I thought I would attempt to write a high-level post about usability myths, misinformation and simply misunderstandings of what usability is and how it should be implemented when designing and developing websites and web applications. Some of these may be old hat for many of you, but I think we often look past some of the most basic information about our profession and those who are trying to break into the industry or who are leading a project often get lost in the shuffle. This post is an attempt to clear the air up on some of that.
1. Usability does not have to be doctrine
I often hear colleagues quoting known usability experts and taking their words as some kind of doctrine. One thing we must all realize is that more than anything usability is practical. While some experts may preach what to do and what not to do, you must look at your site, its audience and evaluate if those statements really apply for the work you are doing. More often than not I find such statements from other usability experts to be good guidelines, but not hard fast rules to live by. That said, this very post you are reading should be taken as helpful guidelines and not hard fast rules.
2. Usability does not have to be a drawn out process
For some reason a lot of companies believe that usability has to be this long drawn out process of testing before the website is designed, after its designed, in prototype format, once its finalized and after it’s launched. Yes, it would be good to test at all those points in the lifecycle of the site but it’s not required. At the very least you only need to test once the website is fully operational and ready for private beta. Assuming you have set aside some time and budget for doing small tweaks and fixes that kind of test should be sufficient to get your website at least aimed in the right direction. Clearly the more points in which you can infuse user tests, even quick and dirty ones, the better.
3. Usability does not have to be expensive
One of the most common myths about usability is that it is expensive, be it hiring a usability professional or performing a usability test. This is simply false. Usability can be done with little budgetary resources using more guerilla methods (see Keith’s great article on Gorilla Usability). Often this comes in the way of more informal studies that get you closer to your end goal quicker and with little budget being burnt. One of the most inexpensive methods is to perform an expert review (similar to a heuristic evaluation but by a single usability specialist rather than a group of them and also with less focus on specific heuristics). Another method is to do cafe testing if the website or web application is something intended to be used by general consumers. A variation of this can be performed by recruiting existing users of your website or web application if the site or system is already in place. For websites and web applications that have not yet been created you can perform a simple focus group with target users who may use other competitor sites or similar sites and systems. Note that these methods are not without their faults, however given budgetary constraints they tend to yield results that are fairly effective.
4. Usability does not have to take a lot of time
Using the above guerilla approach to usability, one can perform tests rather rapidly. For example a quick cafe test can be conducted in a single one hour lunch period if properly setup and managed. An expert review can be conducted over a single two day period. Contextual inquiries can be done even quicker if scheduled properly. In several cases usability tests do not need to involve more than 10 users, and you can even do some of these tests with as little as five potential users.
5. Usability must be embraced company-wide
Another misunderstanding that I am seeing emerge in the industry now that clients are asking for usability testing, is that some companies believe that they can hire a usability professional and all of their problems will be solved. Again, simply not true. Hiring a usability professional will place an expert who is fighting for the user’s needs on the projects, but they will only be able to win small battles. Usability is something that must be embraced and adopted company wide. I am not saying everyone needs to be a usability specialist or even know how to conduct the tests and reviews, but the team must be aware of how critical usability is to the success and failure of a project and learn how to take the feedback from these specialists and implement it in the designs and code on a tactical level.
Conclusion
Usability can be done quickly and on a budget with little effort needed. It does not have to be large-scale, scientific, or even follow a specific set of rules. Usability testing should be practical and efficient. Each website and web application you build has different needs and different users. Choose your usability method for what works best for your project, it’s budget and timeframe.
Great article! You’re right; getting into usability research is a lot easier than most people think. I’ve actually done an informal usability with 5 participants. Over a three week period, I ran the tests, compiled the data and formulated conclusions based on the results. I’ve also experimented with stuff like card-sorting and I have to say that it makes my job a lot easier when the actual users are part of the decision-making process. The benefits of iterative design should never be underestimated. =)
Thanks for very interesting article. btw. I really enjoyed reading all of your posts. It’s interesting to read ideas, and observations from someone else’s point of view… makes you think more.
Good article and nice references. Thanks. Tim
A key portion of web usability can be attributed to an effective navigational system interlinking the pages within a site, this is often an aspect creative designers overlook.
Really too often in my company we go out of our way to make everything painfully usable even when it isn’t practical. I am sending my collegues a link to this article to hopefully sway them to be more practical. Thanks for the information.
usabilty isn’t something you “do”. When you refer to being practical you are simply considering all aspects that contribute to a products success - business, technical and user. Ultimately, there is an order of priority that drives the design direction. So when someone like Nielson says make links blue understand the motivation and larger meaning behind the statement before you change the color of links. Regardless of who you are the shared goal is to create a compelling and usable product that provides real value whether they be business or social.
Its really good to see such good article, all this information is very unique for me i am trying to apply on my projects.
Very interesting staff. I must use it in my work. Thanks Nick