PDF’s in general should be avoided as they cause many usability problems. However there are times when PDF’s have their place on the web; for instance if a document is meant to the printed then PDF is the correct medium. If your site contains PDF’s it is vital that users are aware of when a link will open a PDF.

Indicating the presence of PDF links helps to avoid PDF shock; that is giving users a nasty surprise of being dumped into a PDF file. There are a number of different ways of indicating PDF links. One method is to include a PDF gateway page; a page which summarises the PDF content, warns users that they are getting a PDF file, as well as presenting the file size. Gateway pages are supposed to prevent PDF shock as well as let users determine if the PDF is worth opening. However in our labs we often see users experience difficulty with gateway pages. Users assume the gateway page is the ‘result’ and don’t continue to click the PDF file. It is in-fact breaking the link to the real file. Many government websites use this technique and I’m starting to wonder if it really is the best way to display PDF’s.

My preference would be to include the PDF symbol next to the link along with the file size. If this is included in the link anchor text then screen readers such as JAWS can easily determine the presence of PDF’s. Surely this is enough to determine the presence of PDF’s without the need for a gateway page.

What do you think is the best way of presenting PDF links?

It is highly productive and encouraging when we have the project teams view usability testing sessions. Design & development teams find it easier to digest things when usability issues are highlighted directly by the user than receiving it in an observation report from an external consultant. However, there are few things to mind when you are observing a testing session:

1. Never draw conclusions from observing one or two participants- Observations and findings should always be looked in total and not concluded based on the behavior of a single participant.
2. Keep the decibel level low in the observation room – Even the best sound proofing cannot guarantee for 100% noise reduction. Though participants are well aware that they are being observed, the worse thing for them is to actually hear discussions in the testing room.
3. Observe what participants do and give less emphasis for what they say that they do – Participants tend to get overtly critical or extremely positive during testing sessions. Take notice of actual behavior and less notice to their extreme comments.
4. Hold the urge to ask questions during a testing session – This can be unnerving for the participants and can also be leading in some cases. 
5. Never go astray from the initial objectives set out for the test sessions – Though it is quite tempting to ask participants ‘How do you want to fix the problem?’, Avoid asking such design specific questions. To make testing sessions more effective, let the user to play his/her role rather than asking them to do the designer’s role.

As we are well aware, the internet has changed the way we do things. The way in which retailers ask us to sign up for loyalty programs or clubs is one of those things that has changed. It was not long ago that you would stand in the store and fill out a paper-based application in order to join a loyalty program. Now you are handed a card and asked to complete the application online in your own time. A recent experience highlighted the importance of a smooth integration between the off-line and on-line elements of the application process.

During a recent visit to Borders bookshop, at the checkout I decided to sign up for their new VIP loyalty program. I was handed the membership card and told to complete my application online. When I arrived home and logged onto the website for the life of me I could not find how to complete my membership application. Despite my expertise and experience in user interfaces, this task proved difficult. I became frustrated not being able to locate the call to action from the homepage, referencing both the instruction pamphlet and the membership card in search for further assistance. Finally I found the text link labelled ‘Join Boarders v.i.p’ in the top right of the screen.

If your company requires users to finalise what begins as an offline process via your website keep the following in mind:

Highlight promotional features prominently on the homepage: As I was coming to the site with the sole purpose of completing a process I had begun offline, I wanted the process to be as quick and seamless as possible. I was looking for a prominent call to action, something that grabbed my attention straight away. I was looking for a large advertisement, particularly as this loyalty program was a new feature.

User workflows differ when the task begins offline: In my example above, when I arrived on the website I was not thinking in terms of ‘joining’ as the link suggested, I thought I had already joined due to having received the card in-store. Instead I was looking for a way to finalise the process, looking for key words such as ‘Register your VIP card’. An additional call out box on the homepage which referenced my offline step (receiving the card) would have been extremely helpful.

Know your audience: Joining a bookstore’s loyalty program does not necessarily require users to interact with the company online. Many customers may join the loyalty program only to use the benefits in the physical store. You are therefore likely to attract more customers that may not be so familiar with the internet than if it was an online bookstore for example. Providing clear calls to action as mentioned above, would greatly assist these users.

Forty years ago not many people would have been able to accurately predict the advancements made in technology at the turn of the century and beyond. However, one prediction that has held true (relatively) is Moore’s Law conjured up in 1965.

Moore’s Law states that technology and computing will develop at an exponential rate. That is, every 18 months or so performance of technology is double that of what it was two years ago. In essence, technological growth is continuously accelerating.

But accelerating towards what? Exponential laws have no finishing point, they merely continue to grow at an enormous rate. So is this trend really to continue at the same rate or will there one day be a plateau? You would think there would be what with a limited number of resources in the world, but then again, I continue to be amazed by the latest products to come out.

Figure 1 The exponential growth of the number of transistors in computer processors (Taken from www.intel.com)

So without an end in sight, what does all this new technology mean? Well, put simply, those of us working in the computer and technology industry will have jobs for many years to come.  There is always something to push us forward, whether it be a competitor’s latest release, or a new idea that has only just taken off (3D television comes to mind). For us at UsabilityOne it means we will always have something else to look forward to testing, and for those of you who are thinking of updating websites, softwares or other technologies, it means you have a range of options that are always changing and always improving. So which one do you choose?

Although it can sometimes be overwhelming to try to take in the seemingly limitless amount of technology around us, we should not despair but should embrace. The most important thing we should take away from Moore’s Law is that we should always be on our toes, because as the nature of the law suggests, now more than ever before there will be new gadgets and gizmos coming at us.

Now, you may be sitting there thinking “I have all these proposals on my desk for website improvements and new designs but how do I know what is going to work best”. Of course there is no one simple answer – it depends on your business, your goals, your budget, etc. One tip we can give though is to work from the top down: What does your company do? What are your goals? It is crucial to have a clear sense of what you are aiming to achieve by implementing a new design technology. A couple of examples are listed below:

• A company wants to increase its sales so it implements an eCommerce feature on its site
• A university wants to improve its student interaction with its online learning facilities so they aim to implement a more interactive website using javascript and videos

To make the most of the myriad of available technologies, first decide what you want and/or need, then conjure a plan to best implement what is available. Identify the goals and objectives of the business, any boundaries which impact on your decision, and assess your timelines to choose a suitable direction in which to proceed. You may not need the best technology, you just need the best technology for you.

Youtube, who’s heard of it? Everybody according to a report released last month  [http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/online-videos-approach-a-billion/story-e6frg996-1225916568105] which states more and more people in Australia and across the world tuned in online to watch the latest clips and videos. And, although it saddens me to see that Justin Beiber’s song, “Baby” ft. Ludacris has taken the crown for most watched video of all time, the first video ever to reach over 300 million views, we can turn this tragedy around and use evil for good.

So while you may not be a prepubescent teen lamenting on puppy love, you can incorporate video into your site to increase its popularity, regardless of whether you want to earn money, share knowledge or increase page views. To assist, we have come up with the following pointers on how to incorporate videos into websites:

• Make it snappy. Smaller chunks of videos attract a viewer’s attention and will hold it compared to longer single clips.
• Pop up windows don’t work. Instead, place the video in the page – this helps the user read the text in conjunction with the clip.
• Stick with interface conventions. Although you may have the urge to break the mould, don’t. Turning a play button icon into a hexagon may confuse and/or alienate your viewer.
• Ideally, avoid including advertising however if this is not possible choose your advertising videos wisely. Make sure your adverts relate to the website content.
• Finally, and most importantly, quality. Sound volume going up and down is never a turn on. When creating your video pay attention to the quality of your video and audio content

With 84% of brand and agency marketers currently using some form of online video in their marketing efforts, now is definitely the time to jump on the bandwagon and make your site noticed. But what do you think? Have we missed anything out? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Organizations are always under tremendous pressure to keep ahead of the competition. As a result, they explore novel ways to shorten their product development lifecycle. Most often it is the various testing phases which bear the brunt of the cuts in time and resources.

Due to budget and time constraints, usability testing is often left out of the process altogether. Some organizations mistakenly associate usability testing only with the end product, which is actually contrary to the principle of user centric design process. Introducing usability testing (particularly the rapid iterative form, as explained below) at the early stages of product development can in fact save organizations from facing unpleasant and time consuming surprises later.

When your organization has an aggressive launch schedule ahead, rapid iterative usability testing can support your launch quite effectively if conducted during the appropriate phases of product development. As the name implies, it is a rapid/quick process and is done in iterations.  The end result will typically be as if you conduct two rounds of usability testing before the product even hits the market – all without sacrificing time and slowing your production schedule.

The success of the method rides on few critical aspects;

1. Don’t save the best for last, start usability testing early. A working prototype could be an excellent candidate for testing. Utilize paper prototype in case all the sections of prototype are not functional.
2. Besides the testing team, the product team’s involvement in this exercise is critical. Product management and development teams should also make themselves available to view the sessions. This will ensure that the team understands the severity of usability issues and also be able to quickly decide on major amendments to the product.
3. Sprints should be carefully planned to accommodate the time required to make changes on the prototype.
4. A rapid testing process does not mean the number of testing participants should be reduced – test with too few participants, and you risk injecting bias into the process.
5. Setting the expectations of the participants is crucial especially when prototypes are used. This will ensure that participants do not get too focused on the shortcomings of the prototypes.

At the end of the session, the testing team develops an issues list to highlight the problems faced by the users. The issues list should be discussed with the product development and management team through a group discussion to ensure that changes are prioritized prior to solutions being explored.

Purchasing online often involves a number of factors which are nonexistent in the physical world. Questions such as product availability, delivery options and delivery price take on greater meaning when shopping online. In the physical world these questions are answered before the stage of paying for goods; we know if a product is available because it is on the shelf, and delivery for most items is not usually an issue as we can take the product away with us.

image by emmerrrrrrr (flicker)

What can often frustrate users online is when these questions are not addressed until too late in the purchase process; when the user has already made some sort of a commitment to the product, only to find out it’s either not available, cannot be delivered in the expected time frame/location or delivery costs are too high. Had the user known these factors upfront during their browsing phase the frustration levels would be a lot lower and the chances of that user staying a customer much higher.

It is important to inform the users of the following before they arrive at the checkout. It  may be just enough for users to stay a customer rather than go straight to a competitors site. A few small changes can have a great impact on a user’s shopping experience

• If a product is out of stock provide this on the product listing page
• Offer an email alert when the product become available
• If, for whatever reason, a product cannot be delivered in the company’s standard time frame (next day delivery for example), provide this detail upfront on the product listing page, before users have committed to the order

Reducing user frustration leads to a much more happy and satisfied customer. And satisfied customers are more likely to return. Empowering users by giving them information before arriving at the checkout process of factors such as product availability, delivery time frames and costs is one simple method to do this.

Everyone’s time seems ever more tight, and having less than the ideal amount of time to complete a project seems the unfortunate side effect of that. We’ve all got stakeholders who are screaming for results, and that ends up sometimes making us squeeze our own timeframes and those of the team we’re working with.

One area of project preparation where the expectation is that time can be saved is in recruitment. We aim to have a two week window to recruit participants for a study as a general rule, but sometimes we are asked to turn things around quicker. In some instances, such as when the target is quite general or broad, asking our recruiter to turn around a list of participants faster isn’t as much of a problem, but in other instances, such as when the recruitment specifications call for a very specific target such as “Alaskan Malamute dog breeders based in Parramatta who are looking to purchase a new car in the next three months” (okay, I’m exaggerating here, but you get the picture), recruitment at short notice is not as easy.

In situations where timing becomes critical, we inevitably will have to compromise on at least some aspect of the recruitment to meet the deadline. We may have to agree to a broader age target than we would have wanted to test with, or a different mix of genders than is ideal.  These impacts can sometimes be significant on the end result of our projects, because the profiles of the users we test with do not replicate the target closely enough.  This could skew our results, or have the effect of masking significant issues that may have come to light had we tested with the appropriate target.

When we think about all of the factors that are at play in a usability project, the participants we test with are critical to the process. The most carefully crafted research plan will not deliver the insights we need about a target if the participants we test with are just too far off the target of interest. Garbage in, garbage out.

Often, UsabilityOne work with clients who are constrained in the changes that they can make to their websites by design rules enforced by an international parent company. Employing a consistent design can be greatly beneficial in building a strong international brand, however, in some cases these constraints can negatively impact the user experience of a local website. When constrained by these types of design rules there are several points to keep in mind:

1. Use language that is appropriate for the local audience. It is important that the website speaks to the user in familiar language and not only in terms of product names but throughout detailed content such as terms and conditions.
2. Use images that are appropriate for the local audience. The imagery used is an important branding tool,  used to differentiate categories of content and often are navigable items. The use of inappropriate imagery can be disconcerting and create mistrust. It is important that the images used depict scenes that will resonate with the local audience.
3. Ensure that the iconography and symbols used, are appropriate for the local audience. Icons and symbols that are instantly recognisable to a European audience may not be relevant to an Australian one.
4. Where strict adherence to international guidelines creates serious difficulties for your users, be prepared to bend the rules to ensure the best user experience is provided.

For some further reading, see Christian Arno’s post on Inspect Element.

The registration process was going smoothly. I just had to enter a password and I would be able to download my last superannuation statement. I entered the same combination of letters and numbers that I always use for my passwords and hit ‘Submit’. Suddenly, red text flashed up and informed me this password was invalid as I needed to include a symbol. Was I meant to be psychic? With a twinge of annoyance, I added a symbol and again clicked ‘Submit’. No luck. This time it told me I had to include two symbols. With gritted teeth, I persevered. After three more attempts, I ended up with a password that vaguely resembled “saRA80#!”.

Although I had no hope of remembering this password, I didn’t bother writing it down because I had already decided out of sheer annoyance to never to use this online process again. Why was my generic password sufficient for online banking but not for this relatively risk-free task? And come to think of it, why should they get to dictate how strong my password should be? As a customer, this should be my prerogative!

Requiring complex password policies not only frustrates customers; it results in higher costs for organisations. Customers will generally either stop using the online process and revert back to more costly customer service processes (increasing call centre demand with their multitude of forgotten password requests) or  write the password down, thereby defeating the purpose of this security measure altogether.

When security policies have such a negative impact on usability, it’s time to rethink priorities. What’s more important to your customers: an impenetrable password or easy access? Incorporate this into your research to find out, or let the user decide for themselves.