Sure, You Built It -- but They Have to Use It

Mary Haggard
Program Manager
Microsoft Corporation

September 25, 1998

Editor's note: Bad news, Mary Haggard fans. Mary has been unable to continue writing the For $tarters column, due to increasing pressures from her "day job" -- handling internationalization for Microsoft's msn.com site. The column has gone on indefinite hiatus.

The following article was originally published in Site Builder Magazine (now known as MSDN Online Voices).

According to the original outline for this series, I was going to cover how to promote your commerce site. But you sent a ton of great feedback about the last column, Plan and Plan Again, and I decided to spend some more time walking through important success factors for planning and development that can help you get the right site out the door. This time, I want to cover the planning aspects of an important Web development issue -one that is especially important to those developing commerce sites: Web site usability. When you all know how to plan the right site, then we'll talk about how to promote the highly targeted, usable, high-performance, and money-making e-commerce sites you are going to build!

In the Microsoft project that I'm currently a part of, we have an entire staff dedicated to usability issues, ensuring that users can accomplish the tasks they need to. I've asked Kirsten Risden, a Microsoft usability expert on my team, to contribute her advice.

What Is Usability?

The science of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is an important part of computer science education in the academic world, as well as in the professional world. Most software companies employ people, such as Kirsten, who specialize in ensuring that software can be used well to accomplish tasks.

Usability is all about building both your back-end and front-end systems in a way that will make sense to the people visiting your site. It is your responsibility to get users to what you want them to buy. Don't assume they'll figure it out on their own. Your competitors aren't making any such assumptions. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, consumers will always choose the option that is easiest and most reliable for them. Think of usability as being task- versus design-oriented. It's all about studying how users interact with computer systems and accomplish what they need to do, rather than about what color palette is most appropriate. The two areas have a lot in common, but usability is definitely more science than art.

At Microsoft, the importance of usability is known by every project manager and developer who has ever watched a usability session. In these sessions, users representing various segments of the target audience are asked to perform key tasks with the software. The results are often sobering, and mean return trips to the interface drawing board to make necessary changes. Some larger projects have been known to go through nearly a year of usability testing and rework.

What Does Usability Mean for Your Project?

The thousands of hours of research, extensive bibliographies, and continuing work into new HCI areas, such as the Internet, mean great things for you. By using information on the Internet, following basic guidelines, and working with a usability specialist, you should be able to build a site that is both useful to customers and easy for them to use.

To Start

To get ideas on what building a usable site means, take a serious look at your competitors' sites to see how they have built their user experiences. Try to accomplish tasks on their sites. Write down what you like and don't like. Then ask someone who is not part of your industry to look at the sites for a non-biased opinion. Watch them try to accomplish tasks and note what is difficult or easy for them. Here's the hard part: Don't say anything. Save your questions for later, and don't help the user through the exercise. It's important for you to be a quiet onlooker, or you won't learn what you need to.

Also, spend some time reading general information about how users use computers and the Internet for guidelines on dos and don'ts. Make sure this information is pretty current. For instance: Two years ago, most usability reports suggested not publishing information that users had to scroll to see. As users become more and more comfortable with the Internet, however, this requirement is changing.

I asked Kirsten what commerce Web site she has found particularly good at implementing a usable experience. She mentioned 1-800-FLOWERS, and praised its simple user interface, understandable instructions, simple user input forms, and great service. She particularly liked how secure the site made her feel when entering sensitive information, and offered a couple valuable lessons that can be learned from the site. First, keep user input simple. Users don't like to enter information into long forms. Second, really work to build user confidence in your service -- especially when designing a commerce site.

Collecting Customer Information

In the last column, I spent a lot of time talking about the importance of demographic research to find out about your users. That information is invaluable when putting together groups of people to test your site. Deliver this information to your usability specialist to put together experimental test groups of the people you are targeting.

Be creative in how you find those users. Offer lunch to users at an industry event who will spend a half hour trying to use and critiquing a prototype of your interface. Offer free products to Internet users who will do the same. Kirsten sometimes goes to a local mall here in Redmond, and offers mall coupons to people who help with usability testing. Some advice she gives here is to pick a time when your audience is more likely to be shopping, such as the weekend.

Overall Test Guidelines

Define key tasks. Kirsten suggests referring to your planning documents to ensure your key tasks match the goals of the site itself. For most of you, one task is clear: Users need to be able to buy as much of your product or service as they want, easily.
Define the steps to accomplish these tasks. For instance, user wants product, user finds product, user adds product to "shopping list," user inputs necessary order information, user submits order, and so forth.
Establish timeframes in which users should be able to accomplish a task. How long did it take on your competitor's site versus yours? Change your site if your tasks take noticeably longer.
Don't test users for more than two hours. Kirsten feels this is a good timeframe to gather very useful data, without exhausting the test participant.
Be humble and flexible. These tests are very eye opening. Users are never going to react to your initial interface the way you expect them to. Don't get upset about it. Don't insult the user's intelligence. Learn from the test and improve what you're doing. Your usability expert will help you integrate test results into changes to the interface that make it easier to use.
Do usability work early. You will save in the long run when interfaces and back-end systems don't work. Don't underestimate the value of extremely low-tech tests. Even paper mock-ups can be extremely valuable. According to Kirsten, because users feel that paper mock-ups represent less-developed thinking, they are more likely to provide in-depth feedback.

From the Test Lab to Implementation

Good usability specialists will help you figure out how to take the test results and make changes in your interface and create systems that improve the user experience. They will clearly define the problems in their reports, the evidence that led to those problems, and the scope and severity of each problem: How many users had the problem? To what degree did it block them from accomplishing the task? From that information, a good analyst will come up with suggestions for improvements that fall within your project goals, timeframes, and budget. The analyst also will work with your project teams to come up with any necessary compromises on the issues.

Building with Usability in Mind: General Recommendations for Web Design

Get the latest information. The scrolling issue I talk about above is a good example.
Be consistent with cross-site components, such as navigation, to help users learn to use your site. Some sites have been successful copying Windows-type controls, such as tabs, command buttons, or file trees. An added benefit of utilizing common components is that a lot of the usability work has been done for you. (Remember to be careful about copyright infringement.)
Use terminology that is consistent with other large sites in your industry, or even on the Web (for example, always say Search or Find, not Acquire).
Understand the impact of download time on usability -- especially for graphics and navigation. Generally, users appreciate fast sites.
Be consistent in your hyperlink model. Always underline, or always highlight on mouseover, and so on.
Remember that users are not accustomed to using Help on the Web. Everything has to be discoverable.

Specific Recommendations for Commerce Sites

Clearly identify what is clickable versus non-clickable, and make it consistent. I see this problem a lot in product catalogs.
Clearly separate ads and promotions from the content. My pet peeve is those annoying search ads with input boxes that look like part of the site I am on.
Make sites actionable and lead users through the buying process well.
Give users feedback about where they are in the process.
Don't overwhelm with cross-sell or long forms -- the equivalent of online junk mail. In fact, Kirsten adds, when users are trying to accomplish a task, they actively ignore other things on the page. Links and other information that are irrelevant to what users are trying to accomplish are useless.
Build user trust and be reliable. We've been through this one a lot in this series. It's really important.

A Related Topic: Accessibility

The Web can be a difficult place for users with disabilities. For instance, users with visual disabilities who depend on screen enlargement or screen review utilities can have a difficult time using Web sites. It can be very easy to make your Web site usable for users (read: customers) with disabilities. Learn more about Internet accessibility issues in MSDN Online.

How to Find People Who Can Help

Within the Yahoo directory above and on the Home Page for the Special Interest Group for Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI), I found listings of regional HCI organizations. In most cases, those membership lists, or even a visit to one of their regular meetings and presentations, could probably get you quickly in touch with the right people to help you. On the SIGCHI site were also listings of consultants and HCI companies. According to Kirsten, many organizations work through university HCI programs to find qualified usability analysts.

I asked Kirsten to share with me some advice for finding a good usability analyst. She gave me five great pointers.

Hire someone with solid training in behavioral sciences (i.e., Human Factors, Experimental Psychology).
Make sure they are strong communicators, and can give you hard messages.
Ensure that they are well versed in usability methods.
Check to be sure they will give you realistic solutions.
In addition, make sure they have an understanding and respect for your project timeline, budget, and goals.

A Final Word from Kirsten

"Use published HCI reports as a tool in your research, but don't rely on them as your only means of usability testing your product. Every software project is unique in some ways, and can lead to usage patterns -- many of which can't be planned for in advance. Users will always surprise you! They also love to help with the design of something they might use, so don't be shy about asking people for very honest feedback on your project. They will respond well if they feel you are listening to them and will respect their input. As you learn more about customer reactions to your product, you learn to make it better. Usability is a long-term part of your Web development efforts."

Next Time

Thanks to Kirsten for her help this time. She did a great job outlining usability testing and how to tie it into your commerce project. Next, we'll take some of the information here and build on it to discuss issues surrounding online product catalogs.

Mary Haggard is a program manager in charge of internationalization issues for Microsoft's portal site to the Internet.

Where to go for more?

Among books on e-commerce, I'm a big fan of Barry Wadman's Special Edition Using Microsoft Site Server from Que Education and Training . I'd suggest getting yourself a copy.

There is also a good book on concepts, Understanding Electronic Commerce, from Microsoft Press .

Also take a look at some of these Web sites:

Web survival: Mary Haggard wrote the book on it

Survival Guide to Web Site Development , by Mary Haggard, takes a comprehensive look at all the Web basics, based on the first year of this series of columns in MSDN Online Voices.

You can purchase Survival Guide to Web Site Development online via the MSDN Bookstore on the Fatbrain.com Web site. MSDN Online members are eligible for an additional discount; enter code MSDN.