Usability 101

Usability principles
(Design in the connected age)
303Lowe @digital

“Design is how it works.”
Steve Jobs, 2003

“We live in the age of utility.”
Adam Ferrier, 2013.

Deﬁnition Usability
Utility
Usefulness

Usability is a quality attribute
that assesses how easy user
interfaces are to use.
Deﬁnition
Jakob Nielsen, 2012.

Usability and the utility, not the
visual design, determine the
success or failure of a web-site.
Deﬁnition
Smashing Magazine, 2008.

Deﬁnition
• Usability = how easy & pleasant these features are to use.
• Utility = whether it provides the features you need.
• Useful = usability + utility.

5 Components Learnability
Eﬃciency
Memorability
Errors
Satisfaction

Usability components
• Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish
basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?
• Efficiency: Once users have learned the design,
how quickly can they perform tasks?
• Memorability: When users return after a period of none
use, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?
• Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are
they, and how easily can they recover from them?
• Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?

If a website is difficult to use, people leave.
If the homepage fails to clearly state what a
company offers and what users can do on
the site, people leave. If users get lost on a
website, they leave. If a website's
information is hard to read or doesn't
answer users' key questions, they leave.
Note a pattern here?
Usability matters
Jakob Nielsen, 2012.

How do users think?
• Users appreciate quality and credibility.
• Users don’t read, they scan.
• Web users are impatient and insist on instant
gratification.
• Users don’t make optimal choices.
• Users follow their intuition.
• Users want to have control.

1. Don’t make users think.
According to Krug’s first law of usability, the web-
page should be obvious and self-explanatory. When
you’re creating a site, your job is to get rid of the
question marks — the decisions users need to make
consciously, considering pros, cons and alternatives.

2. Don’t squander users’ patience.
In every project when you are going to offer your
visitors some service or tool, try to keep your user
requirements minimal. The less action is required from
users to test a service, the more likely a random
visitor is to actually try it out.

3. Manage to focus users’ attention.
Focusing users’ attention to specific areas of the site
with a moderate use of visual elements can help your
visitors to get from point A to point B without thinking
of how it actually is supposed to be done. The less
question marks visitors have, the better sense of
orientation they have and the more trust they can
develop towards the company the site represents.

4. Strive for feature exposure.
Letting the user see clearly what functions are
available is a fundamental principle of successful user
interface design. What matters is that the content is
well-understood and visitors feel comfortable with the
way they interact with the system.

5. Make use of effective writing.
The Web is different from print. Promotional writing
won’t be read. Long text blocks without images and
highlighted keywords will be skipped. Exaggerated
language will be ignored. Avoid cute or clever names,
marketing-induced names, company-specific names,
and unfamiliar technical names.
For example “sign up” is better than “start now!”
which is again better than “explore our services”.

6. Strive for simplicity.
The “keep it simple” principle should be the primary
goal of site design. Users are rarely on a site to enjoy
the design; furthermore, in most cases they are
looking for the information despite the design.

7. Don’t be afraid of the white space.
Complex structures are harder to read, scan, analyze
and work with. When a new visitor approaches a
design layout, the first thing they try to do is to scan
the page and divide the content area into digestible
pieces of information.

8. Communicate using a “visible language”.
Organize: provide the user with a clear and consistent
conceptual structure. Economize: do the most with
the least amount of cues and visual elements.
Communicate: match the presentation to the
capabilities of the user. Balance legibility, readability,
typography, symbolism and color or texture in order
to communicate successfully.

9. Conventions are our friends.
Conventions are very useful as they reduce the
learning curve, the need to figure out how things
work. With conventions you can gain users’
confidence, trust, reliability and prove your credibility.
Follow users’ expectations — understand what they’re
expecting from a site navigation, text structure, search
placement etc.

10. Test early, test often.
Usability tests always produce useful results. Either
you’ll be pointed to the problems you have or you’ll be
pointed to the absence of major design flaws which is
in both cases a useful insight for your project.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg recently unveiled the
newly relaunched nyc.gov, the official website
for the biggest city in the country. This was the
site’s first redesign in a decade, and the new user
experience is unlike any other government
website out there. This was our goal.
nyc.gov
Rachel Haot, Chief Digital Officer, NYC.

nyc.gov
• Your user is the center of the universe.
• In God we trust, everyone else bring data.
• Make mobile your first consideration.
• Focus on service.
• Don’t skimp on search.
• Every page is your homepage.
• Show your users what’s in it for them.
• Get fresh perspectives from the smartest people you can find.

If someone is spending a minute
or two or three or four cursing
you out from their desk, it's not
going to be easily fixed with
some clever advertising.
Final thought
Seth Godin, 2010.

Thanks! Questions?
Want to know more?
http://uxmag.com/
http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/
http://mashable.com/publishers/ux-magazine/

Usability 101

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Usability 101