Recently I gave a high level presentation to a group of product managers in which I spoke on the business benefits of usability. Part of the presentation focused on 7 usability myths that I’ve heard and experienced while on project teams. I thought it would be valuable to share those here as well.
I realize that this is an incomplete list but these 7 myths were highly relevant to the group I was presenting to.
Usability Myths
- Usability is Expensive
Best practices call for spending 10% of a project budget for usability, which in itself doesn’t account for a lot. However, if your budget doesn’t even have 10%, user feedback can get even cheaper.Gorilla usability is cheap.
Conducting a test can be easy as grabbing a someone sitting in the next cube and ask them to run through something with you. Or, head down to a local coffee shop ask a couple people to help you out and then give them a $25 gift card. The information you receive is well worth the $25 bucks.
- Slows Down Projects
Done right, usability design will actually save time. However, it does need to be factored in from the start of the project.One of the major benefits of usability design is that you don’t waste time on features that your visitors don’t want or need. Early usability design techniques show you where to focus resources so that you can deliver a better product in the same amount of time.
Usability can also save time by helping you quickly settle arguments in the development team. Most projects waste countless staff hours as highly paid business folks sit in meetings and argue over what users might want or what they might do under various circumstances. Usability design allows you to focus on the visitor and takes the guesswork out of requirements.
- More than 3 Clicks = Bail
No study has shown this to be true.Users are trying to complete task and meet a goal. As long as they feel that each click moves them closer to their goals they will continue. (See Getting Confidence from Lincoln, UIE)
- Users Want to Read
Your website visitors are pressed for time and are probably multitasking, they don’t have time to read in detail.The writing of your site must be simple, short and to the point. To achieve this goal, look to reduce the quantity of text by 50% in the first review and reduce it again by 50% in the second review. The content that remains must be clear and concise.
Make use of headlines, sub-heads, lists, link text, etc.
- Website Issues Can Be Fixed With Instructions
As stated above users don’t want to read. Instead users muddle through a site.Think about yourself, how often do you read before clicking or filling out a form? I would guess most of you start interacting then if you have an issue you’ll try again probably, still not reading.
Instead of writing to solve problems design your website to be easy to learn and understand.
- Usability = UI Design
Usability is much more than deciding where to place a button goes. Design plays an important role in the usability of a site but the site needs to function first.Design can help an ugly, but working, user flow. Design can’t help a broken user flow
- Usability Testing = Focus Groups
Nope. These are two completely different things.Usability testing: focuses on the completion of tasks and ease of use. It is a 1 on 1 interaction between the facilitator and the participant. The primary question usability testing answers is: what will make the website easier to use?
Focus groups: focuses more on feelings & opinions, the likes and dislikes. It is a group to 1 interaction between a group of participants and the facilitator. The primary question focus groups work to answer: what will motivation to a person to buy?
As I mentioned this is by no means is this an exhaustive list. It is instead a starting point when looking to debunk common business misconceptions about usability design.
If you would like help understanding if your website project has fallen victim to any of these usability myths gives us a call or drop us a line.