Usability and forms, KANA Europe customer summit

CONTENT
FORMS
Usability and Forms
Caroline Jarrett
KANA Customer Summit, 2010

Caroline Jarrett is a usability consultant specialising in forms and improving content
Started Effortmark Ltd in 1994
Working mainly with government and non-profit clients
Tax authorities in UK, USA and Australia
The Open University and other universities
Other government departments
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Outline
What is usability?
What is usability of forms?
Some top tips
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The Internet when it started was about creating an electronic library
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Tim Berners-Lee created the world-wide web for scientists to access technical information
Other early web sites said “We’re here”
They expected that users understand everything they read

An early bank web site was nearly all about offering information
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General information

The first big change was in the dotcom boom. We saw “internet services” starting
Web sites started to
select useful information
offer downloadable forms
The web was all about
A channel to conventional services
Internet services were different and special
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The bank’s web site in 2004;most of the page is about services
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General information

The current challenge is about usability;users expect to do things online – easily
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Users interact with many different types of site:
Their banking
Their social networks
Their shopping
Their government.
They expect to be able to do things online.
They expect it to be easy.

Usability is about people doing things easily
The extent to which a productcan be used by specified usersto achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use
(ISO 9241:11 1998)
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Usability testing is:asking a user to try something
As realistically as possible
To do whatever the product is for
A few extra users help (but not many more)
Using a product is different to looking at it
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Ginny Redish (2007) “Letting go of the words”

We will try a quick usability test of HSBC’s home page from 2004
Ask a user to try using the home page:
everyone can try it
As realistically as possible:
the best we can do in the middle of a conference presentation
To do whatever the product is for:
apply for a credit card from the bank
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Where do you click to apply for a credit card?
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Now we will try a quick usability test of HSBC’s personal home page in 2010
Ask a user to try using the home page:
everyone can try it
As realistically as possible:
the best we can do in the middle of a conference presentation
To do whatever the product is for:
apply for a credit card from the bank
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Where do you click to apply for a credit card?
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Outline
What is usability?
Some top tips
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What do people want to do with forms?
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A form is something you deal with when you’re trying to do something else.
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Steve
Teacher“I want to set up my iPad on broadband”
Kayley
Full-time mum
“I want to tell my gas supplier that we’ve changed bank”

Will Kayley fill in the form?
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A form is something you deal with when you’re trying to do something else.
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Steve
Kayley
Full-time mum

Will Steve fill in the form?
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Will Steve fill in the form?
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Outline
What is usability?
Some top tips
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Forms have three layers:relationship, conversation and appearance

Tip #1: relationshipAllow for mismatches between user and business goals
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Tip #2: conversationAsk questions that users can answer
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Tip #3: conversationHelp users to find the answers
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Tip #4: appearanceArrange the labels and fields so that users can see which label goes with which field
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Tip #4: appearanceDon’t put hint text inside boxes
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2%
http://bit.ly/dzcnpI
UXmatters.com “Don’t put hints inside text boxes in web forms”

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Top tip that beats all other tips:Test your form with your users and their goals
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Steve
Kayley
Full-time mum

Contact details for Caroline Jarrett
Effortmark Ltd16 Heath RoadLeighton BuzzardBedfordshireLU7 3AB
01525 370379
carolinej@effortmark.co.uk
www.effortmark.co.uk
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Usability and forms, KANA Europe customer summit

by Caroline Jarrett on Oct 18, 2010

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Usability and forms, KANA Europe customer summit — Presentation Transcript