Usability & User Experience 101 - #UX101

Usability and User Experience 101 by Paul Rouke Head of Usability at PRWD 20 th February 2010 @ MMU Twitter Hashtag #UX101

7 years experience focused on: – improving ‘visitor >> purchaser’ conversion rates – increasing average order values – improving number of returning visitors – converting offline shoppers to online shoppers
The UK’s leading online and home shopping retailer
Annual sales of around £1.5 billion
Around 5 million customers
My background Joined the very 1st e-commerce team in 1999 in design and usability role

The Leading North West Usability and User Experience Consultancy
Provide services to help improve the performance of websites
Usability testing
Expert evaluations
User-centered design
Usability training
Consultancy
Who is PRWD?

PRWD Clients Include PRWD clients include…

Effectiveness – Can they reach their goals
find what they are looking for
do what they want to do?
Efficiency – How fast
number of errors
amount of effort
number of steps?
Satisfaction – Was it a good/bad experience?
Do it again?
Recommend to others?
“ The effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which specified users achieve specified goals in particular environments” ISO 13407 – User Centred Design Process for Interactive Systems What is Usability and User Experience? What is usability and user experience?

The good news
A more ‘usable’ website means you’ll get more bang for your marketing buck
Google Adwords
Search Engine Optimisation
Social Media
Email Marketing
Affiliate Advertising

#UX101 objective
Provide breathing space

Characteristics of bad/poor websites Tweet #UX101 bad .......................

Benefits of improving website usability Tweet #UX101 benefit .......................

Still the most important page on your site
49.7% of customers land on the home page of websites (DoubleClick)
It is the best place for you to outline your value proposition and show what is within your website
5 main questions your homepage should answer
What site / company is this?
What do they have here?
What can I do here (what does the site offer)?
Where do I start?
Why should I be here – and not somewhere else?
Homepages

21st October 2010 Paul Rouke - Head of Usability at PRWD | Clear primary navigation Prominant link to primary tool High visibility of useful information Clearly defined structure for key services Prominent calls to action

#UX101 objective
Use free tools to test different ideas

Consider answering these questions
Do we make our proposition clear? (especially useful for testing new visitors)
Do our USP's have enough prominence amongst other elements of the page?
Are visitors encouraged to click on our primary call to action? (useful if your site currently has one primary objective and product to promote)
Are we appropriately promoting our primary services that are the most profitable for our business?
More information on this approach can be seen on my Econsultancy article:
http://econsultancy.com/blog/4512-take-five-seconds-to-test-your-call-to-action-and-usp
Homepages – First Impressions Homepages

Clear primary navigation Clear proposition Prominent call to action Credibility enhancement Visual stimulus

| Clear primary navigation Clear proposition Prominent call to action Credibility enhancement Visual stimulus

Clear primary navigation Clear proposition Prominent call to action Credibility enhancement Visual stimulus

TIP – don’t hide your USP’s For micro businesses and SME’s, quickly establishing your USP’s & credibility is vital to compete with well known competitors

Case study – don’t hide your USP’s

#UX101 objective
Don’t hide your unique selling points

2 main types
Existing internal pages of your website
Bespoke pages designed specifically for a marketing campaign
The same usability principles apply as with homepages
Make it clear what site / company this is
Outline the proposition
Make it clear what visitors should do next
Establish credibility with customer quotes or testimonials
Provide one primary call to action
Think who > what > why > lets do it
Landing pages

Landing pages – bespoke

#UX101 objective
Encourage visitors to enquire/purchase

Landing pages – bespoke Who What Why Lets do it

#UX101 objective
Ensure your primary call to action is clear

Landing pages – existing internal pages

5 main objectives of an existing landing page
Make it clear what site / company this is
Outline the proposition
Make it clear where visitors are within your website
Make content easy to scan
Provide one primary call to action
Landing pages – existing internal pages

#UX101 objective
Answer the question – where am I?

Prominent page title
Clarity of where you are
Simple, clean interface
Headings tailored to primary visitor requirements
Use of white space and formatting to aid scanability
Clear call to action and related options
Cross selling to related products and services
8 Option to use alternative communication to help answer visitor questions and concerns
Landing pages – existing internal pages 1 2 4 3 6 5 7 8

#UX101 objective
Help visitors decide “where should I go next?”

2 main types
Enquiry
Buy
Conversions

Form Primary and Secondary Actions Focussing the visitor on what you want Use button size, style and colour to focus the user and increase conversions

Online enquiry forms Key ‘Principles’ we are taught Keep them simple Only ask for the minimum info required People are busy, they don’t have time for big forms

Which form will visitors most use?

Which form do visitors most use? 14% 86%

How well do these enquiries convert into sales?

How well do these enquiries convert into sales? 17%

How well do these enquiries convert into sales? 17% 55%

They can be long
They can be complex
They can give the visitor many choices
TIP – be careful of enquiry form myths

#UX101 objective
Don’t hide your contact details

TIP - Tailor your enquiry forms Make it easier for visitors to specify what they are interested in by providing options on your enquiry forms

Which test won? Original version

Which test won? Test version A

Which test won? Original v Test version A - RESULTS + 9%

Which test won? Test version A – What and why
Make the required and optional information more obvious
Remove the back button to encourage completion

Which test won? Test version A

Which test won? Test version B

#UX101 objective
Answer key visitor questions

Which test won? Test version A v Test version B - RESULTS + 66%

Which test won? Test version B – What and why?
Remove branding to focus the visitor on completing the form
Provide support information as to the 2 different options for getting a quote
Answer visitor questions to encourage more requests for quotes

#UX101 objective
Remove dead ends

We all know how important it is to be considerate of what people want… especially when buying presents… …look what can happen when we’re not!

#UX101 objective
Watch other people use your website

Getting an understanding of how other people use your website is one of the most enlightening experiences you can have
There are 3 type of user testing, suitable for all budgets:
User testing Guerrilla Remote Moderated

What is guerilla user testing? FREE Simple Enlightening Delivers actionable results

#UX101 objective
Fall in love with web analytics (esp Goals)

What is remote user testing? Cheap Simple Enlightening Delivers actionable results

Try it for FREE with a PRWD partner: Visit http://whatusersdo.com Use promo code UX101 1st 50 get one FREE test

What is moderated user testing? In-depth Comprehensive Important for larger brands Delivers actionable results

Moderated Testing in Manchester with MMU > MMU are a PRWD partner > Fully featured testing lab > Suitable for websites, games and mobile

#UX101 objective
Don’t make people think

#UX101 takeouts
Good usability and user experience isn’t just for the big boys

#UX101 takeouts
If you don’t measure what you do, you don’t know if its working

#UX101 takeouts
There is no magic formula – you need to understand what your users want

Connect with me http://uk.linkedin.com/in/paulrouke Office: 0161 228 0585 Mobile: 07739 745 126 Email: paulrouke @ prwd.co.uk Web: http://www.prwd.co.uk PRWD 22 Lever Street Manchester M1 1EA http://twitter.com/paulrouke

Why we leave websites Customer Acquisition First Impression Search for info or service Act upon info or service Slow page load Poor look and feel Confusing jargon, topic organisation Inflexible search Poor search results Privacy & security concerns Unreadable content Clumsy site navigation % of site visitors 100% 0% Forms errors

Thankyou for coming along to “Usability & User Experience 101” by Paul Rouke Slides, resources & best practice available here: http://blog.prwd.co.uk/usability/UX101

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Usability & User Experience 101 - #UX101

by Paul Rouke on Feb 10, 2011

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Usability & User Experience 101 - #UX101 — Presentation Transcript