USEworthy August 2003
The monthly Newsletter from The Usability Company

Welcome to August's edition of USEworthy. In this issue, we continue to focus on quality and Best Practice. We provide a condensed version of our User Centered Design Best Practice guide, which was developed by Tobias Misera, Head of User Centered Design at The Usability Company.

Joanne Hung, our latest recruit to our Usability Practice tells us What Users Want. In this article, Joanne discusses the most commonly made mistakes she has come across in her 5 years' experience as a Usability Specialist in the UK and Australia and she also provides some tips to remedy these mistakes. 

The Office of the e-Envoy has launched the Quality Framework for UK government website design discussed in last month's newsletter. Catriona Campbell, Chairman and Founder of The Usability Company was one of the two usability specialists consulted by the Office of the e-Envoy to assist in developing the document. In light of this, we also provide an article from the BBC News website, August 4, in which Catriona Campbell discusses the issues surrounding the task of making government websites usable.

You will find a copy of the quality framework document at the Office of the e-Envoy website. Please scroll down on the page for the document titled Quality Framework for UK government website design.

The Usability Company News

July was a hot and successful month at The Usability Company! We are pleased to announce that having completed a highly successful pilot scheme, The Usability Company has been awarded the contract to provide the BSI Group with its User Centered Design and User Centered Design services over the coming year.

The work will be carried out across the BSI Group's entire site in two parts. Initially an extensive Usability Evaluation will be conducted on the site's existing sections. The second phase will see an User Centered Design redesign with the development of new templates and site structure.

The Usability Company is also delighted to announce that Joanne Hung has joined the Usability Company's Usability Practice team as a Usability Specialist. Joanne has over 5 years experience as a Usability Specialist in the UK and Australia gained in various IT related companies including IBM Global Services, Australia.

Marty Carroll, Director of Usability Practice at The Usability Company, was a judge at the recent 2003 Forum awards. With 110 entrants in eight different categories the awards seek to recognise pioneering government sites, particularly with regard to usability and accessibility. The awards, organised by COI Communications (a department reporting to the Minister for the Cabinet Office), were held on July 15th at the Congress Centre in London. For more information see http://www.theforum.gov.uk/awards/

Catriona Campbell has been invited to participate in the upcoming e-consultancy roundtable discussion on usability, August 26. The e-consultancy roundtables offer the opportunity for people within the industry to share knowledge and experiences within e-business.

And Finally...

Catriona also spoke at the CIPFA e-Government Seminar on Making e-Services accessible to people with disabilities, July 3 2003. Catriona talked about the accessibility and usability issues addressed in the Office of the e-Envoy's new 'Quality Framework' for government websites. She then outlined a best practice approach to ensuring inclusive design and also discussed some website accessibility audits that The Usability Company has conducted. If you are a member of the e-government Forum or the CIPFA you may download the slides from Catriona's presentation.

What users want

Joanne Hung, Usability Specialist, The Usability Company

Web design has come a long way since the beginning of the Internet, with so much experience behind us there are still sites that are difficult to use. The following article addresses some of the usability issues that should be considered during the development of any website.

Make things obvious

There is a common phrase that I have heard used in the development teams that I have worked in; it is “Dumb users!” Unfortunately, it is too often the case that there is a mismatch between how developers expect users to behave, and how they behave in reality. We all know that users are not “dumb”, after all we are all users, they just sometimes behave in ways we do not expect.

In my experience I have found that users, far from being “dumb”, are just extremely cautious about the Internet. It is all too easy to forget when we are at work, surfing the net on high speed connections and using high resolution screens, that there is a large group of Internet users that are still connecting with slow modems and low spec computers.

Typical users are wary about clicking on links to unknown sites because each click could mean several seconds’ delay before the page downloads. Even after that the user may find that the page is not what they expected or what they wanted, so their time is wasted. 

Users want to understand what they are looking at with minimal amount of effort. Many people will arrive at your site having been referred to it by search engines. Will they be able to tell what your site is all about from any page? Will users be able to predict where your links will take them and do they get what they are looking for?

Navigation structures have to be simple, so that users get an idea of where they are going before they get there. This is why usability practitioners expound the rule that explanatory links are more usable than short links such as “click here” or “more”.

If you are not sure whether your site is easy to use, get a few people who are unfamiliar with your development to sit down and use it. Observe their behaviour and ask them whether they are getting what they expect. You may well be surprised at what you find out. 

Help the user get what they want

Can the user find the information they want easily? Navigation can be a major issue in large sites, with users getting lost in deep layers of pages. The larger the site is, the more important it is that attention is paid to the User Centered Design of the site. This will help ensure that users can find information easily and that the site can scale up if extra information is added to the site. Information Architects can design efficient information structures for your site to create sensible information structures and at the same time ensure that your site can scale up to accommodate new sections and information.

Are there obstacles that prevent the user from getting to what they want? 

Registrations and logins are off-putting for most users, they take time to fill in and users are loath to give out their personal information to organisations that they are not familiar with and have no confidence in. If you want a user to register then give them access to as many areas as possible, they will be more likely to want to register once they have gained confidence in your offering and have become aware of the benefits that they will gain from it.

Understand that their time is precious too

A large group of users still access the Internet over phone lines with 56k modems. There is nothing more annoying to users than having to wait several seconds for a page to download, every delay increases the likelihood that they will get distracted and leave your site.

The use of features such as flash intros and animations increase download times. These not only slow the user down by forcing them to wait longer for pages to download, but also often prove to be more of an annoyance to users than benefit. 

Far from actually grabbing the users attentions we now regularly see that users are automatically ignoring graphics and animations. “Banner blindness” is a frequently seen phenomenon in which users ignore anything that looks like advertising. 

Get to know your users

There are three main questions here. Do you know who your users are, and have you ever met any of them? Do you know what they expect from your site when they get there? Get to know your users as early as possible in the design process. Develop scenarios and personas to make sure that your design accommodates their needs and limitations. Designs can be evaluated from the early stages of development. Fully functional pages are not needed before useful testing can be performed, useful feedback on the usability of your site can still be gained at the wireframe or paper prototype stage. 

Do you know what screen resolutions they will be working at?

Not many users have the luxury of high-resolution monitors. Many will be operating at 800x600 resolution meaning that they only get to see a very small portion of each page at the time and have to rely on scrolling to view other parts. These days, people tend to be familiar with vertical scrolling, but horizontal scrolling still stumps most users. All pages should be checked at low resolutions, and particular attention should be paid to whether important information lies below the “fold” of the window, the limit of what can be viewed in browser window without scrolling, as users may judge your page on it’s first appearance and may leave without bothering to scroll down to the bottom of a page.

Users are not dumb; we know how annoying it is not being able to find information on a site, and how confusing it is when websites and their functionalities do not behave the way we expect them to. The ideas that I have written about should be given some consideration throughout your design and development process. Following the advice given should ensure that your site is easier to use and that people are less likely to abandon it, thinking “Dumb website!”

Best Practice for User Centered Design

Tobias Misera, Head of User Centered Design, The Usability Company

User Centered Design (User Centered Design), in a user centred design context is the foundation upon which good usability is built. This is being increasingly understood and as a result requirements for User Centered Design work have grown significantly in the past 12 months. User Centered Design is not graphic design and it is not usability, it compliments both and each are interdependent on the other two if the output is to be world class.

The Best Practice Guide we have recently produced separates the User Centered Design process into a number of stages that describe User Centered Design activities. The process described relates closely to ISO13407. There are 4 stages in total with activities ranging from persona development to the creation of wireframes. The following is a summary of the key stages contained within the Best Practice Guide.

Stage 1

Defining the Goals: Effective User Centered Design starts with defining the site’s goals and its target audience. We recommend the use of workshops with key stakeholders as an opportunity not only to gather information from interested parties but also to introduce the concept of user centred design.

Defining the audience: Avoid designing for the average user as this will lead to a generic, compromised design. It is useful to define the audience through personas – fictional characterisations of the target end users.

Stage 2

Site content and functionality: Having developed an understanding of the requirements of the site and the audience it is intended for the next step is to specify the content and functionality that will support these.

User Centered Design Audit: If the project involves the redesign of an existing website the current site should be analysed and mapped. This is a very good way to learn about the business and the complexity of the project and to identify key templates.

Card sorting: Use card sorting or similar methods to determine whether there are any trends in how potential users would group the menu items into sections and how they are labelled. The resulting data should then be passed through analysis software that allows the Information Architect to perform cluster analysis.

Mapping the new website: The findings from the card sorting exercise will form the basis of the structure for the new website. The Information Architect’s role is to balance the interpretations of the users with the business requirements.

Wireframes: A rough page layout can be provided through the creation of wireframes. A series of wireframes will help to illustrate the screen flow of a particular scenario or process.

Stage 3

Usability Evaluation: At this stage wireframes are converted into an interactive html prototype. The prototype is then tested, usually with focus on layouts and complex processes. Users have to perform a number of tasks that are typical for the web site, i.e. make an online transaction. Users concentrate on navigation and content and are not distracted by design.

Refinement of structure and sitemap: The findings from the Usability Evaluation help to refine the structure of the web site. Once again the Information Architect must balance the findings with the business requirements. The prototype is also updated according to the findings and processes are refined. This prototype should cover key template pages and processes.

Content development: Form and function go together; so should content and architecture. If the site is a functional site, the editor should be included to decide what will appear on each page to guide users through the process. If it is a content oriented site, the User Centered Design should always guide users to the next article or other areas of interest.

Labelling: Once the structure is solidified, labels need to be defined for sections and subsections. This is an extremely important task and should not be taken lightly. If the right labels are picked, the users will effortlessly navigate through the site.

Handover to design: Sitemaps, wireframes and diagrams are passed on to the graphic design team who design the template pages. These in turn are handed over to the production team to implement. The Information Architect manages that process in the early stage to ensure that none of the deliverables are misinterpreted.

Stage 4

Usability Evaluation: Following the completion of the layouts for the key template pages by the design team the new prototype is tested with end users. The tasks will now focus on the user experience as well as processes and navigation.

Refinement of design and structure: The findings from the Usability Evaluation may indicate more work is required on the design and/or structure. The work, however, is usually minimal and is about fine-tuning the site.

Production & launch: Design and structure is now optimised. Sitemaps, wireframes and diagrams are then passed on to the developers who can start production and launch the new website.

Ongoing Analysis: Analysis is the continuous evaluation and improvement of the site’s information architecture. This includes monitoring site traffic, usage and user feedback, identifying opportunities to improve the site through major or minor redesigns. The website will change and it is only through continued focus that a world class website will be maintained.

Cash hurdles for official websites

The following article appeared on the BBC News website,  August 4

Government plans to make official websites accessible by anyone could be hit by a cash shortfall.

In late July the UK Government released detailed specifications spelling out what official webmasters must do to make net sites usable by everyone.

The document lays out just how webmasters should design and test sites so they are easy to use and cater for people with physical disabilities.

But the cost of making the changes could mean that few sites become more usable.

Look and learn

The Quality Framework for UK Government Website Design was drawn up by the Office of the e-Envoy and aims to remove the barriers stopping people using public sector websites.

The document sets out the design process that webmasters should go through when designing a site and the cycle of testing they must undertake to ensure that no-one is excluded.

Catriona Campbell, chairperson of the Usability Company and one of the experts consulted for the framework document, said it set out clear advice for anyone creating a website.

But, she said, that the government's good intentions could founder because there was little cash to fund the re-design of the 800 or so official websites.

"The real problem is budget," she said, "it's not cheap to test for accessibility and usability."

The two disciplines of accessibility and usability were very different, said Ms Campbell.

Accessibility was about catering for people with disabilities but usability was all about building a site that works with human psychology and is easy to navigate around and understand, she said.

The government should make the cash available to carry out the redesign and testing of sites, she said.

An added problem was the fact that many local government sites were produced by in-house teams that may be unaware of best practice on usability and accessibility.

The government has a stated aim of putting all government services on the web by 2005 but has said little about how easy those websites should be to use.

If official websites do not take accessibility and usability seriously, they could leave themselves open to legal action.

The Disability Discrimination Act demands that websites are as accessible for people with physical disabilities as those without.

The Disability Rights Commission is currently investigating the websites of about *100 private sector firms to see how accessible they are. The commission has not ruled out taking legal action against firms that have websites which contravene the law.

Notes:

* The Disability Rights Commission is currently investigating 1000 websites as opposed to 100.

As mentioned in May’s newsletter, we understand that a key aim of the investigation by the Disability Rights Commission will be to identify recurrent barriers to web access and to help site owners and developers recognise and avoid them.

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