Usability on the Web
Ok, so I have a simple little app, how hard can it be to make it usable? Not user-friendly, but truly usable.
Simple is not easily achieved. There are several things that come into play, and the first is that if you are reading this to support your app, you are probably too close to it to make it usable. Let me give you an example:
If you have ever lived with a toilet that required jiggling of the handle, you see this play out when guests arrive. “Just jiggle the handle” you say off-handedly. After several minutes of your guest trying and failing, you will come in and jiggle and all is well. Is your guest stupid? No, they simply don’t have the same time and experience that you do that makes this a usable experience for you, but not for them.
Same principal applies for anything on the internet. Your best expert knows nothing.
Now, after understanding that you understand too much about your application, the next approach is the VIMM model. VIMM stands for Visual, Intellectual, Memory, and Motor (cited from Human Factors International’s Science and Art of Effective Web and Application Design).
Like most effective concepts, this should be common sense, but frequently is forgotten in the effort of software (well, actually, any) design and improved usability. So here are the questions you should ask, in the framework of your non-expert expert’s mind:
Visually does this make sense? Crazy examples — Is the word Red in blue type? Are all the fonts different? Are there more than 0 flashing, dancing, or burning images?
Intellectually does this make sense? More crazy examples — Is the download button before I tell someone what they are getting? Does it ask for my country before the state?
Is Memorization easy or hard? Frankly, if you take care of the first two, this one should be a no-brainer, but looking to big, successful, pervasive software companies for some standards doesn’t hurt either.
What Motor skills are required? Alright – this one is a pet peeve, probably because I have no motor skills. More importantly, I have been asked to read through pages of information and the “Next” button is always in a slightly different place. Seems like nothing, all I have to do is move the mouse and click. No biggie, right? Well, I do have to say that this has prevented websites from engaging me more times than not. It is about as irritating as if they’d cut all the pages into different sizes on the trashy paperback I read at the beach with my frozen drink, and I don’t want that experience ruined either.
Most of the time, these things are written off as “ok”; usually by the expert in the software who doesn’t care that he is still jiggling his toilet handle.
Bottom line here…
If you assume that everyone on your website is just like you, pretty soon it will just be you. It pays to focus on improving usability.
Kristin Oberhaus, Product Manager, W3i Holdings, LLC
Kristin has over 13 years of product management experience and is a certified usability analyst. She is an avid believer in pragmatic marketing.
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