Words

How Usable is Your Web Site?

by Cia Romano

(On the first part of this article, we have described the concept of usability. We will now talk about the basics of usability, and what you can do to make your site more usable)

What are the basics? After the lab test this Spring, we defined a standard called Usable Times 5 -- the criteria every Web site must meet. The five are:

1 Orientation: Where am I?

2 Permission: Did I ask for that popup ad?

3 Relevance: Does this content matter to me?

4 Interaction: What can I do here?

5 Speed: How long do I have to wait?

Successful sites get to be Usable Times 5 by taking formal steps to test for user acceptance. In order to do so, they must first define and understand the three predominant user types in their audience. You may have demographics, but in order to design for users, you must think of them as persons with identifiable characteristics. This is why we create profiles of representative users, taking into consideration gender, age, role, priorities, work/usage conditions, technical baselines, etc.

Now you may be wondering what all this psychobabble has to do with your profitability. In one word: Everything. If your audience is male, you must be aware that one in twenty men experiences some form of color blindness. If your audience is over 40, type size matters. If your site has parents of young children as a primary audience, remember that they will likely be looking for specifics, they will be in a hurry, and they will be interrupted. These insights to your audience are crucial in designing a positive -- and profitable -- user experience.

It's important to remember that the average Web user spends less than a minute on a Web site as an uncommitted user. That minute is all the time your publication has to reach that user. Every second wasted on popup advertising keeps your user from experiencing your content. Every "push" of what you want your reader to see over what he or she came to see is another obstacle.

Content creators and editors must understand the limitations of human computers: Short-term memory, context switching, color blindness, a limit of approximately seven items comprehensible simultaneously, the lack of technological/information design standards, context switching.

By now you may be wondering if you are, in fact, insulting your user. Remember, the worst insult to your user is promising something you won't deliver to success Here are the most common no-nos:

• Put a banner ad at the top of your screen and make sure it's animated. Or use a popup.
• Give them incomprehensible error messages
• Put up “under construction” pages
• Demand registration
• Make sure they have no way to reach a human being in your organization
• Make them enter information twice
• Make them wonder where they are
• Let advertisers set cookies that threaten the user with "this site may not work properly unless you accept this cookie"

Now let's assume you want to attract, not repel, your audience, and you're ready to think about user-centric design. What do you do? Try some in-house testing.

The first order of business is to determine the three main tasks you want your users to accomplish. If you already have a Web site, identify three tasks for your user to complete. Some examples:

• Find this month's contents
• Sign up to subscribe to the magazine
• Log In as registered user
• Find an article that ran four months ago
• Find a regular column
• Read, print, or forward an article

Choose a few people who do not work directly on the site, and ask them to complete the tasks as you observe. Do users know where to "start" on your home page? Do they start clicking, or are they trying to figure out what it is they are seeing?

You can help your users find their way by following best practices for information design. We always recommend that clients choose a navigation convention and stick to it, so users don't have to learn a navigation scheme more than once.

Although the Web still lacks standards, left and top navigation are reasonably well established. Keep interfaces straightforward and save flashy design for more sophisticated users.

Color is much more than a "pretty" issue. International color associations are rapidly emerging as a consideration. An unexpected finding in our lab test of magazine users revealed unintended color associations, cautioning editors to be thoughtful about design decisions.

For many years, those of us who designed ads heard the phrase, "just make it pretty." Design and placement are a luxury in print, where the functionality of books, newspapers and magazines has been known for hundreds of years. On the Web, design is crucial to comprehension.

Certain print standards - column width and the use of pull quotes -- are even more important online, where users are fighting screen flicker and eye fatigue. Make forms and tables easier to understand by standardizing alignment and widths.

If your publication is serious about user acceptance, budget for usability/user acceptance testing. Why invest in usability testing? You may think you know your audience, but you could still be dead wrong. User testing shortens the path to success by eliminating subjective opinion and politics. You can test-drive Web scenarios without committing thousands of development dollars. There's nothing like video of an actual user saying what you've been thinking when it comes to convincing your boss.

What is usability testing? It is objective, monitored testing by a human factors professional. A primary goal is to tests for self-evidency. You can test desired scenarios or site functionality on representative subjects. The results are monitored and recorded on video and audio, and the test can and should be observed by development team.

How do we design a usability test? The publication's staff, in conjunction with our information designers, identifies key tasks the user should be able to perform, based on the operating business model. Marketing goals and practical limitations are included in test design, the audience is identified, profiled, and prioritized, and the test is conducted in a lab setting.

While we as usability experts of course recommend lab testing, you and your staff can take many practical steps toward a more usable Web site. Creation of Web content is more of a collaborative effort than the traditional handoff that publications understand well.

When producing online content, concurrent development presents production challenges. A Web content writer may serve as de-facto designer and photo editor. So it's important that the entire staff become acquainted with usability.

Writing for the Web is essentially the way we make text content usable online. Web readers want clear, understandable language and graphics, skimmable data (words and images), minimal scrolling on top-level Web pages, with critical information never more than two clicks away.

Many tried-and-true print layout techniques work well online-- as long as you think "display ad." Keywords (hyperlinks, typeface changes), sub-heads, bulleted lists, short paragraphs, sidebars and pull quotes all help user comprehension.

A great search engine is a major component in usability. (Check out offerings from www.google.com.) Searchable sites yield high value to the user, making them active participants and compensating for user errors. A good search implementation makes the user independent of *your* categorization of content, and that's a good thing.

Here are some final points to keep in mind as you move your site to user-centric thinking:

1. Have you assessed, profiled, and prioritized your audience?

2. What three primary tasks do you want your user to perform?

3. Does the content and presentation support these tasks?

4. Does visual design encourage interaction?

5. How are you serving your users?

Editors and publishers who internalize this type of thinking will be leading the pack. Guaranteed.

Cia Romano is CEO and Founder of Interface Guru™ (www.interfaceguru.com), a professional services company specializing in usability, Web interface, and strategy. Cia is a technology evangelist with 20 years' experience in publications, design and marketing and seven years on the Web; she launched Arizona Highways Online in 1995. Cia speaks nationally on user-centric thinking at conferences such as The Folio: Shows and Internet World (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles). Write to her at cia@interfaceguru.com.