Usability comes of age

The usability industry has come a very long way during the eight years we have been in business.

Back in 2000 site owners rarely allocated budgets for any kind of usability input into site design. Unsure of the benefits, but intuitively suspecting it could add value, they used all manner of subterfuge and creative accounting in order to run usability tests in an ad hoc fashion. As a result, usability was deemed the very antithesis of creativity and its practitioners lacked any real appreciation of the design process.

At the same time, usability advice had very tenuous links to the metrics being used to measure site success. For pressured marketers accountable for site redesigns, this became a very real problem. It’s regrettable that usability was pitched against creativity in this manner. Personally I blame usability hardliners like Jacob Nielsen, who advocate a design philosophy based primarily on ease of use to the detriment of the overall experience.

Thankfully there’s been a shift in focus from ‘usability’ to ‘experience’, with usability now seen as one important constituent in the overall concept of experience. This is helping to bridge the divide between the design community and user experience consultants who have embraced the change. This new emphasis on measurability of user experience helps designers by making it plain what works and what doesn’t in the eyes of customers. Shouting matches have been replaced by more collaborative design, enabling customer feedback to dictate which ideas to pursue.

We use different tools and techniques in concert to offer up different types of information about both customer behaviour and attitude, and then use many of the same tools to track improvements over time. These tools include web analytics, online surveys, usability testing (both lab and remote) and eye tracking, but also physiological techniques such as EEG that measure directly emotional response to the site experience. In recognition of the need to substantiate recommendations with figures, we even bought a web analytics agency in 2005 to acquire the knowledge we felt we needed. Omniture is now the dominant player in the web analytics space and we are an Authorised Omniture Partner.

Bad practice has unfortunately perpetuated the thinking that usability does not deliver a clear return on investment. In our day-to-day work with clients we now talk much less about usability and a lot more about the issues that online marketers are concerned about, for example conversion (or lack of!), retention, market share and profitability. By being able to reference analytics that point clearly to ‘pain points’ we demonstrate unambiguously what elements are affecting performance. This elevates usability to a strategic level as the enhancements to the user experience correspond directly to improvements in the financial KPIs.

Finally, it might not come as a surprise to hear that on our most successful engagements, we continue to work very closely with the design agencies to provide the insights they need to supplement their intuition and ultimately deliver more for clients.