Ask Eric: Questions & Answers

December 12, 2003 – submitted by Ishtar Joren of Stamford, CT

Question: I have been working as a UI designer (or Web designer, human factors specialist, interaction designer – whatever the company I work for prefers to call me) for over 5 years now. I have come across a very consistent problem with most software companies that I have worked for. They all want "pretty" looking pages that are "user centric" and "all other buzzwords" but are not ready to allow any kind of design processes to be implemented – such as user studies and so on. As a designer how does one push this process in, and establish the importance of design (besides making buttons!!) Any tips will be a great help.

Eric's response: Ishtar, you are certainly not alone. Many companies now understand that usability is critical; but they still have no idea what is required to make this happen. To be competitive, companies must have 10% of their development community working on usability issues. They must have regular data gathering and usability testing with their users. They must have professionals working under an effective user-centered methodology with tools, templates, facilities, and standards. Now, how do you get them to see this?

You can tell them again... Well it's worth trying! Get an expensive outside consultant to tell them... We have the perfect gray-haired staff! Buy my book. Perhaps a few copies... People sometimes believe what they read!

I know it's very hard. The wakeup can take much longer and be far more expensive than we would like. But keep working at it. I am seeing more and more companies getting the message.

July 15, 2003 – submitted by Sudhir Nain of India

Question: I am a User Interface designer and am slightly confused about the ideal UI design process. At our office, the UI design team receives a document which we call the Use Case Doc. This document is written by non-UI people. It very elaborately describes everything an application is supposed to do and how it will do that. In other words the UI specification is already written in the document. So the only job a UI designer is left with is following the instructions there and making screen representations of the same. I somehow feel that this way the skills and experience of the UI team is underutilized and the application still suffers serious usability flaws, unless we actually disregard the instructions and go ahead with our own way.

Where is the flaw:
Shouldn't the use cases be technology free with no mention of the UI?
Or is it us who should follow our own processes, despite the instructions given?

Eric's response: Sadhir, you are definitely correct! Let me share an interesting experience I had this week. I met with a huge software company. They had technical staff trained to develop personas and use-cases. I found these being done regularly. But there was something amazing about the use cases. EVERY case I saw mapped directly to a database design! Fascinating! How could that be? Well if you go to a user and interview them in a database mentality, you get a database structured taskflow. If you interview them based on business expertise and concern about feature-sets, you get a list of nice-to-have features.

You are unlikely to get useful data if the data gathering is not done by usability professionals. In addition there is a problem with the application of the data. I have found that there is an infinite number of details and contextual information gained in the data gathering. I have yet to see a document hand off these details successfully. The people who gather the data need to take the project at LEAST through the structural design.

Sounds like it is time to rethink the current process. :)

June 7, 2003 – submitted by Kimmy Tso of Hinsdale, IL

Question: Are there standards for usability in the future? Are there any already?

Eric's response: Sure Kimmy. The usability field is in the process of evolving standards. There are specific international standards from the ISO organization. There are various industry standards (e.g., from Microsoft). There are also methodological standards and innumerable design principles. In the future it will be interesting to see how these standards evolve. To a great extent these changes will need to reflect the evolution of human interaction with machines.

April 29, 2003 – submitted by Sandra Vance of Portsmouth, NH

Question: Do you have any examples of usability objectives/goals for Web sites and Web applications?

Eric's response: We set user performance and experience goals for each project, and the specific goals vary. They are mostly a function of business strategy. Web sites that sell products usually have goals centered around sales, like "conversion rate" ( the percentage of visitors who buy) and the number of people who return to buy again. Web applications are more likely to have goals centered around the value to the user, like allowing a team to coordinate its activities in 20% less time than MS Outlook™.

In all cases the user performance and experience objectives will be some function of practicality, usefulness, speed of task completion, error rate, self-evidency (or training needed), and satisfaction. But it can be very focused. For example, it is common to see "self-evidency" measured as percentage of new users who contact a help desk with questions.

I am delighted with this question. Too many projects proceed to "do usability" without a set criteria for success.

February 10, 2003 – submitted by Anonymous

Question: We have several features on our Intranet that are used both on our main home page and on the home pages of our sub-sites. They are "branded" on the home page, meaning that we've given them a name and people are used to having them called that. We have discouraged the use of the brand name on sub-sites because we want our users to recognize that when we give them the brand name (in an e-mail communication, for example), we mean for them to look at the main home page. We now have a quick poll that we've "branded" on the home page. We recently opened this feature up to our sub-sites. Does it make sense for us to continue this practice with this new feature? Is this a practice we should have started?

Eric's response: This sounds like a great example of what I call "out-subtling" your user. You have a clear idea in YOUR mind that the different naming on the home page and secondary pages will convey a message to your user. I would guess that your users don't notice. They may be confused (mostly by obscure "branded" terminology). But they are VERY unlikely to get your message. I would NOT use obscure branded terminology. TEST the terms and if less then 80% or so of users understand them; the wording is NOT acceptable.

And right. Don't do that again.

January 4, 2003 – submitted by Dawn Nelson of USA

Question: Hello Eric,

My company has struggled for several years now on where "Usability" fits in the organization of the Internet Department. We have an e-commerce site. I am a Usability Specialist and have worked under the Director of Internet, Manager of E-Commerce, Site Production Manager, Sr. Web Designer, Manager of Financial Operations, and Marketing Manager. I currently report to the Manager of Technical Operations and for the last year have managed QA as well as Usability. I feel that the Usability Department should be its own department section and not under these other areas.

Because the organization is not currently structured to handle a Usability Department, I was thinking that Usability would best fit within our very large Customer Relations Department. The company is well known for its fantastic Customer Service. The folks that work within that department are intense Customer Advocates. They are involved in site design, QA, etc. I work with them very closely and they understand the importance and value of Usability.

I was hoping you might have some insight on where the Usability Department belongs with what I have described?

Any insight you have on this is greatly appreciated.

Eric's response: If you have a strong and receptive customer service department that may be best. It is a bit of an unusual choice. The customer service group is often focused on the metrics and methods for cleaning up the problems. It is rare for them to get directly involved in reducing the number of problems. But if your group is that forward thinking that is wonderful.

There is a new concept of a 'Chief User Experience Officer' (CXO). The CXO is a powerful position that is responsible for the customer experience across the organization. He/She can reach across lines of business. This can impact the marketing materials, the packaging, the net, the e-mail follow-up. It is a wonderful idea that is slowly being adopted. If this is not possible in the short term, it is most common to find good support in the marketing department. The last choice is generally in the IT group. The IT group is often focused on using cool technology, getting projects done on time, and eliminating bugs. Usability is rarely a focus. But again, the key issue is what works for YOUR organization. People matter more than titles. But I hope you do find the right home for usability. Please let me know how it turns out!