Tom Brinck Chief Usability Officer Yaffe Workshop on Web Site Strategy and Tactics Web site architecture and usability September 20, 2002

©2002 Diamond Bullet Design Website architecture and usability Who I am Chief Usability Officer at Diamond Bullet Design ( Adjunct lecturer at the UM School of Information Co-author of “Usability for the Web” Background in computer science, psychology, and design

©2002 Diamond Bullet Design Website architecture and usability What is usability? Usable = easy to use Philosophy – Being sensitive to and accountable to your users and your design goals Process – Optimize the chances of producing a successful design Design principles – Numerous specific guidelines for an easy user interface

©2002 Diamond Bullet Design Website architecture and usability Why does usability matter? People can’t accomplish what they need on sites: –People can’t find what they are looking for on a website about 60% of the time (UIE) –62% of Web shoppers have given up looking for the item they wanted to buy (ZR) –40% of users don’t return to a site when their first experience is negative (FR) Sites should generate revenue by serving customer needs Technology shouldn’t be another barrier Studies conducted by: Forrester Research (FR), User Interface Engineering (UIE), and Zona Research (ZR)

©2002 Diamond Bullet Design Website architecture and usability A common usability problem: illegibility

©2002 Diamond Bullet Design Website architecture and usability Usability problems not useful: mismatch of functionality obscurity and ambiguity: can’t find information confusion: users do the wrong thing (order the wrong product!) quality: the site doesn’t work accessibility: people with disabilities can’t access information compatibility: it doesn’t work in various browsers

©2002 Diamond Bullet Design Website architecture and usability Accessibility Reach the broadest audience possible 1 in 5 people in the United States has some kind of disability and an estimated 30 million people are impacted by inaccessible computer and software design. Census Brief 97-5

©2002 Diamond Bullet Design Website architecture and usability Accessibility Types of disability: vision, hearing, movement, cognition Vision –Avoid small fonts, small images, and non-scalable fonts –Enable blind users to use a screen reader –Use ALT tags –Keep text succinct and put the most important items first

©2002 Diamond Bullet Design Website architecture and usability Accessibility Standards Section U.S. federal government standards W3C WCAG - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines These enable wide access, including access from non-traditional browsers and people with temporary access limitations

©2002 Diamond Bullet Design Website architecture and usability ROI: Measurement-based design define measurable goals based on your business strategy and customer needs end goals –sales volume –market share –customer satisfaction ratings goals measurable during development estimate these end goals –task-completion rate –task time –subjective ratings

©2002 Diamond Bullet Design Website architecture and usability Pervasive usability manage the ENTIRE process to guarantee that you deliver on the goals accountability = measurement-based –test users and refine to meet your goals –other measurement methods: surveys, focus groups, interviews, … cost management –build inexpensive prototypes and select measurement methods that are cost effective risk reduction –iterations and variations – plan to produce alternatives to explore the design space and to evolve the design, select backup plans early in case goals aren’t reached

©2002 Diamond Bullet Design Website architecture and usability ROI: a case study of a state portal thousands of links to eGovernment resources in every state agency iterative design of architecture driven by user testing and refinement most improvements were in categorization and labeling test tasks included finding online driver’s license renewal and information about 4-year colleges in the state

©2002 Diamond Bullet Design Website architecture and usability ROI: a case study of a state portal results of improvement –task completion rate went from 72% to 95% –average task time went from 132 seconds to 50 seconds –users rated tasks as easier, faster, and more intuitive improved site performance leads to –dramatically greater site-generated revenue (e.g. online license registrations) –time savings for state citizens that we conservatively estimate to be at least $1.2 million annually

©2002 Diamond Bullet Design Website architecture and usability Summary People aren’t successful at using most sites. Usability is about solving that problem. Apply accessibility guidelines to maximize your market penetration. Set explicit, measurable, customer-driven goals Make goals meaningful and be accountable to them. Test against your goals and refine accordingly. Choose methods of usability analysis based on cost and estimated impact on performance.