Usability – No More Excuses!
Rob MacDonald
Web Strategist – UBC Information Technology
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
Presentation Overview
 User-Centered Design Overview
 Benefits of User-Centered Design
 Survey Results / Discussion
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
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
Defining User-Centered Design
 Process
 Philosophy
 Principles
 Puts the user in the center of design decisions
 Goal of achieving usable systems
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
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
A Typical UCD Methodology (UPA)
 Design Phase
–
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–
–
–
–
–
–
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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
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
Usability Benefits
 Reduced development cost
 Increased productivity
 Reduced errors
 Improved acceptance
 Reduced training and support
 Enhanced reputation
 Financial gain
Usability Benefits (cont’d)
 "The rule of thumb in many usability-aware organizations is
that the cost-benefit ratio for usability is $1:$10-$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)
So how are we doing?
 19 respondents
 10 institutions
How would you describe the level to which you
incorporate user issues into your website projects?
lo w
0
13
m e d iu m
h ig h
6
Who drives design decisions on your website
projects?
the project manager
0
10
the entire team
a business analyst
0
usability specialist
0
1
programmers
senior management
product users
marketing / communications
Other (please specify)
0
1
3
4
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”
At what stage do you introduce your users into the
website development process?
At the start of the planning
stage
Just before starting
development
3
1
When we release the beta
version
11
When the product is
released
Other (please specify)
3
1
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
Which of the following research techniques do you currently use
when designing websites or web applications?
usability testing/ analysis of
current website
14
surveys / questionnaires
14
beta sites
14
usability testing/ analysis of
competitive websites
11
wireframe prototypes
11
paper prototypes
10
Which of the following research techniques do you currently use
when designing websites or web applications?
user site visits / contextual
inquiry
8
focus groups
8
scenarios
7
card sorting (information
architecture)
7
stakeholder interviews
7
Which of the following research techniques do you currently use
when designing websites or web applications?
user profiles / personas
5
interviewing helpdesk staff
5
user interviews
4
heuristic analysis
1
Other (please specify)
1
Which of the following research techniques do you currently use
when designing websites or web applications?
“Other” responses
 content mapping, vision and scope docs
When developing websites or applications, do you
typically conduct usability tests?
always
1
4
frequently
12
sometimes
never
2
During the development process, when do you
conduct your usability tests?
when we have our first sketches/ mock-ups of the site
1
when we code a wireframe site
4
when we build our first working prototype
7
when we release our beta site
13
4
when we launch the site
never
Other (please specify)
0
1
During the development process, when do you
conduct your usability tests?
“Other” responses
 depends on project how often we test users
When performing usability tests, the participants are
actual users of the product.
yes
no
15
2
Is your development process iterative?
yes
no
14
3
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...”
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.”
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”
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
buy–in from other groups
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.