The usability consultants notebook

Present ordinary features as extraordinary

2011-02-14T22:13:00.000+01:00

Professional websites are about selling: Selling goods, services or information. Attract people and in seconds make them see that this website is amazing. Because THIS website is BETTER for some reason.

I teach my clients to present themselves as BETTER in one way or the other. "ok - but our products are in fact more expensive than the competitors". Great - then you have two choices:

The expensive choice: Build a brand. Wrap your product with emotions. Make people pay 10x the price, if you can make them believe that they will (almost) become superstars buying your product.

The inexpensive choice: Present ordinary features as extraordinary. On this orange juice, the label copy say "presset på Fyn" meaning "made in Fyn", Fyn being an island without any prior connection to juice! This attribute is absolutely ridiculous. And furthermore the label says "Fresh taste because this is made in Fyn".

To the point of this post: If you do not have any real advantage to present, then take any ordinary attribute and present it as something fantastic and amazing. It works. And it is fun. Buy this new car - it has 4 WHEELS!

Read this blog - it is written on a ThinkPad laptop!

WARNING: NO PROBLEMS!

2011-02-01T16:17:00.000+01:00

I love this.

My computer is suddenly interrupting me, showing APPARENTLY a really important message from my laptop. It is animated, and takes all the attention when it appears:
"There has not been found any problems"...
Good job Lenovo, on understanding the priority of messages...

The fold, the fold, the fold...

2010-01-18T22:20:00.001+01:00

It's unbelievable how important the fold (the scroll line) is. Again and again we see this in our eye tracking analysis from usability test. Please never (NEVER!) expect that users of the website are going to scroll down the page. Some of them just don't.
I will be happy to discuss the reason and the exceptions to this rule, but I can not discuss the fact that many people almost don't scroll on a lot of web pages.

In this example Visit Scotland wanted to present exciting events and sights. But the users just found the search input field, and never got to see the real content of the web page.

Use eye tracking as an add on to traditional usability testing. It is really an amazing extra source of information to understand the behaviour of the online consumers.

Conference: Increase Online Conversion Rates

2009-12-15T17:30:00.000+01:00

Evaluations on my presentation "Sell 15-20% more online" from the Danish E-business Association conference "Increase Online Conversion Rates" in Aarhus, Denmark:
On a 1-5 scale (5 being the best)...
Content: 4,7 (avg 4,0)
Presentation:4,7 (avg 3,9)
Relevance: 4,7 (avg 4,0)
Inspiration: 4,7 (avg 3,8)
My new models are apparently easy to understand ;-)
Thanks!

note about young users

2009-12-04T12:09:00.000+01:00

The consultant: "Good morning - this meeting is about defining the groups of respondents to test the website. We have 30-40 years old - the more web/tech savvy - a gap of 10 years - and the group of less web/tech savvy: 50-60 years old"
The communications manager: "How about changing the 30-40 to18-25 years old. They have less patience, and are much more critical users."
Point taken!!! Thanks to Marianne Voigt.

For this public website (and for many others) usability testing with the young users will definately show a whole set of other issues regarding the user experience. It's guaranteed that we will know exactly when the impatience will set in...

The 10 second window

2009-10-05T10:29:00.001+02:00

in a usability test conducted in New York City three days ago. Again and again the users tell us: "With the first single problem I run into, I am leaving the website by clicking back to Google and onto the next on the list. They have 10 seconds - at the max."

note: Forget about instructions on how to use the website

2009-10-01T19:17:00.000+02:00

Does your website come with a manual for use? No!
If you are making the interface so complicated that you need to explain how to fill in forms or how to search, then people are simply not going to use it! IT'S A FACT. Those real, living people out there just don't read instructions on websites. They use it, and if they fail or run into problems, then they leave it. Simple as that.

"A tale from the real life" or... "The receptionist's secret knowledge""

2009-09-29T16:52:00.001+02:00

Note: Ask the right people that knows about the customers (before spending €$£ on finding out yourself)!
After 5 weeks on a project for a big client in the tourism industry selling experiences, I arrived to the reception for the weekly meeting.
The receptionists (also being the companys telephone operators) asked me if I needed my own identity card, since I was coming so much to the company. And then asking what I was doing for the company. "I help to identify the weakest parts of your website, to suggest improvements, for the company to sell more online".
And one of them replied: "Ahhh - then don't forget to mention step 5 and 7 in the booking process. People always call to ask for help on those parts".... And my jaw hit the floor!
We just used a lot of €$£ and 3 weeks of traveling and hard work to get 5 key improvements, of which the receptionists could have pointed out the top 2 :)

Note to myself about: Cross cultural user experiences

2009-09-29T00:23:00.001+02:00

Remember testing a website in typical Scandinavian design in Denmark and Spain. The Danish respondents (target group) found it really cool and nice and appealing. The simple and minimalistic design. The Spanish respondents rejected it as being dull and cold. It needed warmth, movement, fun. Never be arrogant on my own capabilities for judgement of good design - especially not for other cultures than the one I grew up in.