Cheap'n'easy usability

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

paul.canning@cambridge.gov.uk