Hiser Usability Presentation Victoria Online Seminar 19 Oct 2009

From Here to Usability: Victorian Government presentation

(c) The Hiser Group 2009 1

Greg RalphPrincipal

19 October 2009

From Here to Usability

Overview

About The Hiser Group

Bad designs

General introduction to “usability”– What is it?

– Why should you care?

– How do you get it?

Usability strategy– How much does my project need?

– A few words about “institutionalising” usability90 mins



Who is The Hiser Group?

Leaders in user-centred design & education(since 1991)

• Usability & customer experience– Over 5,000 sessions for more than 1,800 projects

• Breadth of expertise– Across technologies

• Websites, intranets, web/desktop applications, kiosks, forms, processes…

– Across industries• Public, private & NFP sectors

– Around the world• e.g. United Nations, Singapore Polytechnic



Teaching the industryFor more than 15 years

Usability evaluation2 days

Learn quick and inexpensive methods to test whether your site or application meets the needs of its users.

Effective layout and design 1 day

Practical techniques to create user-friendly page and screen designs.

Information Architecture –Designing intuitive menus 1 day

Effective menu design to enable your users to navigate easily and achieve what they came to do.

Writing for the web1 day

Effectively convey messages to your users – by writing in a style that suits the online environment.

Designing with users 2 days

Learn to design intuitive interfaces collaboratively with users to achieve a usable system.



You’ll know when it’s not usable

World Usability Day (2006)



Hallmarks of poor usability (not designed for use in the real world)

• Poor task model

– What’s the real workflow?

– Who’s in control of the interaction?

• Clumsy navigation

– Can’t find things

– Poor orientation

• Unclear labels or layout

– Confusing, missing or excessive instructions

– Not my language

• Inconsistent behaviour

• Poor feedback or error handling

Microsoft standard warning message

“Yes” saves the document

A more idiosyncratic design (and less predictable to the user)

“Yes” loses the document



“I just wanted to make the text larger so that the older voters could read it easily”

Wikipedia Commonshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Butterfly_Voters_View.jpg



www.it.bton.ac.uk/staff/lp22/CP303/case/atlanta.html

Atlanta Olympics bomb threat (July 1996)

• Call made to 911“There is a bomb in Centennial Park – you have 30 minutes”

• Dispatchers– Couldn’t dispatch till they had an address

– Were unable to find Centennial Park’s street address• How many N’s in “Centennial”?• Do I need to add “Park”?

• Can the phone number give me the address?

• It took 10 minutes to find the address(by ringing the phone number & asking for the address)

• Bomb went off 22 minutes after call– 1 killed + dozens injured

Good interfaces are “invisible”

Learnable“walk up and use”

Efficient to use“don’t waste my time”

Prevent errors & help you recover“don’t lead me into dumb mistakes”

User empowerment“make me smart at my job (without slowing me down)”

User acceptance & confidence“I’ll be back”



Why does bad design happen?

We will fix it in We will fix it in the next release...the next release...

Theoretical, untested assumptions

Pheasant’s fundamental fallacies (1986)

• An ‘average’ user & task structure– Failing to support workflow

– Poor allocation of function

– “It works for me”

– “I think they will want…”

• Assumptions of user adaptability– Memory overload

– Inconsistency of design

Other reasons

• Project pressures

• Unthinking-ness



Why should you care?

High ease of use

Predicts

User understanding & satisfaction

Task quality

IT value

Predicts

Improved uptake / sales

Allianz intranetOver 85% of staff rated it as Very Good or Excellent (up from 10%)

Wizard, Westpac & GSR websitesOnline sales doubled

Improved productivity

UCD approach typically increases user productivity by 25%

The Gartner Group (1992)

Amex bank authorisation systemTask time fell from 17 to 4 minutes

Telstra intranetProductivity targets in 3 months (not 9)

Melbourne Water approvalsTask time fell from <30 days to 1 day

Redesign of Macquarie intranet

Usage Approval Average clicks

Very low 3% 12

Very high 96% 3

Improved performance

NY Stock Exchange primary trading systemsError rates fell by a factor of 10 (despite doubled workloads)

Staples.com72% drop in registration drop-outs

Less support needed

Usability principles typically reduces training costs by 25%

Landauer (1995)

Redesign of insurance system Help desk calls dropped by 2/3



Sites lose approx.• 50% potential sales – people can't find what they want• 40% repeat visits – first one was negative experience

Repeat customers can spend almost twice as much as new users of an e-commerce site

2006 study confirmed that consumers stop dealings when they have a negative service experience• 80% US• 65% UK

I haven’t enjoyed trying to find what I wanted to find on

this website. It’s just annoying me.

I’d probably just go to the next site and have a look at

that one – and come back to this one only if I had to.

A customer trying to select health insurance

Usage has business implications

If customers make one call, they are 90% more likely to make repeat calls

This often becomes part of the corporate cost structure (eating away at profit)

Over the long term, this is a no-win strategy

Mauro (2001)

In 2003, an Internet booking cost an airline 50 cents (but $6 through a travel agent or phone operator)

Gartner Group estimate: Average call cost is >20 times more expensive than a web self-service enquiry

The Net’s supposed to be quick, accessible and very

simple – that wasn’t and I was getting grumpy with it.

Sooner or later, I would actually stop all this,

close it down and ring them up.

Usage has business implications



More credible websites

It’s usable when it’s “fit for purpose”

Donald Norman “The Design of Everyday Things”



usableuseful engagingeffectiveefficient

Users achieve their goalswithout the tools getting in the way

Businesses achieve their desired outcomes

Broadening our focusUser Experience Honeycomb

These approaches are being applied to other things

– New technologies

– Customer experience

– Service design

– Process design

Peter Morvillewww.semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000029.php



Some aspects are easier to design

• Terminology– “Use my language”

• Predictability– Consistent appearance & behaviour

– Feedback

• Orientation– “Where am I?”

– “What can I do here?”

• Readable & clear layout

Some aspects are harder

• Obvious, efficient structure and navigation– Match workflow

• Support different user types/needs– Match expectations

– Understand their motivation

• User control

• Subjective user satisfaction– “The user experience”



How do you “do” Usability?

Don’t assume people:• Work like you work• Think like you think• Talk like you talk• Like what you like• Understand the technology• Understand your organisation

You are not your user



Collaboration&

Context

Usability through user-centred design (UCD)

• Users’ needs predominantly drive the design– Creates better products

– Focus on usage & context

– Developers & designers are not suitable user representatives

• Empirical and cyclic (iterative)

Involve Usability as early as possible

$1 $6 – $10 $80 – $100

RequirementsPhase

DevelopmentPhase

DeploymentPhase

No. Possible Design

Alternatives Cost o

f Cha

nges

80% of software costs occur after release (maintenance)

• 80% of that work is due to unmet / unforeseen user requirements



Potential activities

Field studies

Usability testingCollaborative designMock-ups

ScenariosCard sortingFocus groups

Stakeholder workshops

Usability goals

Set the focus



Creative CommonsMitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Visual design

Buttons ‘look like’ buttons

Effective & clean layout

Visual appeal & Branding (fonts, colours, icons, etc.)

Interaction design

Navigation & Flow

Style of ‘conversation’(“the experience”)

Information design

Structure of information & controls (“information architecture”)

Orientation & Feedback

Language & Style(labelling; online reading)

Users

Business

Call centre system design Not just about the agent

Agent

BusinessCustomer



Goals

Provide good customer service

Meet targets for performance

Issues

Cognitive load in high-pressure environment

Unclear or rigid workflows

Agent

Design strategies

Build workflow into design (support)

Provide workflow flexibility

Use consistent language

In-built coaching

Goals

Reduce cost by 30%

Reduce training: 3 weeks to 2 days

Capture customer intelligence

Issues

Calls take too long to complete

Agents need significant systems training

System doesn’t encourage data capture

Business

Design strategies

Reduce task time (support workflow & reduce errors)

More intuitive screens with in-built coaching

Support easy information capture



Goals

Personalised experience (remember me)

Have confidence in organisation (you know what you’re doing)

Issues

“I’ve already explained this!”

“I’m not being treated like a valued customer”

Call does not flow naturally

Customer

Design strategies

Customer snapshot

Flexible workflows

Customer-centric view of the world (e.g. time & location)

Interaction design to support flow(e-commerce website)



Activity scenarios Provide the vision for the user experience (and why it’s like that)

Card sortingHelps to identify a user-centred information structure



Information architecture (structure)

Commentary & rationale (e.g. changed labels, new content identified by users)

Lateral relationships (between topics)

© The Hiser Group 2009

Mock-ups(a.k.a. “wireframes”)

Make the design “real”(early & cheaply)



Make sure it works for its intended audience

Usability testing

Collaborative design

Example Hiser style guide




Example Hiser style guideSelect screen controls based on the user’s task


Visual designLead the user through each window or page

• Reading & chunking– Group boxes & separators

• Placement & spacing– Alignment & designing

with grids

– Assists with layout

– Aids readability

• Visual weight



How much usability do I need?

Do you need lots & lots?



Not necessarily…

Usability will need more attention, the more that…

• The system matters to your business

• Interactions are complex or new

• The user audience is large and/or diverse

• Users are outside your organisation

Should it be the same for all projects?



• Apply your resources where you have the greatest need

• Integrated & planned for

– As early as possible

– At key points (based on project need)

– Budget set aside

• Everyone does at least something

– “Some Usability is better than no Usability”

– If you can do more, even better!

Prioritise projects for Usability input

Low -effort usability Medium -effort usability High -effort usability

Targeted at external users(affects the credibility)

Some (indirect?) use by people external to the

organisation

Only used by staff (who’ll receive training & support)

Used relatively often

Quite important to the organisation

Lots of users OR

Very frequently used

Fewer users OR

Less frequently used

Mission-criticalSomewhat important to the organisation



Construction

Deployment

Testing

Analysis

Design

PlanningAnalyst

Analyst

Developer

Developer

Low

Analyst

Usability

Usability Analyst

Usability

Usability

High

Analyst

Usability

Usability Analyst

Analyst

Medium

Usability

Integration



Usability should be strategic (not happenstance)

Beware the “Usability police” syndrome!

• Usability needs to be seen as helping– Create successful systems– A focus on adoption & outcomes

• Facilitators & supporters(with a mandate)

– Not the “cop with a truncheon”who beats you up at the gates…



Greg RalphPrincipal

(03) 9648 [email protected]

The Hiser Group18 / 535 Bourke StreetMelbourne Vic 3000

www.hiser.com.au

Jeremy LewisonConsulting Manager

(03) 9648 [email protected]

Technology

Hiser Usability Presentation Victoria Online Seminar 19 Oct 2009