A few months ago we built a new website to tell the story of our new firm, Nomat. Future blogs will be published there. Check it out at:
https://www.nomat.com.au/nomat-blog/
I would love to hear your thoughts!
Chris
Pragmatic
Saturday 1 November 2014
Monday 25 November 2013
Better User Research Through Surveys on UX Mastery
Last week I wrote an article on using surveys in user experience (UX) for the excellent UX Mastery. The piece covers what a survey is, how they can benefit the design process, what to consider before writing a survey, creating an effective survey (writing good questions etc.) and an introduction to some tools.
UX Mastery is a great site with some excellent content including a resources section, with a nice overview of UX techniques and an extensive list of tools. They also created a fantastic video on what UX is, which is worth checking out.
I hope you like the piece on Surveys.
Let me know your thoughts on using surveys in UX or if I missed anything.
UX Mastery is a great site with some excellent content including a resources section, with a nice overview of UX techniques and an extensive list of tools. They also created a fantastic video on what UX is, which is worth checking out.
I hope you like the piece on Surveys.
Let me know your thoughts on using surveys in UX or if I missed anything.
Wednesday 20 November 2013
Think the home button is unnecessary? Think again.
There has been a trend over the years, which
is not particularly new, to remove the home button from website navigation. I’m
not sure why this is, maybe it is to free up some space for other navigation
options or maybe it is because there is an assumption that users understand the
convention of making the company logo a link to the homepage. Regardless of why it
is done, countless usability test sessions I have observed and run strongly
indicate that this simply doesn’t work.
I recognise that a large number of users
understand the logo convention however time and time again participants turn up
who are not familiar with it. Usually their only way of getting back to the
homepage is to use the back button – which can be a real pain if they have
been on the site for a while or the back button acts as an undo for in-page
functionality (think search filters). While it may seem trivial, getting
back to the homepage is a fundamental aspect of user behavior when navigating
websites. This remains true today even
when we know that less traffic arrives in the homepage (http://giraffeforum.com/wordpress/2010/04/18/the-decline-of-the-homepage/).
The homepage is commonly used by people to orient themselves on a site.
Something along the lines of: the
information I was seeking wasn’t there, so I’ll go back to the homepage to
look elsewhere for it. Ironically it can be the users who are less
experienced or confident online who get lost and need to get to the homepage to
re-orient themselves.
If there is a genuine need to deviate from a conventional home link, below are two examples of sites which take a slightly different approach however are likely to be
effective.
The humble home link plays an important role in assisting people to navigate and use a website effectively. If there is a need to avoid a conventional home link consider a creative approach, but keep in mind that usability testing with real users remains important when deviating from known and established conventions.
Thursday 24 October 2013
How to moderate a usability test
Last week I had the pleasure of running
some training and mentoring for moderating usability tests. I have been able to
gain a lot of experience in running usability tests; working for one agency I
was running up to 8 sessions a day! Within the industry there is a variety of
skill levels and expertise in this area. I have witnessed moderators who act
like a chameleon, adapting to each participant and skillfully eliciting
feedback like a puppet master and have also been horrified with clumsily
structured sessions where the participant was uneasy and plied with direction
on how to act and left in no doubt about the feedback the moderator would like.
Moderation is not a difficult skill to
learn, however the difference between good and bad moderation is huge and can
have major implication for your project. I genuinely believe that anyone can
learn the skills required with the right guidance. Like any skill, moderation
takes time to master and mentoring can help. This post covers some of the
basics for moderation; getting these right should lead to an effective
usability test.
1. Start on the right note: The key to a
successful session is engagement. From the minute you first interact with the
participant it is crucial to set them at ease and make them feel comfortable. This
rapport building is about gaining the participant's trust as well as letting
them know you are in charge. Mutual trust building helps participant feel
comfortable that the session will be run in a manner where they are not going
to be judged or made to feel uneasy. This comes down to a friendly but
professional demeanour. Rapport can be built quickly, you need to be friendly
and warm, be aware of your body language, ask some open questions about their
day, or job etc. actively listen to their small talk and reflect that you are
interested in what they have to say.
2. Make the process crystal clear: Setting
boundaries with participants as well as providing a clear understanding of the
process is crucial to making sure that they know what to expect and what is
expected of them. This can overcome some potential issues regarding the anxiety
some participants feel about undertaking a test,
the desire of participants to please the moderator (tell the moderator what
they think you want to know) and their potential diversion into trying to solve
the design issues during the test.
A good script can be utilised
to communicate key parameters to participants including:
a.
That you want to understand how
they would use the interface in their typical environment.
b.
That you will evaluate (and
ultimately improve) the website by observing their interactions with the site and
that with this understanding, you will work out how it needs to be designed; make
it clear that the participant doesn’t need to worry about re-designing the site
during the session.
c.
That you are not testing them.
A successful usability test is one where participants behave as normally as
possible (or as close as is realistic in a unnatural setting). Other tactics
can be employed such as avoiding the term “task” and using “activity” instead.
Also avoid comments like “good” or “well done”. While it is unrealistic to
total eradicate the sense that they are being testing, it can be minimised.
d.
That you are independent of the
design and that you won’t be offended by negative feedback. Independence is
crucial to promote honest feedback (see Usabilitytesting: Does independence matter?) The reverse can be true, making out that you
expect negative feedback can also adversely effect a session.
3. The masterful art of
deflection: Some participants will seek out assistance
from you as the moderator (a good introduction script should reduce the
likelihood of this happening). When this happens the key is to deflect the
question while maintaining the participant’s engagement. For example deflecting
the question poorly such as, “My role is not to answer your question” can
actually do harm by making the participant feel that their feedback is
unimportant. A better approach is to use phrases such as “What do you think?”
or “Let’s discuss that in a moment”. Maintaining a respectful tone of voice is the
key to deflecting the question.
4. Not leading participants in their discussion or behaviour: Eliciting non-prompted and honest feedback is fundamental to the
role of effective moderation. The way you phrase your questions to participants
can lead to completely different responses and it is important that
participants are not lead to an answer. An example of a leading question would
be “Did you find creating a password difficult?” The use of a non-leading
question such as “how did you find creating a password?” will elicit a more
true response.
5. Get comfortable with silence: Silence is
one of the most effective moderation techniques. As outlined above, questions
can impact a participant’s response, especially during a task. This presents a
challenge, as any stakeholder viewing the session will want you to ask why, “why did the participant select that option?” “Why
didn’t the participant sign-up?” etc. Instead, a better choice is to encourage
natural behavior by deferring discussion to after the activity or to an
appropriate pause.
Silence is difficult, and
sometime you want to encourage your participant to continue – using some
minimal encouragers, such as “I see”, “tell me more about that”, “and then…”, are
a nice supplement to silence, if you feel your participant needs encouragement
without impacting on their train of thought or their subsequent behaviours.
It can be argued that
asking probing questions as things happens is likely to reveal more insightful
feedback and at times this can be of value. You need to ask yourself, will
asking this question now have an adverse impact on behaviour? If so, does the
insight gained outweigh changing their natural behavior.
6. Listen: As someone much smarter than
myself once said, “we have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice
as much as we speak” and when moderating we should follow this advice, and then
take it to the extreme. Active listening will make your participant feel
comfortable, make them feel heard, and allow trust to be built, hopefully supporting
them to participate in the test more fully. The best way to start active
listening, is to genuinely listen and show an interest in what the participant
is saying (don’t tune out – remember you don’t have to be friends and it will
be over in 60 minutes or so!). You can show an interest in their responses
through your body language/posture, eye contact, use of minimal encouragers,
asking open questions and use of attentive silence. Finally, active listening
requires the moderator to get some feedback from the participant that their
message is being understood in the way it was meant to be. This can be done by
reflecting back to the participant what it is that they just said eg.
Participant: “I didn’t like setting up the password, it was hard” – Moderator:
“so you are saying that the password set up was challenging?” Apart from this
showing the participant that you have actually listened, it allows you to check
that you have understood what the participant has communicated to you,
validating your conclusions.
Conclusions
Mastering the art of moderation can take
years, running lots of sessions and making lots of mistakes. That said,
learning to gain useful insights from usability testing can be quite straight
forward. The most crucial elements are learning to listen, making it clear to
the participant what is expected of them and starting on the right note.
Tuesday 16 July 2013
5 web analytics reports for UX
Web analytics data is acknowledged as a core competency for managing websites but I'm amazed at how infrequently I see it being used by UX practitioners. It amazes me because I think it is one of the most valuable information sources available. I'm going to discuss some of the basic reports which can be used to inform the design process and can aid any UXer to better understand the end user.
The following reports have been selected because they give a sense of how a site is being used. This is really simple stuff but it helps to provide a foundation understanding into how people are behaving on a site.
1. Visitation by day, week and year.
Looking at visitation by time provides insight into the usage patterns of the site. The purpose of the site should dictate how we would expect the site to be used. Would seasonal usage make sense? Are people likely to use the site more or less on the weekend? Do we expect usage to increase in the evening? Looking into where the data supports and contradicts these questions is a great way to start using analytics. Understanding time the site is being used allows us to create hypotheses regarding how the site is being used more broadly and what additional data is required to confirm or dismiss
these theories. For example, if peak usage is weekdays between 7:30-9:00am and 5:00-6:00pm we might assume that the site is being used while people commute to work. Further evidence would be required to confirm this from within the web analytics data as well as from other available information sources. Remember when looking at time of day to consider the various time-zones throughout the world and to make sure time zone in the account has been configured to the most relevant location.
Understanding the content being used is crucial during the design process. This helps us to identify content of value, or not, to the end customer. This exercise can be exceptional valuable to identify what content should be prioritised and what can be culled. It does need to be stated that the content being viewed is simply that, it may or may not be what users want to view. Other data sources such as surveys and interviews can provide insight into what people want to find on a site. Segmenting content data can provide even more insight, for example looking into the content viewed by customers who made a purchase or become members can highlight some of the necessary information for carrying out these activities.
3. Internal site search
Obviously this report includes common terms users are searching for on the site. We do not know whether they are being searched for because it is content which cannot be located or content being sought by those with a preference for search (there are other tools and techniques for this, which I am not going to discuss in this post). Nevertheless it does give some understanding of what people could be interested in on the site and this data may support an existing assumption about what people can't locate or want to locate.
I should note that I have seen lots of Google Analytics configurations where the internal site search has not been configured. It is a simple process which can be seen in these instructions.
Internal site search |
4. Keywords
Keywords are the terms which are typed into a search engine to locate a site. They form part of the traffic sources information which covers how people get to a website, which include directly, referred, campaign or via a search engine. Keywords provide great feedback on the context in which the site is used. Have people stumbled on the site as a result of a blog post, were they seeking a specific product or have people typed in the business name? Each of these scenarios help to build our understanding of how people use a site which in turn informs how to best improve the site to meet user needs.
As a side note a site may have 'Not provided' in the list of keywords. The proportion of searches identified as "not provided", has increased since 2011 because Google changed their policy on passing on the search term of account holders who are logged in. For more information see the Google Analytics blog.
5 Top landing pages
These are the most common pages people arrive on, when coming to a site. On most sites this will be the homepage however over the years the proportion of visits which start on the homepage has declined due to deep-linking to content via search engines. This information can be used to prioritise effort for enhancing the site. Furthermore, the site can be evaluated based on the experience of arriving on a specific page. Identifying the most common landing pages can be a great starting place for more detailed analysis. The landing pages report also includes a number of metrics, including bounce rate, average visit duration and pages per visit. These allow an evaluation of how effective a landing page is, using this information in combination with keywords can also provide considerable insight.
Conclusion
These reports are ideal for getting a taste of web analytics and getting a sense of how people are interacting with a site. Key findings identified from this analysis would be a great value to during any project. They also lay the foundation for further analysis and greater insight which can be gained through exercises like segmenting the data.
Tuesday 11 June 2013
User research in an agile environment
I was invited to speak at the Global Reviews Digital Leader
Summit last week which focused on driving customer engagement, sales and
program velocity. The summit was a tremendous success with an impressive list
of attendees and speakers. It was
daunting to speak after Chris Ho from NAB and Barry Newstead from Australia
Post, who provided insightful and engaging presentations. That said, I enjoyed
presenting and being able to share my views on the importance of user research
in web design within an agile development process.
I thought I would take the opportunity to share some of my
presentation here.
The increased adoption of the agile development process within the digital industry presents a challenge for incorporating rigorous
research as part of the design process, particularly in the way that we have
traditionally approached research. This is due to the time involved in doing
research with rigour.
Not including research can result in building products which
do not meet user needs. This is ironic because this is also one of the reasons
for organisations embracing agile. That is to ensure the end product aligns
with user requirements instead of spending years building a product which is
not what people want.
At its essence research is about extracting information.
However that information only has value if it is accurate and can be relied
upon. To make doing research worthwhile we need to do it properly.
The problem: Conducting rigorous research within an agile development process
Research can be a slow process, potentially incompatible
with the rapid iterations of Agile. This is due to:
- Recruiting participants for research activities, for qualitative activities like interviews or moderated usability testing, which can take as much as 2-3 weeks
- Conducting qualitative activities such as interviews or contextual enquiry is time intensive. This typically constitutes days or weeks of work as opposed to hours.
- The analysis phase can also be time intensive; identifying the insights from research requires time opposed to regurgitating observations and direct feedback from users.
Incorporating design research into an agile process
Much like the culture shift which is required for going ‘agile’,
research also needs to become a part of the culture. Here are some ways to
include research in agile.
1. Effective planning: Research activities
must be planned for. Sprint zero can be used to define the research needs
generally, as well as the information sought from research. This could include
any outstanding questions regarding users and identifying the design assumptions
which require validation. Research activities can
then be scheduled for upcoming sprints which can accommodate the time involved
with recruitment. For example we can
schedule a round of usability testing for in 2 weeks time, to test the primary
design assumptions and include any questions which arise over coming weeks.
2. Using time efficient techniques and
tools: Online quantitative techniques such as un-moderated usability
testing, tree jack studies for testing IA, surveys and online card sorting can
be conducted without the lengthy fieldwork periods associated with qual
techniques.
Some of the great tools out there include Userzoom which is a
comprehensive suite of UX research methods including un-moderated online
usability testing, cards sorting, IA testing and survey capability. It is an enterprise
level tool which is used by Global Reviews. Optimal workshop, is
another example of the tools available, offering card sorting and IA testing.
A further factor reducing the time associated with utilising
these tools, is their great analysis functionality which can dramatically
reduce the amount of time taken to complete analysis in comparison to in-person
methods. Time is also saved in the collection of data.
3. Placing the right systems and processes
in place: A key requirement is setting up access to customers to be able to
get rapid feedback. A database of customers who are willing to participate in
research is ideal. This can be effectively supported by an active social media
presence. By having a system to get access to customers quickly it is possible
rapidly reduce the time involved in recruitment.
Customer can be asked to get involved in research during a
sign-up process or via communication channels such as email.
Another approach is to schedule research which takes place at
set intervals. For example scheduling customer interviews once a month, every
month, regardless of the research needs and information required. I heard a
great interview with Tomer Sharon on Gerry Gaffney’s fantastic UX Pod where he talked about using this type of approach at Google. He conducts
‘Fieldwork Fridays’ where he gets software engineers to conduct the research
with customers on a regular basis and argues that this has a huge positive
impact on their products.
Both of these approaches overcome the shortcomings of long
lead times for recruitment.
The key here is to have customers ready to participate in
research activities at short notice.
Example: bringing it together
To provide an example, I recently conducted a card-sort
within an agile team. There were questions about how the IA should be labelled
and grouped; an understanding of how customers thought about the content was
core to creating a successful design. Evidence was also required to justify
decisions to stakeholders. On a Wednesday morning I created the card sort in
Optimal Sort with around 40 cards. At midday it was sent out to customers. By
10AM the next day I was analysing the results and in the afternoon I was able
to provide feedback the product manager and the rest of the team. This was a
great example of having the right systems in place and making use of the right
tool to provide rigorous and highly rapid feedback.
Thursday 18 April 2013
Usability testing. Does independence matter?
I caught up with a former client recently and got onto the topic of independence in usability testing a design. They were lamenting the fact that there are very few companies who focus on usability testing without also providing their own design services. Having tested my own designs and tested the designs of my colleagues, as well as working as a third party brought in to assess an agency’s design, I have a strong view on the role of independence. I feel that it is impossible to be truly objective with your own design. This is not to say that you shouldn't test your own design. Confused? Let me explain.
Generally speaking, there are two questions which usability testing answers: 1) How usable is an interface? 2) How can an interface be improved? Often these questions are explored together, however identifying which is the most important will dictate whether independence is required.
When the goal of testing a design is to gain an accurate measure of how usable it is, the testing requires an independent practitioner with no vested interest in a positive or negative outcome. The person or organisation which created the design has an interest in a positive outcome which will impact their assessment of the interface's usability. This is not to suggest that a designer intentionally goes out of their way to present the results in a misleading manner, although I am sure this has happened. Put simply, the assumptions which were made during the design phase make it extremely difficult to objectively assess behaviour during a usability test. The outcome is more likely to be favourable because the practitioner is more likely to acknowledge the behaviour which supports their assumptions (the salience effect). Furthermore, an agency who has designed an interface is also compromised in their assessment of usability, even in cases where separate teams design and evaluate an interface. Again this is because they have a vested interest in a positive outcome. This is never more evident than during difficult projects and where budgets tighten.
There are a number of scenarios where I think independence matters:
- A project where significant investment has been made to design an interface
- Interfaces that will have a significant impact on the bottom line i.e. a new eCommerce platform
- Projects which are highly strategic for an organisation and numerous stakeholders are involved
- Projects where the team must report to a steering committee or senior management
- Interfaces that depart from industry or design conventions
In all of the above scenarios, being able to state that an interface has been independently tested and is usable is of great value to the designers and the project owners. It also represents a risk mitigation strategy for organisations in identifying readiness for deployment.
So having argued all the pro's of independence, when does independence become less important? When the goal of usability testing is purely focused on enhancing the design. Why? Because a good designer should be able to see the flaws in their execution and ultimately have an interest in creating the best possible design. Hopefully they are motivated to identify opportunities for improvement.
Ironically it seems the UX marketplace is moving away from independent usability testing despite the value that it offers to organisations as well as the integrity it affords the design process itself. Focusing on the objectives of usability testing will help to clarify whether independence is necessary. I think that if understanding usability is the goal, one agency or designer cannot objectively test their own design.
What do you think?
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