Usability

1
Usability No More Excuses!

• Rob MacDonald
• Web Strategist UBC Information Technology

2
(No Transcript)
3
Who is this guy, anyway?

• Web Strategist, UBC Information Technology
• Currently studying User Centered Design at UW
• Interest in learning about the acceptance of UCD
  within organizations
• Single-handedly brought down the survey score
  average

4
Presentation Overview

• User-Centered Design Overview
• Benefits of User-Centered Design
• Survey Results / Discussion

5
Defining Usability

• Usability means that the people who use the
  product can do so quickly and easily to
  accomplish their own tasks (Dumas and Redish)
• The measure of the quality of the user
  experience when interacting with something
  whether a web site, a traditional software
  application, or any other device the user can
  operate in some way or another (Nielsen)
• Users determine usability

6
Usability Attributes (Nielsen)

• Learnability System should be easy to learn,
  low start up overhead
• Efficiency Possible to achieve high
  productivity
• Memorability Easy to remember, particularly for
  casual user
• Errors low error rate, but also easy to recover
  from errors
• Satisfaction pleasant to use, so users are
  subjectively satisfied

7
Defining User-Centered Design

• Process
• Philosophy
• Principles
• Puts the user in the center of design decisions
• Goal of achieving usable systems

8
UCD Principles (Gould Lewis)

• Early focus on users user needs drive the
  design
• Empirical measurement set measurable goals
  early
• Iterative design constant refinement based on
  user feedback and testing

9
A Typical UCD Methodology (UPA)

• Analysis Phase
• Meet with key stakeholders to set vision
• Include usability tasks in the project plan
• Assemble a multidisciplinary team to ensure
  complete expertise
• Develop usability goals and objectives
• Conduct field studies (contextual inquiry)
• Look at competitive products
• Create user profiles (personas)
• Develop a task analysis
• Document user scenarios
• Document user performance requirements

10
A Typical UCD Methodology (UPA)

• Design Phase
• Begin to brainstorm design concepts and metaphors
  
• Develop screen flow and navigation model
• Do walkthroughs of design concepts
• Begin design with paper and pencil
• Create low-fidelity prototypes
• Conduct usability testing on low-fidelity
  prototypes
• Create high-fidelity detailed design
• Do usability testing again
• Document standards and guidelines
• Create a design specification

11
A Typical UCD Methodology (UPA)

• Implementation Phase
• Do ongoing heuristic evaluations
• Work closely with delivery team as design is
  implemented
• Conduct usability testing as soon as possible
• Deployment Phase
• Use surveys to get user feedback
• Conduct field studies to get info about actual
  use
• Check objectives using usability testing

12
Usability Benefits

• Reduced development cost
• Increased productivity
• Reduced errors
• Improved acceptance
• Reduced training and support
• Enhanced reputation
• Financial gain

13
Usability Benefits (contd)

• "The rule of thumb in many usability-aware
  organizations is that the cost-benefit ratio for
  usability is 110-100. Once a system is in
  development, correcting a problem costs 10 times
  as much as fixing the same problem in design. If
  the system has been released, it costs 100 times
  as much relative to fixing in design." (Gilb,
  1988)
• "The average UI has some 40 flaws. Correcting the
  easiest 20 of these yields an average improvement
  in usability of 50. The big win, however, occurs
  when usability is factored in from the beginning.
  This can yield efficiency improvements of over
  700." (Landauer, 1995)

14
So how are we doing?

• 19 respondents
• 10 institutions

15
How would you describe the level to which you
incorporate user issues into your website
projects?
16
Who drives design decisions on your website
projects?
17
Who drives design decisions on your website
projects?

• Other responses
• It depends on the project and the department and
  how committed they are to usability but generally
  I'd say a mix of the project team, senior
  management (based on nothing concrete) and
  sometimes users.
• tug-of-war between designers and developers
• ia/ux specialist based on user input and design
  conventions

18
At what stage do you introduce your users into
the website development process?
19
At what stage do you introduce your users into
the website development process?

• Other responses
• minimal user testing in early stages of
  development (in-house non-tech users), then wider
  beta testing

20
Which of the following research techniques do you
currently use when designing websites or web
applications?
21
Which of the following research techniques do you
currently use when designing websites or web
applications?
22
Which of the following research techniques do you
currently use when designing websites or web
applications?
23
Which of the following research techniques do you
currently use when designing websites or web
applications?

• Other responses
• content mapping, vision and scope docs

24
When developing websites or applications, do you
typically conduct usability tests?
25
During the development process, when do you
conduct your usability tests?
26
During the development process, when do you
conduct your usability tests?

• Other responses
• depends on project how often we test users

27
When performing usability tests, the participants
are actual users of the product.
28
Is your development process iterative?
29
What successes have you had in implementing
usability techniques within your organization?

• One of the greatest rewards of implementing
  usability techniques is the ability to rely on
  data to guide our decision making, rather than
  responding to the perceived needs of our users. I
  can now refer to data when someone comes to my
  office and says "students can't find such and
  such on the website." I now get to say,
  "according to our data they can," or "lets test
  it and find out if we need to make a change." No
  more arguments, yeah!
• Have conducted usability testing both in focus
  groups and one on one. One on one testing tends
  to be very helpful, I require the person being
  tested to "think out loud", and then have an
  observer take down all of the comments - this is
  very helpful to the design team particularly when
  we review comments from 10 students and see they
  are having the same frustrations...

30
What successes have you had in implementing
usability techniques within your organization?

• improved user interface - usability report
  serves as ammunition for countering stakeholder
  requirements that are "inappropriate" - better
  labels and navigation
• We've been able to improve on our sites before
  they were launched, resulting in much better
  sites. It has also helped in improving all of our
  designs in general.

31
What are the biggest challenges in implementing
usability techniques within your organization?

• usability testing formalized as part of the
  development process can be tricky. The timelines
  set by stakeholders often make it very
  challenging to incorporate usability techniques
  into the development cycle.
• Finding willing participants who fit the profile
  of a typical user
• There seems to be a common misperception that
  what is "intuitive" for one person isn't
  necessarily so for everyone else or even anyone
  else. Many people (probably myself included)
  throw around the word "intuitive" and don't
  realize that making something "intuitive" isn't
  as clear cut as it sounds

32
What are the biggest challenges in implementing
usability techniques within your organization?

• People seem to think they know who is using their
  sites based on nothing concrete and they know who
  their intended audience is and they don't
  necessarily want to know who their real audience
  is. They also make leaps as to what those users
  will do.
• Identifying needs of target audience. Broad range
  of target audience.
• Convincing people to let go of their preconceived
  notions of usability, such as People don't
  like to scroll Nothing more than 2 clicks
  away Everything linked from the homepage
  Also Convincing people to dumb down language
  Getting buyin from other groups

33
What are the biggest challenges in implementing
usability techniques within your organization?

• Time and money. We'd love to get users involved
  at more/all stages, but our chargeback system is
  a barrier to addional testing. We also need
  additional people.
• Resources, money and time.
• Time and resources. With aggressive deadlines and
  limited people to do user testing development,
  projects are often envisioned and built with
  minimal user consultation.

34
(No Transcript)
35
(No Transcript)