Website usability blog and technobabble guide

I'm not generally one of those usability people who grabs whatever Jakob Nielsen writes and links to it. It's not that I have a problem with Dr. Nielsen's work, but I generally think that, if you're going to take the time to read my blog, then the least I can do is to take the time to have an occasional original thought. This week's Alertbox got me thinking, though, and it's a subject I find I keep coming back to, so pardon me while I think out loud.

In a piece about user annoyance, Dr. Nielsen suggests that we should stop using drop-down menus for state lists (on shopping carts, in particular) and go back to straight text fields. Now, I'm not debating his data; I've been amazed more than once at how many people still have no idea how a drop-down menu works. What bothers me is a much broader question: when does usability risk giving into user habits so much that we stifle innovation?

Let me give an example that might help illustrate the point. You may be aware of the origins of the keyboard. The original mechanical typewriter had to be designed in such a way that it wouldn't jam, and this led to the QWERTY configuration. The key layout that we still use to this day is thought by many to be inefficient and suffers from usability problems. If, however, you were to test users on their current keyboard and an entirely new configuration (even if that configuration was more efficient, cognitively and mechanically), they would undoubtedly perform much better on the original keyboard. Why? Simply because that's what they're already used to. Of course, the switching cost (both in time and dollars) of moving to an entirely new keyboard might be high, but what if that new product really were better? By relying solely on our current habits and even testing data, we'd never know.

Ultimately, much of usability is about habit, and that makes sense. If I had to distill my Ph.D. in cognitive psychology into one sentence, it might honestly be "people are creatures of habit". When, though, do we cross the line from adapting systems to people into simply pandering to people's bad habits? At some point, if we only rely on what users already know, and don't allow them the learning curve to something new and potentially better, we reject innovation, and such a rejection is ultimately detrimental to future usability.

This is a difficult question, and I'm not suggesting that it has a one-sized-fits-all answer. As usability specialists, though, I think we have to sometimes take a risk and not constrain ourselves to what already exists. People are creatures of habit, but we're also creative and adaptable, and we need to have the opportunity to discover new and better tools. Without that opportunity, there wouldn't even be a worldwide web, let alone web usability problems to ponder.

MONDAY, MARCH 26 · GEEK FACTOR:
Shout-out to my European readers

I'd like to take a moment and say "hi" to all of my readers outside of the U.S. I've noticed an increasing representation from international subscribers (almost 1/3 of my visitors) and many of the usability blogs I've run across lately and have started subscribing to myself are based in Western Europe. Maybe this is just a consequence of my online networking, but I prefer to think that usability is an increasingly international topic.

So, now that I've recognized you all, I have a favor to ask. After all, what's the point of having your own blog if you can't exploit it once in a while? My wife and I are heading to Europe in May for 10-or-so days on vacation, stopping in Paris, the Rhine Valley, and Amsterdam. We've booked hotels, but I'd love to hear from my European readers (or well-traveled Americans) with recommendations for places to visit, restaurants, etc. Usability-related monuments (golden statues of Jakob Nielsen, etc.) are, of course, especially encouraged.

Read comments (3) · Post a comment · Link to this entry

MONDAY, MARCH 26 · GEEK FACTOR:
Conversions don't tell the whole story

Conversion-tracking has recently become a popular tool for both marketing and usability professionals. Although tracking how often a visitor "converts" (into a request, download, purchase, etc.) is certainly a business-oriented question, it's also a reasonably good measure of how effective a website is at helping users to accomplish their goals.

Like any metric, though, it's easy to get carried away with looking at conversion percentages out of context, and that can be a mistake, especially if you're testing site changes. Ideally, you should approach any testing scenario like a scientist, and create a hypothesis, thinking through the scenarios and predicting what effect they're going to have. That way, when the numbers come back, you have a way to evaluate them, and, in a perfect world, you'll be able to piece together some causality. Knowing that A is better than B is great, but better still to know why A is better, so that you can inform future decisions.

In addition, without that hypothesis, you may find yourself in a situation where the numbers lead you in the wrong direction. Case in point: one of my clients wanted to test featuring some lower-priced products on their home-page (versus moderately-priced products). We hypothesized that this would drive more conversions, but we also realized that this might drop our average price-point per purchase and ultimately hurt the client's revenues. Without thinking the situation through in advance, we never would've measured the average purchase price during the test. Ultimately, what we expected was exactly what happened. Conversions improved only a tiny bit (0.1%), but the average purchase price dropped almost $100.

Of course, from a pure usability standpoint, you could argue that the small increase in conversion (assuming it was statistically valid) meant that the lower-priced items were what the users wanted to see. That may be true, but our decisions are rarely "pure", and that tiny bit of personal preference wasn't worth a significant dent to the bottom line. Any measurement of site performance has to be viewed in a broader context; data is a valuable thing, but don't let it make your decisions for you.

Read comments (0) · Post a comment · Link to this entry

FRIDAY, MARCH 23 · GEEK FACTOR:
The RSS experiment: Firefox

Welcome to the official first week of The Great RSS Experiment. I'm cheating a little bit this week; Firefox is my primary browser, and I've been using it as my RSS feed reader for months now. The real pain begins next week when I have to scrap it in favor of an entirely new reader. This is just the kind of sacrifice I'm willing to make for you, my loyal readers.

Although Firefox is a web browser and not an RSS reader, per se, it includes a feature called "Live Bookmarks" which allows you to bookmark RSS feeds. These pseudo-bookmarks are then updated on the fly and appear as folders containing the individual news items, blog entries, etc. The screenshot on the right show a folder full of Live Bookmarks, with one of them opened to the individual entries.

Usability: 2/4

Each week, I'll rate the RSS reader I'm testing on both usability and features. I have to qualify the usability rating for Firefox. On the one hand, it's probably one of the easiest readers to use. You grab RSS feeds just like bookmarks and access them just as easily. Unfortunately, for the 90%+ of the population that doesn't use Firefox as a web browser, Live Bookmarks aren't a viable option. Also, while they work very well with auto-detection (the feed icon that pops up to the right of the URL), Live Bookmarks are not well supported by popular RSS delivery tools, such as Feedburner.

Features: 1/4

Firefox's best feature as an RSS reader is that it's fast and easy to use. You don't have to open up another window and the feeds are virtually at your fingertips. Unfortunately, that's also its only feature. There is no support for customization and, worst of all, you can't track what you've read and haven't read.

Firefox Recap
This entire experiment really got started because of the limited capabilities of Live Bookmarks, so I have a hard time recommending them. If you already use Firefox as a browser and subscribe to just a handful of RSS feeds, then Live Bookmarks are probably a good bet. Serious RSS users will have to stay tuned for the rest of the experiment. Next week under the microscope: Google Reader.

Read comments (0) · Post a comment · Link to this entry

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21 · GEEK FACTOR:
Google brings usability to the masses

Google recently announced the beta-test release of its AdWords-integrated testing tool, Google Website Optimizer. Unfortunately, yours truly hasn't managed to qualify for the trial run yet, but it looks to be exciting stuff. Although primarily designed for landing pages for online advertising, Website Optimizer promises to be a fully-functional testing tool, offering surprisingly complex multivariate testing to the general public.

Basic measurement tools, in the form of goal (conversion) tracking, are already available in Google Analytics. While these tools are traditionally advertising tools, they also provide the basic metrics to help track website usability. I currently use Google Analytics in conjunction with my own split-testing, and Website Optimizer promises even more power, giving you easy methods to switch content as well as the analytical muscle to measure multiple scenarios simultaneously.

The fact that Google sees enough demand to bring these tools to the general public is a good sign that people are finally beginning to understand the value of testing. Hopefully, that's good news for the usability community.

Read comments (0) · Post a comment · Link to this entry

MONDAY, MARCH 19 · GEEK FACTOR:
This warning label may be hazardous...

Sometimes, you really have to wonder what people were thinking during the design process. A couple of days ago, my wife noticed the following label on her straightening iron:

THURSDAY, MARCH 15 · GEEK FACTOR:
The great RSS reader experiment: Day 1

If you're an internet addict like I am, you undoubtedly know about RSS. The explosion of content on the internet has made mere bookmarks obsolete, and RSS feeds allow us to follow the latest and greatest from dozens (or even hundreds) of hand-picked sources. Like many people, my RSS feeds have gotten out of hand, and I'm beginning to suffer the effects of information overload.

Some friendly nudging by Mike over at The Hot Iron got me thinking about how to manage RSS feeds better, and I realized that I've been relying on the same old tools for too long. So, starting tomorrow* (and continuing for the next few weeks), I will embark on The Great RSS Reader Experiment. Each week (for the entire week), I'll bite the bullet and use a different RSS reader, reporting on my findings (and rating both usability and features) at the end of the week.

Since I already know FireFox's RSS tools pretty well, I'll start with those tomorrow. After that, I'll be looking at Google Reader, Bloglines, My Yahoo!, and NetVibes. I'll be sticking to free, web-based tools, which counts out things that require installation, like Gregarius (sorry, Tom). If you've got any other favorites that you'd like to see reviewed, just leave a comment. When the experiment is done, I'll do a round-up of the results.

*Update: I should remember to check the calendar before making promises. My first official report in the RSS experiment will be next Friday (March 23rd), and I'll review another RSS reader every Friday until I either run out of readers or patience.

Read comments (4) · Post a comment · Link to this entry