Posts Tagged ‘usability’

Usability Testing: What it is, what it isn’t

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

Usability testing is an important part of the web development process, but it’s also one of the least-well understood. Very often we see misconceptions about what usability testing is, and what it isn’t.

This blog post will hopefully provide a primer on how you should be using usability testing.

One of the most important concepts in usability testing is that it should focus on how easily the user can complete a given task.

These tasks should be clearly defined from the outset of the project, and should be the key actions that you want your users to be able to perform. For example, this might be:

  • Filling in a contact form
  • Finding essential contact information
  • Completing a purchase

It’s essential that we know from the outset what the goals for your website will be; this allows us to create appropriate calls to action and a design that is consistent with these goals.

When testing how well users complete these goals, there are four criteria used to judge the success of the test:

  • Performance: How long did it take the user to complete the task? How many steps did it take?
  • Accuracy: Did the user make mistakes in the process? If they did, were they able to recover from them?
  • Recall: Could the user remember how to complete the task afterwards? Will they remember how to do it in the future?
  • Emotional response: How did the user feel on completing the task? Stressed? Relieved? Comfortable?

Depending on your budget, there are various methods for implementing usability testing.

Hallway Testing

The least expensive option is hallway testing, where people unconnected with the project are asked to complete tasks, as specified above. The advantage of this method is its cost. This method is also called “hallway intercept testing” – literally stopping people in the hallway and asking for their help!

The disadvantage of this method is that it doesn’t necessarily provide a good cross-section of the group that will be using the site. It’s an informal method, and the familiarity of the user and the person conducting the tests could influence the outcome of the tests.

Remote Testing

Remote testing involves the use of specially set up online surveys to test the usability of a site or application. One such service, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, offers a cost-effective method of testing your site with a wide variety of users.

Although more expensive than hallway testing, this method offers a more formal testing structure, and encourages a goal-centred approach. With Mechanical Turk, you can also choose to reject submitted results if you feel the quality of feedback is not good enough.

Expert Review

The third, and (by far!) most expensive option is expert review. This involves working with a specialist usability testing company to provide in-depth analysis for the goals listed above. 360innovate work with a number of these companies, and can suggest one that is suitable for your needs.

Usability testing: what it’s not

The most common problem we see with usability testing is that it is performed without goals in mind, or that the goals are not clearly defined at the start of the project. In effect, test subjects are being asked “what do you think of this site”?

This is very definitely  not usability testing. Unless you relate feedback to the original goals of the project, it’s very unlikely that you’ll get useful feedback on the success of the project. You might get some useful information for future development, but you won’t get useful feedback on the success of what you’ve built.

In short, you should know what the goals of the project are before the first the first line of code is written, and you should be testing how well each task relating to a goal has been implemented.

Why should I bother at all?

Usability testing is a vital tool to judge the success of a project. The internet is awash with stories emphasising the importance of usability testing, and the real question is “can you afford not to perform usability testing?”

Please get in touch if you’d like to talk about what usability testing can do for you.

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So you’ve got an idea for a website?

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

If you have a idea for a website and an off-the-shelf system just won’t cut it, you might be in need of bespoke web development. As specialists in this field, we talk to a great many people who have ideas for online businesses, and in this article, I’d like to outline some points to help you get the most from your development experience, and your business.

Treat your online business like an offline business

“Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don’t think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.” – Bill Gates

Before you even think about beginning development, it’s essential to research the market thoroughly, and one of the best ways to formalise this process is to write a business plan.

A business plan will encourage you to think about your business objectives and strategies, the markets in which it will operate, and its financial projections. In doing this, you’ll spot potential pitfalls earlier, and be better able to plan the future of the business. (And perhaps even decide whether you will proceed with the business or not!)

Once you’ve completed your business plan, it’s a good idea to gather feedback from neutral parties (in other words, not family members!) Banks, investors, and business partners are all good sources of feedback at this stage.

Most importantly, think about your unique selling point. What problem will your website solve? What can you do that your competitors can’t? These are age-old questions, and they are just as important when doing business online.

In addition, it’s a good idea to prepare everything you need to launch well in advance. Imagery, content, and stock all need to be readied prior to launch, as do any payment gateways. Make sure you’re ready to kick-off your website with a bang, just as you would launch a bricks-and-mortar business with a bang.

KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid!

“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

The most successful websites have simplicity at their heart. Think about two obvious examples, Google and Twitter.


Although these sites offer some very complex functionality, their core actions could be described in a couple of sentences. This has an effect on the interface – key actions are thrust to the forefront of the user’s attention, giving the impression that the site is easy to use.

By keeping your application simple, you will also reduce development time, and therefore keep development costs low. So when you’ve thought about all the functionality you would like for your site, go through that wishlist again and cut out anything that doesn’t directly and obviously benefit the user. Be brutal – it can always be added at a later date if your users need it.

Also, reconsider any internal features that could be dropped to reduce costs while the business is starting up. For example, you might want your web site to integrate with an accounting package, but if you are only anticipating a couple of orders each week, could this data be migrated manually? If this feature could be rolled out at a later date, that’s money in your pocket right now that you can invest in marketing your website.

Whatever you do, be aware of the ‘kitchen sink’ mentality and avoid it!

Launch early, launch often

“I like to launch early and often. That has become my mantra” – Marissa Mayer (Google)

Some of the biggest and most successful companies espouse launching early and often. This means that websites and applications are launched as early as possible, even if some features are not in place. The main benefit of this is that you gain invaluable feedback at an early stage, allowing you to tweak your product based on what your user actually wants – not what you think they want.

Again, this mindset helps to reduce costs since you don’t spend time developing features that your users don’t…well…use!

Think about your post-launch strategy

“Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation.” – Milan Kundera

A common mistake is to consider your website ‘finished’ once it has launched. From online marketing to developing new features, you should always be thinking about how you can provide a better service for your users. Look at what your competitors are doing on a regular basis – think about what works for them and what doesn’t work for them.

Remember that these activities cost money, so don’t spend every penny of your budget before your site has launched.

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Infatuated with ‘above the fold’ web design? by John Ellis

Monday, May 11th, 2009

One myth used to explain web layouts

Many people (not least those working in the industry) are well aware that being a web designer / developer is often not an easy job.

There are many factors to consider – some technical but for designers many of them human, where person meets web interface (or so to speak). As a designer I’m still surprised at the amount of myths sold to clients as fact and best practice when designing for the web. In turn this often perpetuates misconceptions that are then thought to be well founded and fact based by website viewers.

One such notion is the ‘above the fold’ principle, a layout principle appropriated originally from print media. Now I’m not saying that many print techniques haven’t been fundamental in enabling designers to produce great layouts for the web (one example being the use of rational/irrational grids) – however there are some ideas that should definitely be challenged and given the growing amount of evidence to the contrary, one design question perhaps we should be asking “is using the above the fold’ design principle relevant in 2009?”.

Often we are asked as designers to “cram as much information in above the fold as possible”, usually followed by “surely we don’t need all that white space, it needs a picture in there”….and “what about using these three bright colours together”.

Well for those of you who might be scratching your heads at the talk of a fold in a webpage here is the basic principle – In web terms the word ‘fold’ means the on-screen line beyond which a user must scroll down to see further information on a page.

The term was coined in reference to broadsheet newspaper layout / design and historically due to the dimensions of the newspaper the ‘big scoops’ would be placed in the most prominent place possible on the front page to achieve the greatest impact. This area is of course above where the newspaper would be folded in half and the lesser ‘news worthy’ stories would then be placed lower down the page ‘below the fold’, as the reader would have to turn the paper over to continue reading.

If we build it will they scroll?

Well yes they will. In 1997 Jakob Nielson wrote about a growing understanding and use by internet users of scroll bars when viewing websites – Now over twelve years later surely web users have moved on further in their understanding of scrolling?

Other more recent webpage performance studies (ClickTale Scrolling Research Study,  2006) have shown that 91% of web pages use vertical scrolling and over 76% of web users scroll to some extent when visiting a page.

Other viewer behavioural studies conducted by AOL, W3C and other smaller sample group tests present similar evidence, showing that we as web designers had perhaps not given web users enough credit for being able to use scroll bars in the browser.

Not only do these studies suggest that web users in principle scroll when viewing a webpage, but other anecdotal evidence perhaps also support this;

The vast majority of modern mice (Logitech state up to 91%) have a ‘scroll wheel’ – this promotes a greater ease and use of scrolling within pages and there is again evidence to support that a high percentage of web users are not only comfortable but understand and use the mouse wheel on page visits to some extent.

We perhaps should also trust the viewer to locate the information they need –now that’s not to say we should as designers make it harder, that’s clearly counterproductive, but by using certain design techniques we can give clear indications where and how content can be found and used. Many HCI design principles i.e. Simplicity, Visibility, Affordance, Consistency, Structure and Feedback should all be considered in an effort to enhance and deliver good user experience.

(more…)

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