Web Usability for Dummies

NACCDO | PAN | Marketing | 2007 Conference29 April 2007 1
Usability for Dummies
The What, Why, and How
of Usability and User-Centered Design

Agenda
• What is usability?
• Why is it important?
• How can you make websites usable?

What is Usability?
• We are affected by it every day…
Which of the two signs is correct?
No doubt, someone has driven the wrong way to find
the “additional parking.”

What is Usability?
• Usability around us… Buildings
Can you reach (or find) the TP?The staircase that goes neither up nor down.

What is Usability?
• Usability around us… Packaging
Instructions were hidden in the packaging between two
layers of cardboard.
You need a pair of scissors to open a pair of
scissors.

What is Usability?
• Usability around us… Technical devices
You can't put two USB plugs in at the same time.
The Power button right next to the Enter key.

What is Usability?
• Usability around us… Websites
Doesn’t the system already know the answer?
And how about Eck, Ng, Roy, Ott, Ram, Hu,
Ing?
What goal does this page serve?

What is Usability?
• Usability around us… Voting

What is Usability?
• Can you share a good or bad usability example
from your past experience?

What is Usability?
• Definition
– Usability means that people who use a user-operated device can do so
quickly and easily to accomplish their tasks.
• Ease of learning – Is it easy for the user to learn the system?
• Efficiency of use – How fast can the user accomplish tasks?
• Memorability – Is the system easy for the user to remember?
• Errors - How often do users make errors and can they recover?
• Satisfaction - How much do users like the system?
– Usability measures the quality of a user's experience while interacting with
a product or system.
– “The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve
specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified
context of user.“ ISO 9241-11

What is Usability?
• Terminology
Usability
Testing
IA
Information
Architecture
ID
Interaction/Information
Design
UCD
User Centered
Design
UXA
User Experience
Architecture
ED
Experience
Design

Why Is Usability Important?
• User Benefits
é Task completion
é Confidence & trust
é Satisfaction
é Efficiency & productivity
ê Frustration
ê Calls to support center
ê Time to find information
ê Error rate
• Business Benefits
é Brand perception
é Product reputation
é Competitive advantage
é Number of customers
ê Support costs
ê User errors
ê Training time
ê Site abandonment

Jakob Nielsen, 2003:
On the Web, usability is a necessary condition for survival. 
 
If a website is difficult to use, people leave. If the homepage fails to clearly
state what a company offers and what users can do on the site, people
leave. If users get lost on a website, they leave. If a website's information is
hard to read or doesn't answer users' key questions, they leave. 
 
Note a pattern here? There's no such thing as a user reading a website
manual or otherwise spending much time trying to figure out an interface.
There are plenty of other websites available; leaving is the first line of
defense when users encounter a difficulty.

• Have you had any experiences that made you
realize the importance of usability?
– As a user
– As a business

How Can You Ensure Usability?
• User-Centered Design (UCD)
– Design methodology that involves users throughout all stages of
development, in order to create a website that meets users' needs and
business objectives.
User Needs
Business Needs Technology

1. Research 2. Design 3. Validate
Learn about your users, their
needs, goals, attitudes,
motivations, expectations, and
behavior.
Ensure that the site’s
organization, navigation,
content, and visual design
support user needs.
Test the website’s with real
users and adjust the design
based on the findings.
Which step do you think is more important – Research or Validate?

• User interviews
– One-on-one discussions with users which help you understand their expectations,
motivations, attitudes, and experiences.
• Contextual inquiry
– Field studies which enable you to observe users in their natural environment and
understand how they work.
• Card sorting
– Sessions in which users are asked to organize (sort) the content in a way that
makes sense to them using cards.

• Surveys
– Online questionnaires which help you learn about the current users of your
website, their needs, and experiences on the website.
• Log analysis
– Analysis of your website's log files to determine visitor paths and most/least
visited content visitor paths.
• Secondary research
– Review of industry publications, reports, whitepapers, and research studies
relevant to your site and target audiences.

• User Interviews: What people say they want
• What?
– One-on-one discussions with users which help you understand their expectations,
motivations, attitudes, and experiences.
• Why?
– Understand users’ motivations for using your website, what content they are looking for, how
they expect to find it, how they might want to use the information, learn users’ language.
• How?
– Define focus, select participants, write an interview script, conduct interviews (be flexible,
probe and ask follow-up questions), and analyze. May include labeling and affordance tests.

• Contextual Inquiry: What people actually do
• What?
– Field studies which enable you to observe users in their natural environment and understand
how they work.
• Why?
– Understand users’ mental models, observe how users perform key tasks, find out the
information they need at each step, get insight into the content and organization needs.
• How?
– Define focus, select participants, travel to the user’s site, shadow users as they perform their
tasks (do not impose your scenarios), act as an apprentice (ask questions, do not interrupt),
collect artifacts, observe environment (social, physical, technology), analyze findings.

• Card Sorting: How people categorize information in their mind
• What?
– Sessions in which users are asked to organize (sort) the content in a way that makes sense to
them using cards.
• Why?
– Learn how users think about content, identify content categories, see how users expect the
content to be organized, what content they expect on the home page, identify labels intuitive to
users, organize information in a way that is logical to users.
• How?
– Open card sort: users are asked to sort cards into groups and assign category labels.
– Closed card sort: users are asked to sort content cards into pre-defined categories.
– Use 50-100 numbered cards, have blank cards, ask users to talk aloud, take notes.

• Log Analysis: How people navigate through your website
• What?
– Analysis of your website's log files to determine visitor paths and most/least visited content visitor
paths.
• Why?
– Evaluate content performance, determine top entry and exit pages, visitor paths, internal
searches, which may indicate failed navigation or missing content.
• How?
– Analyze existing log files and web stats, identify patterns and determine their causes, summarize
findings.

• Personas
– User archetype (fictional person) used to summarize and communicate key goals,
tasks, and attributes of a major user group based on research findings.
• Task Flows or Scenarios
– Diagram or chart documenting the steps that users take in order to achieve specific
goals.
• Information Architecture
– Site map diagram representing the website’s content hierarchy and navigation
designed to accommodate user needs and projected navigation paths.
• Wireframes
– Low or high-fidelity page prototypes (blueprints) laying out the structure, content,
features, and navigational tools of the page without defining the visual look and feel.

• Persona: The user archetype we design for
• What?
– User archetype (fictional person) used to summarize and communicate key goals, tasks, and
attributes of a major user group based on research findings.
• Why?
– Avoid the trap of designing for an "average" user, base design decisions on the user needs rather
than personal preferences, prioritize design efforts.
• How?
– Analyze findings from user research, capture most representative user’s goals, tasks,
motivations, expectations, demographics, behavior, information needs, and context.

• Task Flows or Scenarios: Users’ paths required to complete tasks
• What?
– Diagram or chart documenting the steps that users take in order to achieve specific goals.
• Why?
– Capture and communicate persona’s steps and projected navigation paths, provide specific
pages that match users' goals, tasks, and steps.
• How?
– Analyze findings from user research, create task flow diagrams capturing users goals, step-by-
step tasks, and decision points.

• Information Architecture: Website’s content hierarchy
• What?
– Site map diagrams representing the website’s content hierarchy and navigation designed to
accommodate user needs and projected navigation paths.
• Why?
– Describe at a high level the website’s structure and user experience flow, provide a visual
communication tool for project stakeholders, content writers, designers, and developers.
• How?
– Based on the identified users’ goals, content & feature needs, priorities, and projected navigation
paths, create a site map diagram using Visio or other diagramming tool.

• Wireframes: Website’s page-level blueprints
• What?
– Low or high-fidelity page prototypes (blueprints) laying out the structure, content, features, and
navigational tools of the page without defining the visual look and feel.
• Why?
– Gather feedback from users while still planning and designing the website, save redesign costs by
ensuring usability early in the development process, clarify specific requirements.
• How?
– Based on the identified users’ goals, needs, priorities, navigation paths, and website’s information
architecture, create page wireframe mockups using Visio or other tools.

• Usability Testing
– In a standard usability test, the user is asked perform typical tasks using the
system/design prototypes, while observers watch and take notes.
• Log analysis
– Analysis of your website's log files to determine visitor paths and most/least
visited content visitor paths.
• Metrics
– Site evaluation against established strategic metrics goals, such as conversions,
page hits, etc.

• Usability Testing: User validation of the website’s design
• What?
– In a standard usability test, the user is asked perform typical tasks using the system/design
prototypes, while observers watch and take notes.
• Why?
– Find out if the website’s design allows users to complete their tasks effectively, efficiently, and with
satisfaction, identify and prioritize usability problems.
• How?
– Test early and often. Define the objectives, select participants, identify the tasks for the test,
create usability testing script, conduct the tests, analyze results, provide redesign
recommendations.

Sample Usability Testing
• Video clip

Q&A
• Questions?

References & Credits
• thisisbroken.com (usability around us)
• usability.gov (UCD methods)
• flickr.com (images)
• geonetric.com (persona sample)
• albany.edu (phone interview image)
• webstudio.cl (card sorting image)
• upassoc.org/upa_publications/upa_voice ( usability testing image)
• gdoss.com (wireframe sample)

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