improving your site’s usability:
what users really want
leisa reichelt | disambiguity.com
web 2.0 expo berlin - 21 October 08

wow.
(you know we’re talking about usability, right?!)

logistical stuff

the ‘back-channel’
twitter:
#w2e_ux (design & UX) or
#w2e (entire conference)
webexberlin2008.crowdvine.com

think about how much
time you spend with
your computer today

our schedule:
1pm: we start
general principals and heuristics for making sites people like.
2.30-ish: coffee break. yay!
how does one go about making a site people want to use? (UCD)
4pm: we end

introductions
- your name
- what you do
- where you’re from
- three tags

me
- leisa reichelt
- freelance user experience consultant
- Australian, living in London
- mum, research, seventeen
disambiguity.com
leisa@disambiguity.com

and you?
- your name
- what you do
- where you’re from
- three tags

warning:
when rules go wrong!

Studies by usability expert Rolf
Mollichshow that no two sets of
experts come up with the same
results, when evaluating
interfaces.
Most experts come up with
too many problems.

rulesvstesting

human brains
the hardware we have to work with

finite storage capacity
short term memory struggles to store
more than about nine things

one decision at a time
attention is a limited commodity

habits are useful
habits are task that require no attention

recognitionvsrecall
our long term memory stores only what
what we can’t easy deduce

interruptions burden our short term memory
switching between tasks takes effort
unexpected things happen
making it hard to form habits
computers expect us to remember!

practical tips and
guidelines

the principle of
commensurate effort
people will spend an amount of
effort on things that is in proprtion
to the value they perceive

. in pursuit of something valuable, it is
amazing how much bad design people
will put up with, and forgive.

polite computing
“If we want users to like our software
we should design it to behave like a
likeable person: respectful, generous
and helpful.” Alan Cooper

polite computing
Polite software is:
• Interested in me (remembers my preferences)
• Perceptive (makes good guesses at what information
I’ll want next)
• Forthcoming (doesn’t hold back useful information)
• Self-confident (doesn’t keep asking me annoying
questions)
• Responsive (discrete - not too demanding)

polite computing
Polite software is:
• Forgiving (if you make a mistake it lets you undo)
• Not a show-off (doesn’t cluttery with showy controls)
• Focussed (too many choices becomes a burden)
• Fudgeable (allows the user to partially complete)

make the easy, easy
and the difficult, possible

make it quick to
scan & digest
* avoid clutter!
* avoid text only

speak the right language
• don’t use meaningless
‘copy’ (especially ‘marketing’ content)
• use your audience’s way of speaking,
not your company-talk (or programmer
talk, etc.)
• information scent: use keywords to
guide people in the right direction

seducible moments
“there are specific moments where designers
are most likely to influence a shopper to
investigate a promotion or special offer. Most of
the time, these moments come after the
shopper has satisfied their original mission on
the site.
If we identify the key seducible moment for a
specific offer, we can often see over 10 times as
many requests” Jared Spool

the paradox of the
active user
haste to get rapid results means we make
mistakes - making us slower!
support users in a rush.

image: Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think

enter your address
separated by commas
GO

street:
town:
GO

feedback
(you’re doing great!)
your site should give lots.

. people tend to avoid using
‘navigation’ as navigation.
They’d rather use links in the centre
of the website to get around.
don’t rely on the navigation

do not under-estimate ‘tunnel vision’.
Task focussed users are *so* focussed on
the task at hand you will be amazed what
they are able to ignore.

the 3-click rule is
broken.

people don’t like making decisions on
a website - they like to be directed.
it’s your job to know what they
want to do and get them there.

have an
experience strategy
An experience strategy is a clearly articulated touchstone that
influences all of the decisions made about technology, features,
and interfaces.
Whether in the initial design process or as the product
develops, such a strategy guides the team and ensures that the
customer’s perspective is maintained throughout.
- Subject to Change, Creating great products and services for an
uncertain world, Merholz, Schauer, Verba & Wilkens (Adaptive
Path) 2008

never, EVER, try to
design for ‘everyone’

personas
personas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anikarenina/550438755/

patterns&conventions
vs innovation

coffee time!

welcome back!

how do you go about
making a site that
people want to use?

usercentred design (UCD)

what is UCD?
a design process in which the end users are
identified, their goals and needs are
understood, the system is designed to support
those users and their goals, and the design is
tested with those users so that it can be
improved until optimal.
it involves both design and research activities

User Centred Design is
interested in both strategic
and tactical elements of
design and usability

strategic:
why do people want to use this
in the first place?

tactical:
how well are people able to use it?

Why do UCD?

supposing is good. finding out is better.
- mark twain

http://www.flickr.com/photos/padday/1513526079

Why do UCD?
100x
After Launch
Cost of making changes
6x
1x During
During Development
Design

Why do UCD?
There are four key benefits:
• Increased revenue
• Reduced project risk
• Reduced customer support costs
• Greater brand loyalty

Why do UCD?
• Project teams don’t understand
genuine user requirements
• Users often don’t understand their
own requirements
• Making late changes is slow and
expensive
• Late changes happen because of a
lack of understanding of
requirements

we tend to project our own rationalisations and
beliefs onto the actions and beliefs of others
- don norman, the design of everyday things

to design an easy-to-use interface, pay attention to
what users do, not what they say.
self reported claims are unreliable, as are user
speculations about future behaviour
- jakob nielsen

user research helps you uncover, understand and
design for real user requirements

do I really need to do UCD?

do I really need to do UCD?
if:
a) your end users are just like you and/or
b) you’ve designed (successfully) for these users
before and know them well

do I really need to do UCD?
if:
you find yourself resorting to stereotypes and
cliches (esp. involving your mother or
grandmother), you need to research.

what will I learn from UCD?

Appearance
- what it looks like and how it is arranged
Usability
Interaction
- how the user interacts with the product components
Information
- the information required by the user at different stages
User Structure
Experience - the right elements in the right order
Concept
- the model for how the value is delivered
Proposition
- the value to the customer

Jesse James Garrett, The Elements of User Experience

generative research
prototype
evaluative research

ways to do research

quantitativevsqualitative

The most striking truth of the curve
is that zero users give zero insights.

lab based research

focus groups - care!

field research
(ethnography)

‘guerrilla’ research

silverbackapp.com

what to test?
(prototypes)

iterate!

questions&discussion?

just because nobody complains
doesn’t mean all the parachutes are perfect
- benny hill
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

thank you :)
contact me:
leisa@disambiguity.com
disambiguity.com
twitter.com/leisa