Category Archives: usability

Tiny budget, big value: unmoderated remote usability testing

Posted by Marianne Kjær Jensen on June 2, 2010 – 18:29
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As we pull up our socks and tighten our belts in today’s challenged economy – user testing often ends up being one of the first project components bound for the chopping block.

User testing, touching base with real customers and collecting actionable user feedback isn’t a ‘nice to have’ – it’s a business imperative. Extensive big budget testing might not be an option for many at the moment, but that doesn’t mean user-testing needs to be thrown out the window altogether.

To the contrary – the squeeze has created a growing demand for less expensive alternatives, the availability of which grows daily. Not all are created equally of course, and while they’re by no means always a fool proof replacement for one-on-one moderated interviews, unmoderated remote usability testing can collect a respectable range of both quantitative and qualitative data.

Running your site or layout through one or more testing tools will assemble (quickly and inexpensively) a broad range of data from users in their natural environments, anonymously or from select participants. Survey tools such as CrazyEgg, ClickTale and TeaLeaf gather information about click patterns, clickstream paths, browser base, keyword and traffic sources, among other things, and present data in a useful visual format. A usability specialist can then provide the professional analysis that makes the most out of this data together with recommendations for improvement. *Keep in mind that many clickstream tools do not work for testing flash sites.

Listed below are a few remote testing tools, selected for their accessible price – ranging from free to US$950 – as well as the (all important) ability to apply custom instructions to each test (which is important for quality metrics). The actionability of feedback collected will depend on the types of tasks you ask participants to perform as well as the level of meaning you assign each task. Also remember to test early and test often – “You can use an eraser on the drafting table or a sledge hammer on the construction site” (Frank Lloyd Wright) – the same applies to your project.

Usabilla
http://www.usabilla.com
Usabilla offers micro usability tests and “a fast and simple way to collect visual feedback on webpages, mockups, wireframes, sketches, or any other images.”
Cost ranges from free (1 page/ 50 participants) to US$950 (250 pages/ 200 participants)

You upload a screenshot of your site (which means unfortunately that the influence of interactive effects can not be tested), set up the test (there are some default questions but it is best to use custom instructions/questions), and then share the URL with participants you select yourself. Make sure to ask your participants to view the instruction video first – as the usability of Usabilla can otherwise (ironically) be less than optimal when it comes time for participants to add notes or comments.

Five Second Test
http://www.fivesecondtest.com/
“Five second tests help you easily identify the most prominent elements of your user interfaces… People use five second test to locate calls to action, optimize landing pages, and run A/B tests.”

Cost ranges from free to US$15 (for premium features such as custom instructions and extra feedback).

With five second tests you can find out which parts of your design are most prominent, via either a memory test (you give users five seconds to look at your design and then ask them to remember specific elements) or a click test (you give users five seconds to locate and click on specific elements of your design).

You upload a design and receive a unique URL to share with participants you choose yourself, or you can have the tests run with random test users (for super quick feedback results).

Concept Feedback

http://www.conceptfeedback.com

ConceptFeedback isn’t really a testing tool, but it’s a great resource when you’re too close to the project and need a fresh pair of eyes. Ask specific questions and receive extensive and actionable feedback from other designers and developers. There’s opportunity as well to discuss specific suggestions and provide some feedback yourself.

AB Tests
http://www.abtests.com/
This is an excellent resource for, you guessed it, Split AB testing. Not only can you upload your own URLs or screen shots for testing, but you can learn from the tests other people have run.

Find out which content combination, layout format, form or button treatment results in a better conversion rate. View test examples of home pages, landing pages, sign-up forms and pricing pages – and weave top performing ideas into your own site.

I’ll be adding to this list over time, but in the meantime I’d love to hear any additional suggestions or more about other favourite remote user testing tools.

Industry trends in prototyping

Posted by Marianne Kjær Jensen on April 23, 2010 – 11:11
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Great summary article from Dave Cronin at Adobe covering a range of prototyping methods as well as a solid list of reasons why prototyping is a good idea.

“In the broadest sense, all kinds of design artifacts are prototypes. Pencil sketches, blocks of wood, storyboards, wireframes, foam-core models, pixel-perfect state renderings, clickable demos, and functioning production code are all strategies for representing a thing being designed. However, in the world of interaction design, we usually reserve the term for ways of representing interactivity—not just the form but also behavior.”

“Prototypes are meant to be a cost-effective way of experimenting with ideas… and are generally considered part of the pre-planning phase.” Read More »

10 Unexpected Online User Behaviours to Look Out For

Posted by Marianne Kjær Jensen on April 17, 2010 – 11:33
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As per Webcredible March 2010.

1. People have banner blindness
People don’t notice banners. It’s been found in eye tracking studies their gaze literally avoids settling on any area that looks like an advert instead it seems people actively try to avoid looking at them.

Banner blindness affects most people, and has a startling side effect. Useful areas of the site that are overly graphically designed (and end up looking like an advert) are ignored by users as though they were adverts.

A good way to avoid banner blindness is to ensure your site banners are mostly text, so that they look as much like useful site content as possible.

2. People develop tunnel vision
People who come to watch user testing for the first time are amazed at the tunnel vision participants develop when they are doing a task. An example from a recent round of user testing – The link the participants required was placed in the right hand column, next to an article, but only 2 of 8 participants found it.

If the link users are searching for is not named correctly or not placed where they expect then they will, surprisingly regularly, get stuck. Participants simply don’t notice things on the screen unless it’s where they expected.

Unfortunately there’s no clear way to avoid this problem. The best method to ensure you help users who’ve developed tunnel vision is to perform user testing on key tasks and see if they get stuck.

Read more about points 3-10 at http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-usability/online-behaviour.shtml

3. People won’t hang around on your homepage
4. People don’t have patience
5. People’s gaze trails are manic
6. People don’t take in what they look at
7. People are happy to scroll
8. People don’t read
9. People are creatures of habit
10. People are happy to click through more than 3 levels

ROI and Cost-Justifying Usability

Posted by Marianne Kjær Jensen on March 22, 2010 – 17:42
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The following is a summarized list of ROI stats and research based on a recent browse through Randolf Bias & Deborah Mayhew’s Cost-Jusifying Usability: An Update for the Internet Age, Second Edition

10 benefits of working usability into a website (with greatest results being those worked in from project onset):

1. High return on savings. A problem is at least 10 times more expensive to fix after development than if it were addressed in during the design phase with an initial usability analysis.
The rule of thumb in many usability-aware organizations is that the cost-benefit ratio for usability is $1 : $10-$100. Once a system is in development, correcting a problem costs up to 10-100 times more than had the issue been found and addressed from the start.

2. Correcting the 20 easiest flaws yields a usability improvement of 50%. Include usability from the beginning however and the efficiency improvements can be over 700%.
Applying human factors (usability) in the initial design can greatly reduce extensive redesigns, maintenance, and customer support, which can substantially eat away at profits. American Airlines for example, reduced the cost of fixes by 60-90% by correcting usability problems in the design phase.

Read More »

Making wireframing sexy

Posted by Marianne Kjær Jensen on March 7, 2010 – 11:14
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…or as close as you’re going to get.

As per Semantic Will’s description:
“Increasingly, as designers of interactive systems (spaces, processes and products for people), we find ourselves stretching the limits of communication tools to explore and document what it will be like to interact with the things we design.

We describe wireframing as a form of design communication that enables stakeholders, team members, users and clients to gain first-hand appreciation of existing or future problem spaces and solutions.

We create wireframes to inform both design process and design decisions. Wireframes range from sketches and different kind of models at various levels of fidelity looks like, behaves like, works like to explore and communicate propositions about the design and its context.”

Wireframes for the Wicked

Posted by Marianne Kjær Jensen on March 1, 2010 – 17:12
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“Wireframes beyond the basics, not for the weak at heart. In this panel, three experienced designers will share their tried and true tips for making wireframes really work. We’ll talk about how to sketch a wireframe on the fly to demonstrate an idea and how to create a standalone wireframe deliverable; when to show a concept and when to describe nitty-gritty detail; how to make a narrative wireframe and how to make a specification wireframe. And best of all, we’ll show you plenty of examples.”

The fantastic hour long presentation is available at slide share: http://www.slideshare.net/nickf/wireframes-for-the-wicked

Usability is like cooking: anyone can do it

Posted by Marianne Kjær Jensen on February 15, 2010 – 20:15
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Usability is like cooking: everybody needs the results, anybody can do it reasonably well with a bit of training, and yet it takes a master to produce a gourmet outcome.

How can I say that anybody can do usability? Have I just written myself out of a job? No.
Here’s why: Read More »

Five user experience trends to watch in 2010

Posted by Marianne Kjær Jensen on February 13, 2010 – 15:26
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Interesting post from Gene Smith about user experience trends in 2010. Being predictions – it’ll be interesting to see where they go over the coming year. I agree that there’ll be a push toward quicker, cheaper testing methods – which can be seen as a positive if it gets more companies willing to allocate budget to user testing more regularly, or at all for that matter.

  1. Services as software
    The market for some kinds of UX services is changing. For certain kinds of projects tools like usabillla will offer “good enough, fast and cheap” usability results.
  2. User exerpience anayltics
    The next few years will be about measurement and analytics, and a more analytical approach to the UX discipline will emerge. Don’t get me wrong–design isn’t going away. Like peanut butter and chocolate, design and measurement are better when they work together.
  3. Content strategy
    Despite all the money companies have spent on content management software many organizations still haven’t mastered content. 2010 will be the year companies start to put aside their toys to start to make a serious investments in content strategy.
  4. Return of the mobile web
    Companies that are developing mobile business apps need to avoid locking their users into a mobile platform like the iPhone or Android and start building apps in platform-neutral way using the mobile web. HTML5 will make much richer in-browser experiences possible.
  5. A real experience economy
    Smith highlights an emerging trend: people are trading in conspicuous consumption for life-enriching experiences. This opens up for the emergence of a culture that truly values experience–on the phone, at a kiosk, on the web, in person, at work and at home. That’s a culture where user experience designers will flourish.

Read the entire article here: http://nform.ca/blog/2010/01/five-user-experience-trends-il

All companies have too few resources, not enough budget, too many ideas, and too few executioners.

Posted by Marianne Kjær Jensen on January 29, 2010 – 09:05
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I appreciate the response posted by Bryan Minihan to the IXDA discussion list a couple of months ago for being a much needed dose of good sense. Thank you Leah Buhley for bring it to our attention.

“The greatest mistake I ever made, working for my first big company (70K employees back in 1996) was thinking they were big enough to have solved all of the little problems. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It took 4 years at that company, and another 4 at my next big one (120K folks) before this sank into my thick head:

Both large and small companies not only suffer from similar problems, but they repeat them over and over again – because every company is comprised of human beings, all of whom want to leave their own mark on their respective organizations.

Over time, I have evolved a few mantras that (for me, at least) ensure my design work makes it to production intact: Read More »

Deliverables vs. Delivery

Posted by Marianne Kjær Jensen on January 25, 2010 – 22:27
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Wireframes, flow diagrams, personas, card sorts, content strategy documents, etc. All of these things are important to design, and designers need some combination of them to synthesize their user research and communicate what they’re doing with the other members of the team.

But too often these deliverables are the last line of contact for designers. Too often these deliverables are what designers prepare and then hand off to implementors. Then they shuffle off to create more deliverables and the cycle is repeated.

In the end deliverables are merely artifacts of the design process. They are not the final design, they are not the artifact of experience. The end user never interacts with them…they interact with the product or service that is actually delivered.

That’s the difference: deliverables are divorced from delivery. Read More »