Improving e-commerce revenues through improved usability and user experience

September 2010

Chris Rourke, Managing Director, User Vision

™

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Who is User Vision?

Leading Usability & Accessibility Consultancy

Usability Services for Web sites and Software

Consultancy

Audits / Evaluations

Usability Testing

Training

Based in the UK but new UAE office

Clients include: BBC, Tesco, Lloyds Bank, Emirates Airline, Jumeirah, IKEA, Nokia, O2, public sector organisations and many more

The people over there on Stand 17 opposite Google!

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User Experience & Usability looks at

Effectiveness – Can they reach their goals?

Efficiency – How fast? Number of errors?

Satisfaction – Was it a good/bad experience?

Benefits are

Better conversion rates

Reduced phone-based support

Improved sense of trust,custumer retention

Return visits, recommendations

Better use of marketing budget

Improved brand representation

Persuasion: “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink”

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User Experience & Usability

the Usable Road the UX Road

the Customer Service Road

Proactive

Reactive

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eCommerce – Survival of the Easiest

E-Commerce is concerned aboutConversion rates

Percentage of site visits that result in a purchase (or whatever you wanted the visitor to do at your site)

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Why Conversion Rates Fall

Customer Acquisition

First Impression Search for info or service

Act upon info or service

Slow page load

Poor look and feel

Confusing jargon, topic organisation

Inflexible search

Poor search results

Privacy & security concerns

Unreadable content

Clumsy site navigation

% o

f si

te v

isito

rs

100%

0%

Forms errors

Accessibility problems

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Online Ecommerce Success - Striking a balance

Websites need to strike a balance between what the site wants people to do and what people really want to do

Users want to

Buy just what you want

Go immediately to goal, then leave

Control their personal data

Sites owner wants you to

Buy more than what you want

Look at and click on ads

Take up their cross sells / upsells

Stick around

Capture some personal data

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User’s

View

Designer’s

View

Business’s

View

Task Analysis &

Usability Methods

We need to use this architecture

Lets use this new cool technology

Our database only accepts these characters

We sell these products

Our company is structured this way

People should know about the company history

I want to buy this product

I want to register for updates

I need to find this information

`

Bridging the Gulf

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Ways to bridge the gulf

Remove fear factors & barriers to purchase

Persuade users to continue

Let users play by their own rules (may not be yours)

Check your negative pathways & be forgiving

Keep your site accessible

Take a close look at what your users do on your site

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Being forced to choose a ‘make’ is making the user play by your rules

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Let Users Play by their rules: Inflexible process

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The process is too much work, people will give up.

Lesson: Learn how your users organise & prioritise things and want to perform tasks

Let Users Play by their rules: Inflexible process

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Let Users Play by their rules: Shopping Behaviour

Keeping it real

How do people do it in the real world?

People like to go from overview to detail at same time when shopping

14June 2010 Chris Rourke Managing Director User Vision| 14

Lesson: Persuade users to go from the overview to the details but with easy access throughout

Let Users Play by their rules: Shopping Behaviour

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Let Users Play by their rules: Cross sell intelligently

I am about to buy some men’s Cargo pants

Do I really want a women’s Poncho or cardigan?

Lesson: Use the information you have to better persuade the visitor

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As typical with many travel sites : If no results, I need to re-do my searchagain,

Negative Pathways: Query Relaxation

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www.newzealand.com.

In New Zealand: If no results, I can choose options slightly outside my original search.

A better experience

Lesson: See if you can offer customers the ‘next best thing’

Negative Pathways: Query Relaxation

18| November 2009| 18 | Rob van Tol, Senior Consultant, User Vision

Negative Pathways: Error messages

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Let Users Play by their rules: Don’t force registration

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Around a quarter of shoppers will abandon their purchase if forced to register.Lesson: Don’t do it

Let Users Play by their rules: Don’t force registration

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Keep it accessible

“The power of the Web is in its

universality. Access by everyone

regardless of disability is an

essential aspect. “

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Take a close look at what your users do on your site

Usability Testing Eye tracking

Card Sorting for information architecture

Early prototype testing

Lesson: You are not your user so Learn about them.

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Eye tracking – Heat maps

People often look at

Forms

Faces

What faces look at

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Scanning behaviour is typical

Scanned, than

briefly read

Just skimmed

Scanned and

read

Eye tracking – Gaze Trail

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Advertising effectiveness- Is the Ad Copy read?

Reading meter Number of readers

Average amount of text read

Reading Intensity Maps

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Advertising effectiveness- Is there an Emotional Response?

Strong Response•Strong emotional response

•Brand prominent

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Summary

Remove fear factors & barriers to purchase

Persuade users to continue

Let users play by their own rules (may not be yours)

Check your negative pathways & be forgiving

Keep your site accessible

Take a close look at what your users do on your site

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Thank You! For further information, contact:

Chris RourkeManaging Director

User VisionThe Fairmont DubaiOffice 508Sheikh Zayed RoadDubai, UAE

Tel: +971 4 311 6607Email: chris@uservision.com ,

Jameel@uservision.comWeb: www.uservision.co.ukTwitter: @crourke @uservision

Come See us at Stand 17!

Try out eye tracking

Accessibility & usability quick check