Entries from August 2009 ↓
August 13th, 2009 — Design
Good Designers Who Know Usability Are REALLY Good Designers
I recently decided I needed a redesign of my personal web site wcraigtomlin.com and used the design services of a really good designer, Deborah Edwards-Onoro of Lireo Designs.
As is often the way with web redesign projects, my personal little web site redesign became something of a “project,” including all the usual issues such as scope creep (guilty), long delays by the client (guilty) then a sudden rush and pressure to get everything done ASAP with a modest amount of badgering (guilty, guilty and guilty).
As with other good designers, Deborah took it all in stride and demonstrated skills and patience that helped get the project accomplished in a very satisfactory manner. Most good designers pretty much know this comes with the turf, and do a pretty good job about handling such “problem” clients (like me).
However, I like the fact that Deborah also exhibits and understands the importance of applying usability to design. In my case, she used her knowledge of usability to produce a clean and simple user experience. As a side note, it’s also quite impressive that she’s actively involved in getting a new Michigan usability group together (now that’s REALLY believing in usability!).
Design & Usability
Designers have a tough job, and usability is not always top-of-mind among all designers. Add to this the pressure all designers face from “problem” clients (like me) as to critiquing design and you’ve got a extra handful of issues to deal with.
Let’s be honest, very few of us “clients” will critique or criticize CSS coding for example, but almost all of us will critique and criticize design colors, shapes and placements.
Humans, all of us, believe we “know” design and can judge between good and bad. Senior vice presidents of Finance, industrial cleaning product salesmen and even plumbers will offer free advice about a design they see, if offered a chance.
So it’s impressive when a designer will include the extra considerations of user experience issues as part of their process when developing a design. When this comes from a knowledge based on an understanding and appreciation of usability the design is going to be that much better. In my opinion this moves a designer from “good” to “really good,” because it means the designs will incorporate usability criteria to improve the user experience well before a web site is coded or goes live.
Really Good Designers
So it’s with gratitude that I say thanks to Deborah for all her work, she’s a really good designer. And if you are looking for a designer that includes usability as part of her process I suggest you contact Deborah.
And if for any reason Deborah can’t do the project (because she’s so busy with all the referrals I hope to send her way) then my suggestion is to seek other designers who take usability to heart. The end product these designers provide will mean far less re-work down the road, and an optimized web site that meets your business goals.
August 11th, 2009 — Usability News
I Am Surprised and Honored to Make Mashable’s List of Top 10 Must-Follow Usability Experts
Wow! I am very surprised and very humbled to be considered as a top 10 Must-Follow usability expert by Mashable. My name’s listed right up there with the likes of legends like J.M. Spool and the Nielsen Norman Group.
Of course, Mashable didn’t tell me this or warn me or anything – so this was a complete surprise, and a very nice surprise at that – once I figured out what was going on.
Actually, it was such a surprise that at first I thought a hacker had infiltrated my Twitter account and was having EVERYONE follow me! Follows were coming in at the rate of 10 to 20 a minute for a while! Since the coffee hadn’t taken full effect (it was after all about 6:30AM) I prepared to go “private” on my twitter profile – and change the password and alert Twitter to my hacked account!
Good thing I paused to actually read the Tweets that were coming in – which is when it dawned on me that I had received this great compliment, and the follows were “legit.”
Useful Usability
So, here we are, talking about useful usability. As my readers will know (you and my mom – hi mom!) I’ve been going on and on blogging about the benefits that usability can provide, and how easy it is to add usability to a web site or application project. I guess there’s now more reason than ever to blog about useful usability – as I like to call it.
What is “Useful Usability?”
In my mind, useful usability is three things:
- WHAT: Making usability useful by educating people about what usability is (and isn’t), the benefits of incorporating usability in web and application design, and why it’s good for business.
My belief is usability is about improving a business by increasing revenue or decreasing costs, or both!
Although there’s a great sense of satisfaction in knowing that usability improvements can help the human condition, the reality is usability is most typically consumed by companies looking to sell, or help support the selling of their products.
If the usability is not directly involved in improving revenue generation (as part of the product, or application used to sell the product), it is used to improve applications (think employee intranet tools) that are used to support the business that sells the product.
The often-mentioned good usability of the iPod, Shuffle or iPhone IS the product, in the sense that it absolutely reflects the brand and the user experience that many consumers expect and are glad to pay for.
- WHERE: Providing useful usability best practices, tips and sometimes war-stories of where and how I and others actually go about adding usability to a project.
Just like going to the dentist, conducting usability testing and optimization early and often is the simplest and easiest way to eliminate yucky plaque build-up web site problems and get the biggest bang for your application development buck. Depending on where you are in the software (or hardware) development life cycle, differing methods of usability testing are needed to provide actionable and valid data.
Applying usability testing data to make real improvements can and should be validated using key performance indicators (KPIs). And make no mistake, usability will permanently improve conversion of web sites.
- HOW: Demonstrating that usability does not have to be cumbersome or expensive. Usability can be done quickly, efficiently and for low or no cost.
Saving money by using low cost usability methods is a great idea. Saving money by not using a usability expert to conduct usability testing and optimization is a very bad idea.
That’s because usability testing is not about gathering lots of opinions (that’s the world of surveys and error rates and statistical significance). Usability testing is not about asking a few users to pretend to use the site and tell you what they like or don’t like (that’s using one person’s opinion to base business-critical decisions on – ouch).
Usability testing is typically about applying detailed Personas to a specific set of critical tasks using a carefully controlled 1-on-1 performance based test to evaluate precisely where issues are in a task flow.
Only by consistently observing the same task flow errors being repeated again and again can a verifiable usability error be uncovered – and optimizations recommended.
Useful Usability
So that’s my take on usability and what I believe useful usability is all about.
I sincerely hope my usability posts will help you in your goal of using or understanding usability. And please add your comments, suggestions or rants thoughts about usability – together we can all grow more informed about usability!
August 4th, 2009 — SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Usability share common traits, including 7 ways search engines are very like humans as demonstrated with the SEO & Usability Matrix
SEO is an important way for you to make your web site as friendly as possible to search engines. This is important because being friendly to search engines (and the spiders – aka automated programs used to find & index your content) ensures the content of your web site is discovered and indexed correctly.
This makes it easier for your content to be ranked appropriately in search engine results, making it easier for your potential web site visitors to find your site in the natural search engine rankings.
This of course means more web site visitors, and the really good news is those visitors are all “free” (in the sense that you didn’t use paid advertising to get them to your site).
Usability is also important for your web site. Once SEO has done its job and your web site visitors have found your site, if you place confusing content or navigation or functionality in their way, they’ll leave, usually never to return.
The interesting thing is generally what’s good for SEO and search engines is also good for usability and the humans who use your site (and buy your products). There have been several good articles posted about good SEO equaling good usability.
A few that come immediately to my mind are:
However, I have not yet seen a comparison matrix that simply defines and describes the ways SEO and usability are similar, and how what’s good for search engine spiders is also good for the humans that visit your site.
Now I don’t profess to being an SEO guru (although I think I’m slightly taller than Bruce Clay), nor do I profess to being a usability guru (although I think I have slightly more hair than Jakob Nielsen). I know enough to be dangerous, and have been working with SEO and usability since 1996. So please understand this is not a detailed nor comprehensive overview of the similarities, but rather a working definition I’ve created that helps me from time to time in my dealings with conducting SEO and usability for companies – I hope you’ll find them helpful as well.
So with no further ado, (drum-roll please) I present to you the “SEO & Usability Matrix.”
SEO & Usability Matrix
The SEO and usability matrix is designed as a quick visual learning tool, to compare the similarities between search engines and humans when trying to use a web site.
I’ve also created this matrix in a format you can use as a print out to check off each of the web site core shared elements – to ensure you’ve identified that they are indeed optimized for search engines and humans.
#1 – Information architecture
SEO: Search engines find it easier to classify content when it is organized into cohesive and logical buckets of information, following a defined pattern and flow.
Usability: Humans find it easier to use web sites when the content is organized into groupings or buckets of information that fit their “mental map” of how the content should be organized.
#2 – Labeling
SEO: Search engines rely on labels to help classify content and sort it with other similar content groupings.
Usability: Humans rely on labels to help classify the content, and just like in a store they use those labels to determine if they are in the right place, or not.
#3 – Linking
SEO: Using hypertext links that search engines can follow from content areas to other pages enables search engines to easily explore and index your site plus provides additional classification information based on context.
Usability: Using hypertext links from content enables humans to visually identify where your content is, how it is structured, and enables them to easily explore your site and find the content they are looking for.
#4 – Navigation
SEO: Simple but effective navigation techniques enable search engines to find all the pages of your site.
Usability: Simple but effective navigation techniques enable humans to find the pages of the site they are interested in with minimal errors and maximum efficiency.
#5 – Siloing
SEO: A sub-set of information architecture, Siloing, ala Bruce Clay, is the concept of grouping related information into distinct sections and sub-sections within a web site, all of which define and support the central theme of the site. Search engines will define the theme and thus web site keyword rankings based on how appropriately the silos of content match the theme of the web site.
Usability: Siloing is to a certain extent a sub-set of information architecture, but for humans also relates to the relevance of various sub pages underneath higher-level pages, helping them find the “scent” as it’s been sometimes termed of their desired content. For example, this siloing hierarchy probably makes more sense to humans: Cars > Sports Cars > Corvette and this less: Cars > Corvette > Sports Cars
#6 – Site Map
SEO: A site map placed at the root level of a site ensures search engines have an additional and easy way to find and classify the content of your site.
Usability: A site map placed in an easy to find area of your web site ensures humans have another method they can use to easily find the content of interest to them, especially if they are lost or confused.
#7 – Technology
SEO: Using flash, bleeding-edge technology or many multiple-levels of dynamic pages can cause search engines to have difficulty finding and indexing your content.
Usability: Using flash, bleeding edge technology or many multiple-levels of dynamic pages can cause humans to have difficulty in finding the content they seek, especially if they are unable or unwilling to have the latest version of a required technology to access the site. The appropriate use of technology to help accomplish user goals can be a motivator and reason to visit the site – or it can cause users to flee and thus eliminate visits.
Conclusion – SEO & Usability Share 7 Common Traits
As I’ve demonstrated, SEO and Usability have many shared common traits, including the 7 I’ve highlighted above. There are other ways SEO and usability are the same, and this list is not comprehensive nor detailed. But hopefully it’ll be of help to you the next time you have to evaluate your web site for SEO and/or usability purposes.
