Search
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Search in comments
Search in excerpt
Filter by Custom Post Type
How to turn user videos into insights

Usability Problems

by Jeff Sauro, PhD | March 6, 2018

Browse Content by Topic

UX ( 64 )
 Methods ( 53 )
 Usability Testing ( 52 )
 Statistics ( 51 )
 Survey ( 34 )
 Usability ( 32 )
 Benchmarking ( 27 )
 User Research ( 27 )
 Customer Experience ( 26 )
 SUS ( 21 )
 NPS ( 21 )
 Sample Size ( 18 )
 Net Promoter Score ( 17 )
 Usability Problems ( 17 )
 Rating Scale ( 14 )
 Metrics ( 14 )
 Measurement ( 13 )
 Usability Metrics ( 13 )
 User Experience ( 12 )
 SUPRQ ( 12 )
 Qualitative ( 11 )
 Navigation ( 10 )
 Task Time ( 8 )
 Surveys ( 8 )
 Market Research ( 8 )
 UX Metrics ( 7 )
 Questionnaires ( 7 )
 Task Completion ( 7 )
 Heuristic Evaluation ( 7 )
 Mobile ( 6 )
 Questionnaire ( 6 )
 Rating Scales ( 6 )
 Reliability ( 6 )
 Validity ( 6 )
 Mobile Usability Testing ( 6 )
 Analytics ( 5 )
 Usability Problem ( 5 )
 Visualizing Data ( 5 )
 Six Sigma ( 5 )
 Satisfaction ( 5 )
 Quantitative ( 4 )
 Confidence Intervals ( 4 )
 Loyalty ( 4 )
 Credibility ( 4 )
 Task Times ( 4 )
 Confidence ( 4 )
 UX Maturity ( 4 )
 Research ( 4 )
 Moderation ( 4 )
 SUPR-Q ( 4 )
 ROI ( 3 )
 Customer Segmentation ( 3 )
 Unmoderated Research ( 3 )
 Usability Lab ( 3 )
 Task Metrics ( 3 )
 SEQ ( 3 )
 Expert Review ( 3 )
 Card Sorting ( 3 )
 Lean UX ( 3 )
 IA ( 2 )
 Salary Survey ( 2 )
 Key Driver ( 2 )
 PhD ( 2 )
 Personas ( 2 )
 UX Methods ( 2 )
 Marketing ( 2 )
 Tree Testing ( 2 )
 Data ( 2 )
 UMUX-lite ( 2 )
 Findability ( 2 )
 Focus Groups ( 2 )
 Certification ( 2 )
 A/B Testing ( 2 )
 Excel ( 2 )
 Eye-Tracking ( 2 )
 Summative ( 2 )
 Remote Usability Testing ( 2 )
 SUM ( 2 )
 Branding ( 2 )
 PURE ( 2 )
 UX Salary Survey ( 2 )
 KLM ( 2 )
 Tasks ( 2 )
 Correlation ( 2 )
 Cognitive Walkthrough ( 2 )
 Affinity ( 1 )
 Task Completin ( 1 )
 Mobile Usability ( 1 )
 Performance ( 1 )
 User Testing ( 1 )
 Problem Severity ( 1 )
 Z-Score ( 1 )
 Prototype ( 1 )
 Metric ( 1 )
 Site Analytics ( 1 )
 Errors ( 1 )
 Moderating ( 1 )
 moderated ( 1 )
 protoype ( 1 )
 Software ( 1 )
 Contextual Inquiry ( 1 )
 Ordinal ( 1 )
 Information Architecture ( 1 )
 Facilitation ( 1 )
 Persona ( 1 )
 Trust ( 1 )
 Task Randomization ( 1 )
 Design ( 1 )
 Margin of Error ( 1 )
 Conjoint Analysis ( 1 )
 Test Metrics ( 1 )
 Quality ( 1 )
 Unmoderated ( 1 )
 Formative ( 1 )
 Expectations ( 1 )
 Think Aloud ( 1 )
 Random ( 1 )
 Crowdsourcing ( 1 )
 Five ( 1 )
 Desktop ( 1 )
 Competitive ( 1 )
 Perceptions ( 1 )
 Visual Appeal ( 1 )
 Sample ( 1 )
 Regression Analysis ( 1 )
 Segmentation ( 1 )
 Top Task Analysis ( 1 )
 True Intent ( 1 )
 Effect Size ( 1 )

How to Turn User Videos into Insights

By Jeff Sauro, PhD . March 6, 2018 . Tags: ,
Finding and fixing usability problems in an interface leads to a better user experience. Beyond fixing problems with current functionality, participant behavior can also reveal important insights into needed new features. These problems and insights are often best gleaned from observing participants interacting with a website, app, or hardware device during actual use or simulated use (during a usability test). With the advent of remote testing platforms like

Read More

How to Assign the Severity of Usability Problems

By Jeff Sauro, PhD . June 7, 2016 . Tags: ,
Finding and fixing usability problems is fundamental to improving the user experience. How common problems are (the frequency) and how impactful they are (severity) should be treated independently in order to meet that goal. While it's generally straightforward to count how many times you observe a problem in a usability test, assigning severity ratings to problems can be more challenging. Most usability tests will uncover

Read More

7 Methods for Discovering Usability Problems

By Jeff Sauro, PhD . January 5, 2016 . Tags:
Finding and fixing usability problems in an interface leads to a better user experience. We often think of usability testing as the only method for evaluating the usability of a website or application. There are, however, other methods that can help uncover usability problems. These methods can be broken down into empirical (usability testing, surveys, and analytics) or inspection methods (expert review, heuristic evaluation, cognitive

Read More

7 Reasons Usability Problems Don’t Get Fixed

By Jeff Sauro, PhD . May 20, 2014 . Tags:
Ever wonder why you keep encountering the same usability problems on the websites and apps you use?  Sure, many organizations don't conduct usability tests on their products, but many do, what explains the persistence of such problems?Finding and fixing usability problems is one of the most effective ways for improving the user experience on websites, applications and hardware.  But just because a problem is identified

Read More

Is Observing One User Worse Than Observing None?

By Jeff Sauro, PhD . February 25, 2014 . Tags: , ,
Seeing is believing. Observing just a handful of users interact with a product can be more influential than reading pages of a professionally done report or polished presentation. But what if a stakeholder only has time to watch two or just one of the users in a usability study? Are there circumstances where watching some users is worse than watching no users at all? Watching

Read More

Are Severe Problems Uncovered Earlier in Usability Tests?

By Jeff Sauro, PhD . October 30, 2013 . Tags: ,
After I conducted my first usability test in the 1990's I was struck by two things: Just how many usability problems are uncovered and how some problems repeat after observing just a few users. In almost every usability test I've conducted since then I've continued to see this pattern. Even after running 5 to 10 users in a moderated study, there are usually too many

Read More

Rating the Severity of Usability Problems

By Jeff Sauro, PhD . July 30, 2013 . Tags:
If only one out of 1000 users encounters a problem with a website, then it's a minor problem. If that sentence bothered you, it should. It could be that that single problem resulted in one visitor's financial information inadvertently being posted to the website for the world to see. Or it could be a slight hesitation with a label on an obscure part of a

Read More

Prioritizing Problems in the User Experience: The FMEA

By Jeff Sauro, PhD . January 22, 2013 . Tags: ,
Traveling is hard. Traveling with children is especially hard. A number of things can go wrong, making the trip difficult or even nonexistent. Some problems are nuisances (sick and/or hungry kids, delayed flights, or the wrong sized rental car), while other problems will lead to failure, which in this case means not reaching your destination on time (forgetting your passport or sleeping in and missing

Read More

Measuring Errors in the User Experience

By Jeff Sauro, PhD . May 15, 2012 . Tags: , ,
Errors happen and unintended actions are inevitable. They are a common occurrence in usability tests and are the result of problems in an interface and imperfect human actions. It is valuable to have some idea about what these are, how frequently they occur, and how severe their impact is. First, what is an error? Slips and Mistakes: Two Types of Errors It can be helpful

Read More

10 Things To Know About Usability Problems

By Jeff Sauro, PhD . July 26, 2011 . Tags:
If you collect nothing else in a usability test it should be a list of problems encountered by users. It seems so simple yet there is a rich history of how many users you need to test, what constitutes a problem and which method to use. A usability problem should have a name, description and often a severity rating. Problem severities can be based on

Read More