially enjoys reunions when they are arranged
• Research is another important area , keeping him up to date in his own area of expertise. Some old friends from his student days are now work at the University, and he is always interested in reading work they publish
You would like to promote• Alumni benefits and networking events/opportunities • Upcoming events and seminars particularly alumni events
and those related to medicine• New research that’s being carried out• News feeds, so that Alan can subscribe • How, when and where alumni can donate to the University
Persona 4: Alumni
“I keep an eye on upcoming events and research my old friends at the University are doing. News feeds are important as I’m a busy man”
Alan is a GP, living in Hertford, Herts, with his wife Alana and their two small children; Isla 9, and Hamish 7. Alana is pregnant, so there will soon be yet another addition to the family. After Alan graduated his first job was in Scotland, after which he moved to Cambridge for his GP training. His main interests are art history and photography, but he also enjoys bird watching, playing golf, art galleries, theatre, music and the pub - Alan is a big fan of real ale. He is not politically active, but he supports the coalition government.He accesses the internet both from his PC at work and at home using his laptop and his new iPad. Websites he visits are Flickr, the Independent, Amazon, eBay, Waitrose, Expedia, Wikipedia and Art. His parents live in Edinburgh so he is still in touch with the area and the local community. He has an interest in distance learning.
Web usage
Access to other information platforms
Use of your website
Strength of relationship with you
The good
1. You are not the user. Neither is your boss
2. Interactions
The bad
What you can do
Interactions checklist
• Labelling with explanations where required
• Mark mandatory fields clearly
• Let the computer handle errors
• Validate inline
• Informative error messages
• Clear calls to action
• Surrounding visual elements can support or
impair different aspects of user behaviour.
• If it’s not required, why ask for it?
The $300m button
The good
3. Accessibility
It’s more than just disabled users• Always remember users with physical and cognitive disabilities
• Also consider technological and cultural differences
What you can do
Culture, language and UX !
ArabicAbu Karim Muhammad al-Jamil ibn Nidal ibn Abdulaziz al-
Filistini
Father of Karim
Muhammad(Given name) The beautiful Son of Nidal
Son of Abdulaziz
The Palestinian
Culture, language and UX !
Culture, language and UX !
4. Consistency
Gently hold your user’s hand• Users learn from other sites• Don’t make them think• Visual and linguistic cues make a huge difference
The bad
What you can do
The good
5. Familiarity
We prefer things that are familiar to us.
Increase conversions by 10%
Increase conversions by 20%
We need to sell more savings accounts
I need a savings account
Decisions are rational and emotional
As a new parent, I want to save money, so that I can have enough put aside for when my son goes to university.
6. Strategy
How does your website align to your core business objectives?
Define your key performance indictors based on your goals and measure them
Business objective Goal KPI1 2 3
Business objective
Sell subscription packages for entertainment and communications
Build good will with existing customers
Effective marketing
Goal
Increase customers
Increase interest in products and services
Provide news and be an information resource
KPI
Monthly sales/revenue
Monthly unique visits
we
Number of returning visit
Number of registrations
1 2 3
Build a CRM
So We’ve measured the problem
We understand the range of techniques that could be used
We get what the trade off is between effort and results
Now, who is going to own this?
Attracting people to the site
Delivering what people do on
the site
Making
the site
work
Manage
site
Marketing
Services /
Products
Web TeamIT
Attracting people to the site
Delivering what people do on
the site
Making
the site
work
Manage
site
Marketing
Services /
Products
Web TeamITUsabilit
y
Spend 10% = improve
83%
Remember the golden rules!
1. Users2. Interactions3. Accessibility4. Consistency5. Familiarity6. Strategy
@PrecedentComms
#PrecSem
#UsabilityFail