Where is Web Usability up to?

Friday 8 July 2011 - Filed under Usability News

Information Technology has come along way in the last decade. Whenever a new innovation or technology has been brought to the world it has always faced usability and accessibility issues.

Organization’s web presences are no different.

Web usability has some crucial elements for the user. It has to be effective, efficient and of course be satisfying for the consumer. Yes I think after the quality of the product it’s safe to say that any web based design intended for consumer consumption has had it’s success or failure determined from this.

Much more attention has been payed to the subject of web testing and usability in recent years. From large corporations with massive e-commerce commitments to now never more so, small companies who want to achieve good web usability at a good price.

Much more attention has been paid by industry and now the long overdue developments in usability evaluation are finally starting to take place. They are waking up to the fact that innovation and development are now major priorities for both usability companies and web engineering researchers alike.

It has never been more in important to invest in web usability, in fact the study Blackburn et al (2000) proved that investment in web usability at an early project stage was fundamental to it’s success.

The process of usability evaluation is ultimately an extension of any testing methods you use. It exists to verify the application design against it’s intended user requirements. Its proved to be a usability testing method that needs to be continually scrutinised and updated because like the advantages you may gain from it, the benefits are often only temporary. By this I mean that the internet is always changing so it’s natural that the web usability analysis should change with it. Unfortunately many usability experts and companies have chose to ignore this need, resulting in a market saturated by low quality and not good value usability products.

Since usability testing ideally needs to be used throughout the product life cycle companies rightly demand the best usability products available.

The specifics within the testing methods and analysis are referred to as ‘usability metrics’ or ‘usability specifications’. These two criteria both have to be explicit in their requirements and both easily measurable. They can range from a simply question in a usability survey to the more complicated ‘human factors’ in usability testing, which may use advanced technology or prototypes to measure biological states like pupil dilation and heart rate. This is what web usability companies need to continue developing to keep up with rapid advance in technology on the internet.

It’s complicated though and definitely not without fault. The goal of usability testing and testing your users in general is to ensure results and feedback that avoid too much speculation and are as definitive and consistent as possible. With these new usability technologies and testing methods it’s sometimes hard for it to become more than just well-intentioned trial and error. A ‘shot in the dark’ if you like with many of these methodologies resulting in user testing results which are more argument than fact.

It’s not all about metrics and methodology though. Developments need to come in the form of better value usability products. These products are often labelled as ‘discount usability’ or ‘budget usability testing’ devices. The fact is though these products are few and far between. Here’s a challenge, Google a phrase related to ‘good value usability’ and the chances are you will be able to take your pick from hundreds of individuals all either selling or advising you of the costs and methods associated with setting up and conducting your own usability test. In all honesty though this is a painstaking and gruelling process, and whilst it may sound tempting most admit you still need at least $500 to simply pay your participants, not to mention the cost associated with the administration of getting any meaningful results.

So what we can say so far is that the market seems to be missing both the value consumers want and need, together with a systematic usability approach that avoids the speculation we covered before and measures the user experience properly. Though User Testing must still allow for clients to connect with their users.

In my opinion I think user testing and web usability will be guided just as much in the future by cost as it is by technology and innovation. I also believe we can’t get too preoccupied with this technology as even simple user testing devices are proven to be more than reliable because they simply involve sampling real users. Concerns have been raised about demographics and appropriate Testing user panels. This is a result of the concern of Usability experts have that maybe users from anywhere don’t have the right perception about a website and couldn’t possibly comment comprehensively on user needs and preferences.

I think these concerns are slightly exaggerated myself. A survey analysis company can easily address it’s user testing panel with your concerns and also give them background information on your organization and business activities.

This I think is a nice place to sum up where the web usability industry is up to. Despite some companies lagging behind in innovation and others investing heavily there is no one method I know of that can be proven with a strong and detailed user analysis theory. I think usability testing and testing your customers in general just by it’s nature is a trial and error process to a certain extent.

I think were in a good place though because companies like Testing Users are taking the lead and innovating to what the consumer wants and not just ‘what might work’.  Put Simply. Organizations both small and large want a good value product that uses a systematic approach to present the findings in a way that doesn’t take forever to analyze and quantify.

2011-07-08  »  Sam