website usability tutorial for online marketers

  Definitions,  terms,  principles    Some  real-­‐world  examples    Easy  things  you  can  do  today    Questions  and  discussion  

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 …and  those  are  the  last  bullet  points  you’ll  see  from  me!  

 (I  hate  bullet  points  and  sentence  fragments.)  

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 What  is  usability?      Your  intended  users  can  accomplish  what  they’re  trying  to  do  on  your  site  or  with  your  product.    

 Usability  has  several  components.  It  can  mean  learnable,  memorable,  efficient,  and/or  error-­‐tolerant.  

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How  about  this?  

 Usability  is…  

Getting  people  to  what  they  want  or  need  as  quickly  as  possible,  in  a  way  that  assures  that  they:  

Can  figure  out  what  to  do  next  Understand  why  they  should  do  it  

See  how  to  do  it  (And  will  like  doing  it)  

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Getting  people  to  what  they  want  or  need  as  quickly  as  possible  so  they  can:  

Figure  out  what  to  do  next  Understand  why  they  should  do  it  

See  how  to  do  it  (And  will  like  doing  it)  

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What  

Why  

How    

Like    

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Let  me  hear  your  definitions:  

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 I  like  this  definition:  

 The  fundamental  purpose  of  marketing  is  to  identify  what  people  want  and  need,  then  satisfy  those  customers.    

 John  Rhodes,  4  Jan  08.  http://bit.ly/BtfUF    

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Sound  familiar?  

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Marketing      SEO    Design  Usability  Identify  what      Make  it    Give  it  to  Ensure  that  

 they  want    findable        them    you  gave  it  

                   to  them  

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 When  people  talk  about  “usability”,  they’re  usually  talking  about  user-­‐centered  design.  

Without  a  design,  you  have  nothing  to  usability  test!  

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 Respect  design.  And  designers.    

They  help  create  the  emotional  bond  that  you’re  trying  to  build  with  your  audience.  

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 Like  “security”  and  “accessibility”  (and  “beauty”),  usability  is  experiential  –  it’s  

experienced  by  the  perceiver.    

Usability  cannot  be  claimed,  it  can  only  be  established  through  demonstration.    

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Determine  whether  your  intended  users  can:    

Figure  out  what  to  do  next  Understand  why  they  should  do  it  

See  how  to  do  it  (And  will  like  doing  it)  

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 User-­‐centered  design  is  a  process  in  which  the  needs,  wants,  and  limitations  of  users  are  given  extensive  attention  at  each  stage  of  the  ideation,  define,  and  design  phases.    

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Design  

Research  

Wireframes  Interaction  design  

Visual  design  

Persona  definition  Site  visits  

Workflow  analysis  User  role  identification  

Usability  

Two  parallel  work  streams:  

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Design  

Research  

Wireframes  Visual  design  

Iterate  design    and    personas  

Iterate  design    and    personas  

Validated  design  

Validated  user  models  

Customer    site  visits  

Synthesis  of  customer  roles  and  workflow.  Usability  evaluation.  

“Default”  personas  

End  result:  

Time  

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Model  your  users!  

Start  from  demographic  data,  if  you  have  it.    Then  interview  and  observe  some  real  users  

Identify  their  typical  goals,  experiences,  needs.    

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 It’s  not  “rocket  surgery.”    

You  can  do  this!  

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  Define  your  users,  their  goals,  and  their  constraints.  

  Design  interactions  to  meet  the  personas’  needs…    Does  your  persona  need  lots  of  support  and  reassurance?  Hold  their  hand!  

  Do  they  want  to  go  fast?  Let  ‘em  tab  through  fields.  Don’t  ask  for  information  you  don’t  absolutely  need.    

  Test  your  design  with  actual  users.    Optimize  with  A/B/multivariate  testing.  

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OK,  I  lied  about  “no  more  bullets.”  

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 The  job  of  research    Determine  the  target  users’  characteristics.  

 Model  the  users.  

 Ensure  that  design  understands  and  accounts  for  the  user  characteristics.  

 Assess  whether  the  design  addresses  the  three  W’s  and  one  L.  

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 The  job  of  design    Answer  the  visitors’  questions  and  counter  their  objections.  

 State  the  offering’s  value.  

 Clearly  indicate  price.  (Or  clearly  indicate  how  to  get  to  it.)  

 Show  them  the  path  to  uptake.    

An  e-­‐commerce  web  site  I’ve  worked  on…  

 First,  the  quick  usability  fix.    

Then  we’ll  evaluate  it  live…  three  W’s  and  one  L-­‐style.  

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That  button  increased  the  percentage  of  clicks  to  the  configure  and  purchase  path  by  (low)  

double  digits.  

Who  knew  that  one  button  could  make  such  a  big  difference?  

Well,  I  did  actually…    

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 [Let’s  look  at  a  site  together]  

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 Define  (business  goals,  target  users,  personas)  

 Validate  (assumptions  about  users)  

 Design  (workflow,  interactions,  layout,  visuals)  

 Validate  (whether  the  design  achieves  the  goals)  

 Implement  and  assess…and  repeat  

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Ask  yourself  these  questions:  

Have  you  defined  your  users  well?  

If  not,  your  site  might  not  be  as  usable  as  you  think!  

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Ask  yourself  these  questions:  

Are  you  clear  on  what  you  want  your  site  to  accomplish?    

Believe  it  or  not,  sometimes  organizations  aren’t.  

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Ask  yourself  these  questions:  

Have  you  tested  your…  

Home  page?  Landing  pages?  Account  creation  flow?  Product  pages?  Main  conversion  flows?  

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Ask  yourself  these  questions:  

Have  you  begun  to  A/B/multivariate  optimize?  Make  it  a  Darwinian  struggle…survival  of  the  

fittest  (pages)  

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 If  you  do  even  some  of  these  things,  you’ll  be  on  your  way  to  a  better  designed  and  more  

usable  site.    

And  you’ll  convert  more  visitors  (to  users,  community  members,  buyers,  reviewers,  

whatever  your  goal  is).    

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Often,  doing  these  things  require  that  you  change  your  organization.  And  changing  

organizations  is  hard!  

You  need  a  strategy  and  an  implementation  plan.    

And  you’re  going  to  have  to  sell  the  plan.  

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 “[Strategy  is]  A  long  term  plan  of  action  designed  to  achieve  a  particular  goal.”  

 “Strategy  is  differentiated  from  tactics  or  immediate  actions  by  its  orientation  on  affecting  future,  not  immediate  conditions.”  

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Driving  from  the  airport  to  the  hotel  

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 Strategic  plan:  Go  from  airport  to  hotel  

 Tactics:      Make  some  turns  

How  do  you  “do”  strategic  user  experience?    

It  sometimes  means    big  changes.    

It  often  drives  process  and  organizational  structure  changes.  

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 Remember,  in  many  organizations,  departments  and  teams  are  incented  to  create  bad  user  experiences.  

 Changing  organization  structures  and  incentives  to  refocus  on  the  customer  is  hard  work.  

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 Offline:      Nordstrom’s.  Virgin  Air.  

 Online:    Zappos.  Amazon.  Land’s  End.  (Offline  too.)    

 Who  else?  

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The  sad  truth:  most  organizations  don’t  align  on  the  

user  experience.  

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 Everybody’s.  And  nobody’s.    

 That’s  the  problem.    

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How  do  you  take  a  strategic  approach  to  creating  a  great    

user  experience?    

 Four  very  hard  easy  steps…  

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 1.  Alignment    Find  the  disincentives  to  delivering  a  good  user  experience,  then  surface  them  to  your  leadership.  Eliminate  them.  

 Advocate  for  tweaking  the  business  model  if  you  need  to.    

 Don’t  take  “bad  profits”.  Bad  profits  are  unsustainable  profits.  

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 2.  Values    Be  open  to  learning  and  improving  the  user  experience.    

 Those  aphorisms  about  the  customer  always    being  right?  They’re  all  true.  

 Remember  the  guy  who  complained  about  the  food  on  Virgin  Air?  He’s  now  a  taster.  Stunt?  Yes.  But  effective  and  revealing!  

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 3.  Assess  the  user  experience  holistically    Walk  the  customer  corridor.  Assess  the  total  experience  –  not  just  the  user  interface.  

 Find  the  sticky  points,  the  little  trapdoors.  

 Remember,  one  bad  touchpoint  affects  the  whole  brand.  

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 From  sign-­‐up  to  initial  use…free  to  pay  conversion…calling  and  emailing  help,  tech  support,  and  billing…even  closing  the  account.  

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 If  you  don’t  know  about  this  concept,  talk  to  your  product  managers.  They  do.  

62  A  typical  product  manager-­‐y  image…    

 4.  Leverage  user  experience  design    Don’t  just  fix  the  little  user  experience  trapdoors  and  holes.    

 Assess  and  redesign  the  customer  touchpoints…  all  of  them.    

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Yeah,  but…  how  do  I  get  my  organization  to  do  this?    

“Initiative”  

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Give  yourself  a  new  job:    “Change  agent”  

Easy  to  say…  harder  to  put  into  practice.  

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A  person  who  leads  a  business  initiative  by:    Defining  and  researching  the  problem    Planning  the  intervention    Building  business  support  for  the  intervention    Enlisting  others  to  help  drive  change  

Isixsigma.com  UXmatters.com  –  “The  User  Experience  Practitioner  As  Change  Agent”  

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“Change  agents  must  have  the  conviction  to  state  the  facts  based  on  data,  even  if  the  

consequences  are  associated  with  unpleasantness.”  

Isixsigma.com  Uxmatters.com  –  “The  User  Experience  Practitioner  As  Change  Agent”  

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Successful  strategic  user  experience  is  not  just  about  delivering  a  design  or  testing  

the  site.  

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It’s  about  aligning  the  organization  to  measure  and  improve  the  user  experience…  

Using  the  tools  and  techniques  of  user  research  and  usability  assessment.  

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If  you’re  doing  your  job  right,  you’re  changing  your  

organization.  

“Initiative”  

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 Connecting  Cultures,  Changing  Organizations:  The  User  Experience  Practitioner  As  Change  Agent.  Published  in  UXMatters  Magazine,  January  2007.  http://uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000162.php  

 Usability  For  Strategic  User  Experience.  http://www.slideshare.net/PaulSherman/usability-­‐for-­‐strategic-­‐user-­‐experience    

 A  Kit  For  Building  User  Experience  Teams  In  R&D  and  Product  Management  Organizations.  http://www.slideshare.net/PaulSherman/user-­‐experience-­‐kit    

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 Paul  Sherman    Sherman  Group  User  Experience    www.shermanux.com    paul@shermanux.com    Twitter:  @pjsherman  

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