cheap'n'easy usability
DESCRIPTION
This presentation explains and covers discount usability techniquesTRANSCRIPT
CHEAP’N’EASY USABILITYPaul Canning
First presented August 2006, East Midlands Conference Centre
Introduction
This presentation is about how YOU can do discount testing
• How to do discount testing• Why you should do it• Tackling perceived barriers
Do you want to hear the good news first or the bad news?
So you want to hear the good news?• You’re already doing it
Take-away
• Anyone can do it
• Don’t need to sign up
• Discount testing is not a black art
How come?
This ain’t new
Jacob Nielsen article from 1994
Saint Jacob
Testers — Confidence
5 - 7= 80%
20 = 90%
Jacob Nielsen’s Alertbox March 2000
Jacob Nielsen’s Alertbox June 2006
When would you need to hire an expert?
When you know you can’t fix it yourself
In a design review
• At the beginning
• Interpreting lots of info
• Will produce ‘best fit’ web design styles
Focus Group skills needed
• When you need serious web design expertise
In a design review
Making this ‘simple’ took expertise
In a design review:
• For specialised usability needs
• Accessibility
• ‘Shaving the percentages’
• Analyzing ‘outliers’
• Quantitative analysis
• Web log analysis
Why do it?
Woods and trees
Why do it?
• Save money
• Avoid stress
Why do it?
• Becoming more user focussed
• Answer management / directors / councillors
How to do it
What to test
• Existing pages and sites
• Prototypes
• Design types
CCC Car Parks paper prototype
Location:
Don’t obsess
Pick different types of people
Quiet-ish
Testers:
Remember: 5-7 = 80% Confidence
You: People skills
Affiliation with deodorant
Two of you
• Observe each other
• Do it 5 times first up
Welcome them
Tell them what you’re doing
Set simple tasks
• Find a phone number
• Report something
Tell them to verbalise (and remind)
Observe
• Don’t show them
• Answer with ‘Can you just show me?’
• Take LOTS of notes
• Time how long they take
Debrief
• Ask them to talk about the website
• Ask them for ideas
• Give them a goodie bag
Results
• Obvious problems leap out
• Common ideas and comments leap out
DangersThings not to do:
• Lead them on: generally, just shut up
• Smaller samples miss ‘outliers’, meaning:
• Some of our customers
• Good ideas
The more you test the more useful information comes up
What bad news?
• Can be confronting
• Usability testing about error
• Upsets designers
Users fail most of the time
“The average outcome of Web usability studies is that test users fail when they try to perform a test task on the Web. Thus, when you try something new on the
Web, the expected outcome is failure.”
Jacob Nielsen’s Alertbox, November 24, 2003
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, November 2003
Usability news
Usability Exchange stidy for SOCITM
Usability exchange study for SOCITM
Everyday Usability is poor
• Packaging so badly designed it requires a knife to open
• Still improving ATMs
• The web has existed for a lot less time than packaging — so of course it's hard to use for a lot of people
Must work for all these people
Summary
• Anybody can do discount user testing
• Your visits will increase
• More revenue will come via the web
• More transactions sucessfully completed
• Much happier customers
• It’s all good!
Resources
• www.useit.com• www.usability.gov• www.egov.vic.gov.au
Thank you for listeningPaul Canning
Web Development Officer
Cambridge City Council
01223 457415