We believe experiences matter.™
Usability Tips
Usability Tips
- 3 Reasons for Implementing a Tutorial in Your Mobile Application
- Eye Tracking Misconception
- Find Out Why and Why Not
- Key Factor Often Ignored in Mobile Application User Experience
- Global User Testing Tip
- Avoid Heatmap Misuse
- Understanding the Impact of EHR Interfaces: Walking a Mile in Physicians' Shoes
- Ensure that your site is accessible to both humans and search engine bots.
- Emphasize Task Context When Testing Devices that Recognize Gestures
- Observations from Blended Online and In-Store Commerce
- "Photo Flash Cards" for Field Interviews
- Small Screen Design
3 Reasons for Implementing a Tutorial in Your Mobile Application
- Tutorials can help users discover advanced features that may not be readily apparent.
- The use of engaging messaging gives you the opportunity to provide a friendly and supportive welcome.
- A successful tutorial allows users to quickly familiarize themselves with a novel or unique interface.
Eye Tracking Misconception
"All usability research can benefit from eye tracking."
One common belief is that any usability study will provide better insight if accompanied by eye tracking. However, a simple cost-benefit analysis of the insight gained versus the amount of additional time and resources that eye tracking requires will show that eye tracking is not always appropriate.
Read more common eye tracking misconceptions.
Find Out Why and Why Not
Knowing exactly why a potential customer does not use a product is at least as useful as understanding why one does choose a product. Countering shortcomings through design that anticipates real world user behavior is good for business.
Key Factor Often Ignored in Mobile Application User Experience
May 2010 Newsletter
A common mistake in mobile applications is not recognizing the impact of delay to the user experience. Even a useful application with well-designed screens and a solid workflow can fail when there is a delay in the interaction. Whether due to a poor device processor or slow wireless data transfer, the delay can kill the experience.
Delay is especially critical for the mobile experience because users are more likely to use mobile apps in time or context-urgent surroundings. (in their car, while walking, between flights, between classes...)
We use our mobile apps to either kill time or try to catch up with a moving data target (a call, a friend, or navigating while driving.) Our window of usage is 1-2-3 minutes, not 15-20. (Unless we're stuck in an airport.)
We would argue this makes us more prone to impatience when using mobile apps than when we're using Windows or MacOS.
Read more mobile application design tips
Global User Testing
November 2009 Newsletter
Always make sure you are asking the same question. It is easy when going from language to language, culture to culture to lose perspective on what is really being asked. Check and double check that the research question is the same from start to finish, location to location, and country to country.
Avoid Heatmap Misuse
June 2009 Newsletter
Attention heatmaps are only data visualizations. They cannot explain or help analyze the data. Heatmap analysis often leads to misleading conclusions. To maximize their usefulness and reduce ambiguity, heatmaps should always accompany a quantitative analysis and serve as illustrations only. Read more on Eye Tracking
Understanding the Impact of EHR Interfaces: Walking a Mile in Physicians' Shoes
March 2009 Newsletter
When evaluating/designing for Health Care Professionals, try to keep the following basic UI requirements in mind:
The structure and organization of an EHR application needs to reflect actual HCP workflow. Although office-based physicians often have very different workflows than hospital-based clinicians, many EHRs try to support a particular type of workflow (and size of practice or healthcare organization).
Key application features - especially those related to CPOE activities - should be immediately self-evident and self-explanatory
The EHR application should support basic user interface requirements such as:
Ensure that your site is accessible to both humans and search engine bots.
December 2008 Newsletter
An easy way to test for accessibility is to turn off image, picture, and animation loading via the advanced tools controls of your web browser. This will limit the display to only include readable text and links that are easily accessed by search engine bots. While search engines have improved their capabilities to capture information from graphical and animated formats such as Flash, it can still be hit or miss, and this technique is useful for ensuring that your content is accessible.
Emphasize Task Context When Testing Devices that Recognize Gestures
September 2008 Newsletter
When a user's primary (or secondary) means of interacting with a device or application is through gesture recognition, there are often a couple of gesture-related issues that need to be assessed in usability testing. The first issue is the user's awareness of gesture functionality. Do they realize that they can drag and drop objects? Do they realize that "flicking" the touchscreen will result in a different outcome than "nudging"? The second issue is the user's ease of gesturing to complete an action under "typical" conditions (sitting, standing, etc).
Observations from Blended Online and In-Store Commerce
June 2008 Newsletter
Many merchants who have both physical store presences and e-commerce sites often try to leverage the instant gratification element of shopping. Don't want to wait for your Blu-ray DVD player to be shipped? Just order it online and pick it up in 30 minutes at your nearest big-box electronics or discount store.
This is not a new approach - it's been adopted by several major retailers in the US. But it does lend itself to a comparison of in-store and online shopping. A couple of observations about the transition from online to store - or vice versa:
"Photo Flash Cards" for Field Interviews
March 2008 Newsletter
When we conduct fieldwork observations, our goal is to observe users in their "native" surroundings. We want to see what tools or devices they are using, how they are using them, and most importantly, what types of daily or work-related activities are associated with these tools.
We want to avoid interrupting the user mid-thought or mid-activity. This means that we usually save our questions for the post-observation interviews -- when the user is generally considered done with whatever they are doing. These "after" interviews can take place in a break room, in a hallway, in a cafeteria, or on their way to wherever they are going. It can be a challenge to focus the user on our questions, especially if we ask them about something they did 30 to 60 minutes ago.
Fortunately, people are very visual. Using impromptu "photo flash cards" can help:
Before the interview, take digital photos of the objects or artifacts that the user was using right before or during the activity you have questions about. Show one or two of these relevant photos to help "jog" the user's recollection and give them a concrete reminder of their actions.
Small Screen Design
December 2007 Newsletter
When designing small-screen devices that allow fingertip input, consider enabling a secondary means of input (such as stylus input). This will help reduce frustration among users with larger fingertips or longer fingernails. Read more on small screen devices
Contact Us for Answers
The Handbook of Global User Research collects insight from user experience professionals in over 20 countries. This book is a must-read for professionals working on global research projects. More Info