What happens when you do something right?

For all the chat the iPhone is getting at the moment I am not going to buy one. I think the interface does a lot right, but at the moment not enough to justify the price tag, IMHO. I have also got used to all the bells and whistles with my phone, that this just doesn't seem to have yet (read the Ars Technica review here: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/iphone-review.ars).

But they have done something right to justify the hype: the multi-touch interface is an enormous step forward, and here's the proof: everyone is trying to copy it...

The OS phone: http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo1973
The MP3 player: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/07/italian-pmp-wit.html
The Windows mobile: http://www.tech.co.uk/gadgets/phones/[...]698151920

How to make a good website, or, Usability for Developers

This post is really just an excuse to link to Kim Krause Berg's post here, which is essentially a crash course in User Centred Design.

It's great to see someone succinctly put out the message of "test it on users at every stage", and it's a post all my developer friends should read ;)

Usability and SEO

There has been a lot of recent discussion on the web about the relationship between Usability and SEO, centring on an exchange between Usability expert Kim Krause Berg (of cre8pc) and the social content network Sphinn.

One good thing arising from this is that many SEOs are apparently taking Usability more seriously as one of the tools in their armoury (a good thing - thank you Kim). Another is writing like this by Jim Hedger, giving a brief overview of both concepts and their relative importance.

In essence, he states that Usability means how easy a site is to use. The ease of use of a site dramatically affects conversion rates, which affect rankings (as well as profits). Also, more interestingly, the ease of use of a site affects user behaviour, so that more users will spend more time browsing and bying - behaviour that is tracked by Google and Yahoo! (something I didn't know) and contributes to their evaluation of the site as worthwhile.

So there's another reason then - usable sites don't just give you more visitors converting to customers, they also help increase your rankings so you get more visitors in the first place - a virtuous circle.

When Usability is the answer, and when it isn't

I've been reading a lot of posts (example) recently about how usability isn't the answer to every money-making venture on the web's every problem.

And they're right.

But no pro-usability comments or blogs that I have read are claiming that it is. Let's be clear: there are several distinct, important steps to converting a web browsing member of the public into a contented repeat customer:

1. Offer something they want
2. Give them a reason to get it from you
3. Help them find you
4. Help them see that you have what they want, and that they want it from you
5. Help them get it
6. Help them use it, replace it or send it back

Steps 1 and 2 are totally unrelated to usability, but are general business principles. Step 3 is a general business principle; on the web this usually means SEO or SEM (Search Engine Marketing) as well as / instead of advertising - also not usability.

Step 4 is where your traditional marketing and branding comes into play. Usability is an issue here, but mostly as part of a more general User Experience Design (UXD), creating trust and informing the consumer about you and your offering.

Step 5 is down to usability. Without this they won't buy your product or service.

Step 6 is Customer support. Without this they won't come back.

The point I'm making is that usability is not The Answer - that would be a stupid thing to think or to claim, just as to say that having a till near the door accepting various means of payment is the answer to the problems of a traditional B2C business.

It's just that without it your efforts will be wasted - with it your conversions will increase.

Human verification codes

I saw my first really interesting human verification code yesterday; instead of the CAPTCHA-style "type in the letters in the image" system, I was allowed to continue only after clicking on all the animals in a grid of 9 photos that "don't have fur" - so I clicked the seagull and the lizard and was on my way.

I think this is great - it was a really engaging way of getting me to do something onerous, as opposed to squinting at some hard-to-read gobbledegook. A friend mentioned he saw another with a simple arithmetic problem written out; he had to write the answer to "three plus seventeen"...

is the iPhone the answer?

Hot on the back of the iPhone release (and all the accompanying fuss), the first usability study of the iPhone interface has been undertaken by User Centric in Chicago.

Interestingly, while people were very happy with the phone and music-related functionality (especially CoverFlow; which gives some of the feel of 'traditional' media to your digital collection), they were frustrated and disappointed with SMS text entry, web browsing and Google Maps.

Web browsing on the iPhone I'm told is slow, mainly due to AT&T's network capabilities. But the other two downfalls really surprise me: Google Maps is a selling feature of the device, and for people to find the multi-touch screen hard to use for this app is very disappointing.

SMS entry being difficult is due to the vertical keyboard layout being enforced; the horizontal one seems much preferred. With SMS being much more used in Europe than the US, perhaps Apple will think of a software update before their imminent Europe release...?

Either way, there is already competition in terms of multi-touch keyboardless phones on their way; personally I am interested in the Open Source Neo - the next version coming out has similar specs to the iPhone with added GPS and removable media (but also a slower chip unfortunately).

The principles of Usability

Defining usability is a difficult and sometimes contentious task. Many people understand something slightly different from the term, and I don't feel like tackling that issue just yet...

As a non-functional requirement, the measurement of usability is not direct and therefore not easy (which explains why there are so many quacks around making it up as they go along). However, it is generally accepted (and ratified by ISO 9241-11) that in order to measure usability you must measure the following factors of a system:

• Effectiveness
• Efficiency
• User satisfaction

Effectiveness means that your users should be able to accomplish the task they have in mind; your system should not fail and should not prevent users from doing their jobs.

Efficiency means that your users should be able to accomplish their tasks without jumping through all sorts of unneccesary hoops, but you knew that anyway.

User satisfaction is the hardest to define and measure but the easist to understand. A totally subjective measure relating to the other two above, it simply means that people should finish using your system without wanting to smash things.

There are plenty more factors and measures of usability, but most of them can be traced back to these 3; which is why they are in the ISO definition. Examples of important ones are:

• Learnability (people easily learn how to use your system)
• Memorability (people remember what they learned)
• Generalisability (people can apply techniques learned in other situations so don't need to learn to use your system)

There are so many more I suppose I'll carry on doing entries for chunks of them as I go along...

What makes a system 'usable'

The funny thing about a usable system is that everyone has a different definition.

Some people will tell you it has to have a great hierarchical navigation, others that the layout must be clear and concise, others still that the information on the page must be presented in a logical and intuitive way.

The answer really is that its all of these things and more. In terms of your information, you must give people (users are really people) the information they need to decide what to do next, without flooding their senses. In terms of navigation, you must provide logical intuitive (if possible!) navigational structures, but also allow for people who don't respond well to that - also make a good search function and whatever other navigational elements are relevant. In terms of your layout, make sure people see things in the order they need to, can take it all in and decide whether to move swiftly on or go into more depth.

I think it's important to take a holistic approach to user experience design - and I don't mean get the crystals out! While each element can (and should) be assessed on its own, it's the way the parts work together that will determine how well your audience receives your system.

How usability impacts your system

The simple answer is: people will use it more.

This sounds obvious, but all the knock-on effects include customer retention, 'stickiness', word-of-mouth marketing, better conversion rates and even bottom line improvement of your ROI.

If you've ever bought anything online you'll know the difference between an e-commerce business that has tracked its users' behaviour and altered the way it works to make everything seem effortless, and a traditional business that has tacked a cheap transactional site onto its existing offering without a lot of thought.

The chances are you will have bought the item you were looking for from the easy-to-use site and not from the one that hasn't been thought about, unless there was a big difference in price. and the next time you want something similar, you will look around again rather than use the difficult website.

The same is true of all systems - make them easy for each of your customers to use and you'll get one up on your competition.