#UsabilityFail - Stop wasting your Marketing Budget on Bad Usability and the Golden rules of usability

1. #UsabilityFail
Stop wasting your Marketing
Budget on Bad Usability
#PrecSem
Darren Amer

2. Announced on train:
“Please use yellow button to flush the toilet.
Not red as that will stop the train”.
Train stopped.
#UsabilityFail

3. Usability vs. User Experience

4. User experience
It starts by being useful...
Desirability
Functionally people must Usability
be able to use it...
Utility
The way it looks must be
pleasing... “Is the product
useful to me”
“I can easily use it”
The overall experience
“I like the way it looks and feels”
“I like the product”
Executing well on all of these areas creates a positive user experience.
Research and testing is needed for each.

5. More than two thirds of companies
(68%) recognise a strong link between
long-term business performance and
customer experience.
Econsultancy Multichannel Customer Experience Report, 2010
http://econsultancy.com/uk/reports/multichannel-customer-experience-report

6. Quick straw poll:
Hands up if you have a digital
marketing budget

7. Quick straw poll:
Keep your hands up if you also
have a usability or user experience
budget

8. Quick straw poll:
Keep your hands up if your
usability budget is the same or
more than your digital marketing
budget

9. ― Pay Per Click paid advertising
― Referrals from groomed sites
― Engaging Social Media
― Mobile sites & mobile apps
developed
― SEO Landing pages optimised

10. ...and it’s a utter
waste if they fail
to convert

11. Is attracting people to the site
inherently more effective than
converting people on the site?

13. Conversions
The funnel is
getting fed but the
wastage is high

14. Doubling Conversions
=
3,455 extra visitors
---- or ----
53 extra conversions

15. Put another way, do you want to:
Increase non-converting (bad?)
experience to 6,804
---- or ----
Decrease the non-converting
(bad?) experiences?

16. Is bad usability hurting your brand?

17. “Online ad spending set to hit $50B
in 2015” – eMarketer, 2011

18. But it can still all be ruined by poor usability and experience

19. How do you measure
the value of usability?

20. Spend 10% = Improve 83%
Jakob Nielsen

21. Why usability fails
Jakob Nielsen

22. Why usability fails
1. Lack of consistency
2. Lack of clear navigation to common
goals
3. Lack of orientation in the process
4. Lack of error handling
5. A lack of clear closure
6. No easy reversal of actions
7. Lack of control
8. Content is unclear and hard to read
9. Too much information/memory
required to perform an action…
Jakob Nielsen WHY?

24. Examples:

25. The University of Texas at Austin
How NOT to present a campus map http://bit.ly/eJOh8e
(Expand) Sheesh! #UsabilityFAIL

27. Usability Fail
Testing would have found
this out...?

28. Testing would have found this out...?

29. Customer/user research would have found
this out

30. End-to-end testing would have found this
out

31. End-to-end testing would have found this
out

32. Mental Model
Fail

33. Common Sense Fail

36. Common Sense Fail
iTunes Legal Agreement:
g. Blah blah blah...
You also agree that you will not use these products for blah blah
blah... the development, design, manufacture, or production of
nuclear, missiles, or chemical or biological weapons.

37. So... How big is the wastage?
How can you measure it?

38. 1. Use your analytics

39. Check your Bounce Rates

40. Check your Unexpected Exit pages

41. 1. Use your analytics
2. Use DIY usability methods

42. DIY usability methods
― Brainstorm analytic findings
― Heuristic evaluation [Good usability rules of thumb]
― Conduct a [short] user survey
― Ask your customer services
― Track customer complaints (inc. on social media)
― Ask a [non-technical] colleague to do a task
― Assess site against your market/competitors
― Check how your site works without CSS
― Check what the experience is like on a mobile phone
― REMEMBER: You are not “normal” – you know too much

43. 1. Use your analytics
2. Use DIY usability methods
3. Commission a professional
usability study

46. “Ethnographic” and
“diary” studies

49. What does it cost?

51. So
 We’ve measured the problem
 We understand the range of techniques that
could be used
 We get what the trade off is between effort
and results
Now, who is going to own this?

52. Attracting people to the site
Marketing
Making the
IT Web Team Manage site
site work
Services /
Products
Delivering what people do on the site

53. Attracting people to the site
Marketing
Making the
IT Usability Web Team Manage site
site work
Services /
Products
Delivering what people do on the site

54. Spend 10% = improve 83%

55. So, let’s hear from you:
Increase visits to Improving usability
increase to improve
conversions conversions

56. An introduction to
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63. Usability
The golden rules
#PrecSem
Mark Russell and Darren Amer
20 October 2011

67. The golden rules
1. Users
2. Interactions
3. Accessibility
4. Content
5. Consistency
6. Strategy

68. 1. Users

69. You are not the user. Neither is your
boss
• What do they want to do?
• What do you want them to do?
• What barriers do they face?

70. The bad

74. What you can do

79. Persona 4: Alumni
“I keep an eye on upcoming events and research my old friends at the
University are doing. News feeds are important as I’m a busy man”
Dr Alan Mackintosh, GP, 40
Key tasks
Web usage • Alan is a busy man with little free time between work and
family life. He subscribes to updates from alumni relations
Access to other information platforms and the events section of the site to keep up to date with
new information
Use of your website • He keeps an eye on upcoming events and lectures, trying to
find time to attend one or two a year
Strength of relationship with you • He finds and keeps in touch with other alumni though the
website and especially enjoys reunions when they are
arranged
Alan is a GP, living in Hertford, Herts, with his wife Alana and • Research is another important area , keeping him up to
their two small children; Isla 9, and Hamish 7. Alana is date in his own area of expertise. Some old friends from his
pregnant, so there will soon be yet another addition to the student days are now work at the University, and he is
family. After Alan graduated his first job was in Scotland, always interested in reading work they publish
after which he moved to Cambridge for his GP training. His
main interests are art history and photography, but he also You would like to promote
enjoys bird watching, playing golf, art galleries, theatre, music • Alumni benefits and networking events/opportunities
and the pub - Alan is a big fan of real ale. He is not politically
• Upcoming events and seminars particularly alumni events
active, but he supports the coalition government.
and those related to medicine
He accesses the internet both from his PC at work and at
home using his laptop and his new iPad. Websites he visits are • New research that’s being carried out
Flickr, the Independent, Amazon, eBay, Waitrose, Expedia, • News feeds, so that Alan can subscribe
Wikipedia and Art. His parents live in Edinburgh so he is still • How, when and where alumni can donate to the University
in touch with the area and the local community. He has an
interest in distance learning.

80. The good

84. The takeaway

85. 1. You are not the user. Neither is your boss
2. Interactions

87. The bad

98. What you can do

99. Forms and errors
• Labelling with explanations where required
• Mark mandatory fields clearly
• If it’s not required, why ask for it?
• Let the computer handle errors
• Validate inline
• Informative error messages
• Clear calls to action
• Surrounding visual elements can support or impair
different aspects of user behaviour.

102. The good

104. The takeaway

105. 3. Accessibility

106. It’s more than just disabled users
• Always remember users with physical
and cognitive disabilities
• Also consider technological and
cultural differences

107. What you can do

112. Culture, Language and UX !
The
Arabic
Palestinian
Abu Karim Muhammad al-Jamil ibn Nidal ibn Abdulaziz al-
Filistini
Son of
Abdulaziz
Father of Muhammad
The beautiful Son of Nidal
Karim (Given name)

113. Culture, Language and UX !

114. Culture, Language and UX !

115. The takeaway

116. 4. Content

117. The bad

118. What is poor content?
• Not getting to the point
• Not breaking up pages
• Using the wrong language

119. Tedious
waffle
The bad
Writing for the web
can be a daunting
process for a lot of
people. You’ll notice
the same three
mistakes tend crop up
time and time again.

120. Shout out what
would make this
better?

121. To the Tedious
point waffle
The 3 most common Writing for the web
web writing mistakes can be a daunting
are: ignoring the needs process for a lot of
of your people. You’ll notice
audiences, taking too the same three
long to make a mistakes tend crop up
point, and using too time and time again.
much text.

122. Hours to
read
Page Title
This is some text. This is some more
text. This is some text. This is some
more text. This is some text. This is
some more text. This is some text. This
is some more text. This is some text.
This is some more text. This is some
text. This is some more text. This is
some text. This is some more text. This
is some text. This is some more text.
This is some text. This is some more
text. This is some text. This is some
more text. This is some text. This is
some more text. This is some text. This
is some more text. This is some text.
This is some more text. This is some
text. This is some more text. This is
some text. This is some more text. This
is some text.

123. Shout out what
would make this
better?

124. Hours to Easy to
read read
Page Title Page Title
This is some text. This is some more This is some text. This is some more
text. This is some text. This is some text. This is some text. This is some
more text. This is some text. This is more text.
some more text. This is some text. This
is some more text. This is some text. Subheading
This is some more text. This is some This is some text. This is some more
text. This is some more text. This is text. This is some text. This is some
some text. This is some more text. This more text.
is some text. This is some more text.
This is some text. This is some more Another subheading
text. This is some text. This is some This is some text. This is some more
more text. This is some text. This is text. This is some text.
some more text. This is some text. This
is some more text. This is some text.
Subheading the third
This is some more text. This is some
text. This is some more text. This is • List item 1
some text. This is some more text. This • Another list item
is some text. • And one more

126. The good

128. The takeaway

129. Headings
Page summary Information the user must have
Highlighted content for your page to be successful
What you can do
Main content
Additional helpful
information
Deeper content In-depth &
Links to further reading detailed
Bin

130. 5. Consistency

131. Gently hold your user’s hand
• Users learn from other sites
• Don’t make them think
• Visual and linguistic cues make a
huge difference

132. The bad

139. What you can do

143. The good

147. The takeaway

148. 6. Strategy

149. How does your website
align to your core
business objectives?

150. Define your key
performance indictors
based on your goals and
measure them

151. Business objective Goal KPI
1 2 3

152. Business objective Goal KPI
1 2 3
Increase customers Monthly sales/revenue
Sell subscription
packages for
entertainment and Increase interest in Monthly unique visits
communications products and services
we
Build good will with Provide news and be an Number of returning
existing customers information resource visit
Effective marketing Build a CRM Number of registrations

153. Remember the golden rules!
1. Users
2. Interactions
3. Accessibility
4. Content
5. Consistency
6. Strategy

154. Thank you!

155. @PrecedentComms
#PrecSem
#UsabilityFail