Topics
Topics
Measuring User Interface Disasters
Completion rates are the gateway metric. If users can’t complete tasks on a website, not much else matters. The only thing worse than users failing a task is users failing a task and thinking they’ve completed it successfully. This is a disaster. The term was made popular by Gerry McGovern and disasters are anathema to
How to Find the Right Sample Size for A Usability Test
It’s usually the first and most difficult question to answer when planning a usability evaluation: What sample size do I need? There are some who will just say it doesn’t matter what the sample size is because usability is qualitative…and after all any users are better than none. Others will say that you only need
10 Essential Usability Metrics
There isn’t a usability thermometer to tell you how usable your software or website is. Instead we rely on the impact of good and bad usability to assess the quality of the user experience. Here are 10 metrics you should be familiar with and ready to use in any usability evaluation. 1. Completion Rates: Often
The Growth of UX Organizations
UX professional salaries have increased 7% from 2009 to 2011. During that same period the profession has also grown. For the last two Usability Professional Association Salary Surveys (2009 and 2011) respondents were asked how many UX Professionals there are in their company and the total size of the company. In 2011 the question posed
Click versus Clock: Measuring Website Efficiency
Everything should be 1 click away. It takes too many clicks ! For as long as there have been websites it seems that there’s been a call to reduce the number of clicks to improve the user experience. This was especially the case after Amazon released its one-click purchase button in 1999. Executives, product managers
The Right Tool for the User Research Method
There are many great methods for gathering insights from users. And there are definitely many software programs and services to help. Instead of making a long list of them I’ve presented the few I use the most when conducting user research. Lab Based Usability Test The classic method of usability testing involves bringing users into
Measuring Usefulness
Is it easy to use? As important as that question is, there’s one that’s more important: Is it useful? First and foremost, a product, website or application should solve a problem, fill a need or offer something people find useful. In fact, people are willing to put up with poor usability if a product delivers
When Credibility And Trust Matter More Than Usability
Build it and they might come. Build trust and they might stay. Make it usable and credible and they may tell their friends. The first step in building a successful website is to provide something people want or need—like a product, information or service. After that, it better be easy to use. Now you may
Getting The First Click Right
Few things affect task success more than the navigation of website. If users can’t find what they’re looking for, not much else matters. If it were easy to get the navigation right, there wouldn’t be books and a profession dedicated to it. First impressions matter in life and that’s also the case with website navigation.
Netflix By The Numbers: Net Promoter And Credibility Scores Decline
Netflix has been in the news a lot lately. Unfortunately for the wrong reasons. The popular home DVD and streaming movie services has come under a bit of a customer revolt after increasing pricing and changing services. While Netflix is largely a US based service and this controversy may only be temporary it does offers
The Essential Elements of a Successful Website
What makes a successful website? There are some obvious metrics like revenue, traffic and repeat visitors. But these are outcome measures. They don’t tell you why revenue or traffic is higher or lower. Key drivers of these outcomes are how the users perceive and interact with your website. Selling a product that has demand or
Compared to What? Making Sense of Customer Experience Metrics
These are three of the most important words for anyone trying to make better decisions with data. I first heard them from Edward Tufte over a decade ago. You need a meaningful comparison to turn data into information. We’re often in such a hurry to get the survey out, start the usability test or conduct