Usability,What’s the use? Paul Rouke

Head of Usability, PRWD

Christopher BushUX and Design Consultant, Sigma

About Sigma• The UK arm of a 1300 strong IT consulting group, Sigma AB• Publicly listed on the OMX Nordic - Stockholm • Global offices: Sweden, UK, USA, China, Ukraine and Hungary• Partnerships: Microsoft, IBM and Oracle

User experience design, implementation and consulting

• Web, mobile and application design and development

• CMS implementation(Umbraco, WordPress, EPiServer,)

• Copywriting, content creation and migration• Training in social media and

writing for the web

• User engagement: interviews, focus groups• Usability and accessibility testing • Requirements definition and solution

design (JAD)• Rapid prototyping for web and mobile• UI design and interface testing

Sigma Clients include

A specialist usability & conversion optimisation consultancy run by Paul Rouke

Provide services to help improve website conversion rates•Expert evaluations•Usability testing•Split and multi-variate testing•In-house consultancy•Training

About PRWD

PRWD clients include

What is usability?

Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use.

The word "usability" also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process.

We all know how important it is to be considerate of what people want…

especially when buying presents…

…look what can happen when we’re not!

How can usability testing help you?

• Understand your users• Inform design• Eliminate problems & frustration• Improve customer service and profitability• Reach more people

How does a good experience improve the effectiveness of your site?

What they don’t do

• Stay still• Think that they know best• Ignore what their customers are saying• Presume their brand credibility means visitors will

automatically trust them as an online retailer.

“Our in house UX team spent weeks wireframing, designing, prototyping and

usability testing a whole raft of new features that our customers had told us

they wanted over the years”

James Hart, eCommerce Director @ ASOS

An example of what they do

What this approach has led to

• Truly one of the most usable and user friendly shopping baskets I’ve seen

• A superb example of what I always recommend retailers, irrespective of their size, should focus on… and this is…

Transparency

ASOS and their usable shopping basket

Waitrose

Turning the negative around

Mobile experiences

Mobile experiences

Mobile commerce

is a small but growingmarket

Mobile experiences

8% of shopperscompleted purchases

over Christmas 2010

survey of 10,000 shoppers by ForeSee Results, Jan 2011

Common uses of mobile

So what is everyone

doing?

Common uses of mobile

Location basedservices

Common uses of mobile

Small purchases&

Micro payments

Common uses of mobile

Product research &

reviews

Common uses of mobile

Product comparison

Amazon

Amazon

Simple UI

Amazon

Simple & predictable UI

Amazon

Focus on browsing

Core navigationat foot of page

Amazon

Amazon

Lots of supporting information

Case studies

Case studies

Lakeland

Project overview• A full e-commerce platform redevelopment• Integrating with best of breed web technologies

What they don’t do• Forget that its their customers that really matter

How PRWD helped• We delivered 2 rounds of moderated, lab based user testing

• Here are some of the key insights gained…

“It’s good information and a quick way of finding things. I

like it”

Mega menus make browsing easy

“Product grouping is good, and there's not too much of it, it's all there, not needing to scroll. I

prefer to click and go to another page than scroll so this

is good”

“If I'm looking for something that I've

never owned before, I love it if there are customer reviews”

“I like them, its better to hear off someone

who's already got one rather than the person who's selling

it”

“Customer reviews are good, if people are boring enough to write them, I wouldn't. I would definitely read for expensive items”

Users love rating & reviews

“I do expect to see videos now - they have them with clothes now. I wouldn't

have expected it in the past but you see it a lot more so for a new website

I'd definitely expect it and do find it really helpful”

“I like the video, it's giving me information that isn't

in the description”

Video demonstrations help the user

“Free postage over £50 is a good thing, it would make me buy more just to not pay the postage”

“Free delivery is a big plus, even if it's incorporated within the price – I’m happy for it to

be incorporated into the price”

Cost of delivery can be a deal breaker

More insights• The time I had with 9 women in 9 hours – (Google ‘9 women x 9 hours’)• 10 e-commerce best practice features – (Google ‘Lakeland best practice’)

Usability & web forms

Common sense principles you can follow:

• Keep them simple• Only ask for the minimum info required• People are busy, they don’t have time for big forms

Which form will visitors use most?

14% 86%

Which form do visitors use most?

What is the sales conversion rate?

What is the sales conversion rate?

17%

What is the sales conversion rate?

17% 55%

Lessons learnt

• Use existing customer knowledge to tailor your online experience

• Enquiry forms can be long• Enquiry forms can ask users to complete

multiple fields• Your enquiry form can help qualify prospects,

saving you time and money

Case studies

Brand Central

How Sigma helped• Product discovery and research exercises

• Large scale user engagement (remote and face-to-face)with a with users across AMER, EMEA, APAC and Greater China

• Two rounds of formal lab testing

• Creative, interaction design and solutioning work

• Development

• Product awareness video and training

Features sweet spot

Features sweet spot

Lessons learnt

• Always have a home button

• Language and terminology can be BIG blockers

• Make it easy…Interface elements should be recognisable and predictable

• Reduction of complex features can increase usage

Case studies

Brand Central feedback

"At last – everything a creative agency could possibly need for each

IHG brand, in one place and always up to date – genius!!!”

Hotcake marketing

Case studies

Brand Central feedback

"Brand Central has provided a quicker than average route

to market and excellent resource for our hotels,

enabling them to access new artwork designs which can be

harnessed for far reaching marketing activity that in

turn converts to commercial gain within our estate.”

Citizens Advice

Looking for advice

Looking for advice

http://cl.ly/2b3r3E3N2G2v1S0C2519

http://cl.ly/1Z2u3s420F0b3C0h0t1D

Usability for lead generation

Original version

Impact Vs Content?

Test version A

Which test won?

Original v Test version A - RESULTS

+ 9%

Which test won?

Test version A – What and why?

• Make the required and optional information more obvious

• Remove the back button to encourage completion

Which test won?

Use button size, style and colour to focus the user and increase conversions

Buttons, don’t you just love ‘em!

Test version A

Which test won?

Test version B

Which test won?

How do Ultralase do this?

Who

What

Why

Lets do it

How do Ultralase do this?

Test version A v Test version B - RESULTS

+ 66%

Which test won?

• Answering potential questions encourages conversions

• Branding can be replaced with useful user information

• Information can help to turn off poorer quality prospects

• Think - who > what > why > lets do it

Lessons Learnt

The use of usability…

Understand users Inform design

Eliminate problems

Improve service & profitability

Reach more people

Thank you. Questions?

Office:0161 228 0585

Email:paulrouke @ prwd.co.uk

Web:http://www.prwd.co.uk

PRWD22 Lever StreetManchesterM1 1EA

Sigma PRWD

Office:01625 427718

Email:Hello @ wearesigma.com

Web:http://www.wearesigma.com

SigmaRopewalks, Newton streetMacclesfieldSK11 6QJ

Mobile:07739 745 126

@WeAreSigma @PRWD / @paulrouke

Usability articles, case studies, resources & best practice available here:

http://blog.prwd.co.uk/usability/UX101