Introduction to Usability

1. Introduction to Usability

2. In Class Today • Faculty Introduction • Student Introductions • Review Syllabus • Introduction to Usability presentation

3. Overview • What is Usability? • Usability Evaluation Methods • Use-cases and Target Users • Defining client needs • Usability Success Metrics

4. Usability… Usability Professionals Association“… approach that incorporates direct user feedback throughout the development cycle in order to reduce costs and create products and tools that meet user needs…” Steve Krug, author of Don’t Make Me Think“..making sure that something works well: that a person of average (or even below average) ability and experience can use the thing --- for it’s intended purpose without getting hopelessly frustrated” What is it?

5. Usability Measures… • Quality of a user's experience when interacting with a web site • How well users can learn and use a product to achieve their goals • How satisfied users are with that process

6. 5 Components of Usability

7. Usability + Utility = ? Utility = whether it provides the features you need. Usability = how easy & pleasant these features are to use. Useful = usability + utility.

8. Guiding Principle First Law of Usability - Don’t Make me Think!

9. Designing for Usability Navigation Multimedia content Textual content Interaction Accessibility Technical aspects Human aspects Five Aspects of Design to Consider

10. Importance of Usability • Usability is a necessary condition for survival • Low usability results in: • Frustrated users • Visitors leaving • Reduction in repeat visits • Higher support costs • Decreased productivity

11. Key Benefits of Usability • Increased productivity • Decreased training and support costs • Increased sales and revenues • Reduced development time and costs • Reduced maintenance costs • Increased customer satisfaction

12. Improving Usability • Many methods are available: • Take a user-centered approach: • Who are your users? • What are they trying to do? • Create prototypes (drafts) • User Testing • Follow Usability Guidelines

13. Usability Guidelines • Plenty to choose from • Nielsen’s 10 principles • Norman’s rules from Design of Everyday Things • Tognazzini’s 16 principles • Shneiderman’s 8 golden rules • Help designers chose alternatives • Helps evaluators find problems in interfaces (“Heuristic Evaluation”)

14. Heuristic Evaluation • Jakob Nielsen • Heuristic Evaluation’s cost-benefit ratio is quite favorable • Performed by a usability expert

15. 10 Usability Heuristics for UI Design • Visibility of system status • Match between system and the real world • User control and freedom • Consistency and standards • Error prevention • Recognition rather than recall • Flexibility and efficiency of use • Aesthetic and minimalist design • Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors • Help and documentation

16. Defining a Usable Web Site • Plan a useful site • Scenario-based design • Design from the outside in • Do some simple prototypes • Focus on those tasks you want users to perform • Test and test AGAIN!

17. 5 Key Principles - Website Usability • Availability and Accessibility • Clarity • Learnability • Credibility • Relevancy

18. Availability and Accessibility • If people try to access your website and it doesn’t work — for whatever reason –your website becomes worthless. • Availability & Accessibilitybasics: • Server uptime • Broken links • Mobile responsiveness

19. Clarity • A clear and usable design can be achieved through: • Simplicity • Familiarity • Consistency • Guidance • Direct • Good information

20. Learnability • It should be your goal to design intuitive interfaces — interfaces that don’t require instructions, or even a long process of trial and error to figure them out. • Key to intuitive design is to make use of what people already know, or create something new that is easy to learn.

21. Credibility • Even if people find the content they are looking for, if they don’t trust you, that content is worthless! • Important that people know you are a real company with real people

22. Relevancy • It is not enough that your website is clear, your content must also be relevant. Again, it is essential that you know your users and why they visit your site.

23. Test, test and test!

24. Managing a Usable Site • Essential to have a feedback loop • How do users perform? • Can they do what they want? • Do they do what you want? • Best feedback is combination of voluntary and involuntary • Ask for feedback and make it easy to provide • Track user behavior

25. Defining Clients Needs • Kick-off Meeting • Design/Creative Brief • Key project planning document that specifies what the project has to achieve, by what means, and within what timeframe • Includes questions such as: • What is this project? • Who is it for? • Why are we doing it? • What needs to be done? By whom? By when? • Where and how will it be used?

26. Value of a Design/Creative Brief Web Designer/Developer Client • Provides background and foundation for design • Uncovers hidden truths and apparent insights • Reveals personality and values of client as an organization and as individuals • Aids in buy in because clients has had their say • Becomes the justification for all designs presented • Concisely informs all members of the team • Provides criteria for evaluation • Helps aid against off-target creative and scope creep • Clarifies goals and objectives • Articulates facts and assumptions • Opportunity for all stakeholders to provide input • Builds consensus • Provides criteria for evaluation • Holds the designer accountable • Indicates metrics for success

27. Use-Case • Describes a sequence of interactions between a user and the website • Each use case begins with a user's goal and ends when that goal is fulfilled Captures: • Who is using the website • What the user want to do • The user's goal • The steps the user takes to accomplish a particular task • How the website should respond to an action

28. Target Users/Audience • Define your audiences and their goals • Understand who you are designing for and their primary content or service needs • Well-defined target audience will help in marketing your • Make it easier for customers to find what they are looking for

29. How Do You Write a Use Case? • Steps: • Identify who is going to be using the website • Pick one of those users • Define what that user wants to do on the site • Decide on the normal course of events when that user is using the site • Describe the basic course in the description for the use case • Consider alternate courses of events and add those to "extend" the use case • Look for commonalities among the use cases • Repeat the steps 2 through 7 for all other users

30. Quantifying Web Usability? Metric: “A standard of measurement” “A system of related measures that facilitates the quantification of some particular characteristic” “Usability Metrics” is not an oxymoron! You can actually measure how usable something is in the context of its users and their tasks With Usability Metrics

31. Goals of Quantifying Web Usability Determine if it’s ready to launch Help identify problem areas or issues that need to be addressed Get an overall sense of how good or bad things are See if things are getting better across iterations, releases, quarters, years, etc Help convince management or others of the need to fix something With Metrics

32. Approaches to Collecting Metrics • Lab-based • A controlled setting in which you can observe a user’s Behavior • Doesn’t have to be a formal Usability Lab • May even be remote • Web-based • Users are interacting with the site the way they normally do • You are collecting limited data “behind the scenes” • Or perhaps more specialized online studied

33. Types of Metrics • Performance metrics • e.g., time, errors, task completion • Satisfaction metrics • e.g., ease of learning, ease of use, confidence • Issues-based metrics • e.g., number of problems, severity of problems, number of users encountering • Combined metrics • e.g., z-scores, comparisons to goals or “expert” performance • Other metrics • e.g., eye-tracking data, physiological measures, facial expression coding

34. Conclusion • No single way to design, but follow the principles and standards • Watch for the trends • Your competition is just one click away, don’t frustrate your users

35. Any questions?