We sometimes have clients come to us who want a rich, descriptive understanding of their users’ behaviour and motivations, whilst at the same time expecting statistics and hard figures to go with this. If time and budget had no limits this could most definitely be achieved. However, we often find ourselves giving clients a mini rundown of the limitations and benefits of each approach so they are in the best position to understand our proposed solution.

The Pros:

The Cons:

Understanding the why’s and the process of something is essentially what qualitative research can unveil, however if it is numbers and statistics that you are after then quantitative is the best approach to take. It would not make sense to run a series of in-depth interviews with a focus on user needs and then use this information to say 66% of users want X and 25% of users don’t need Y. It simply does not make sense. What you can do is provide a summary of the users’ mental model, the process they take when approaching a task and the information they need to support this. Or map out the customer journey that highlights user needs during each stage.

While it is generally agreed that each approach is distinct and has unique properties, they are often used to complement each other. For example, when a quantitative analysis identifies that the customer conversion rate has dropped 30% in a re-designed website, it often uses qualitative research (i.e. moderated user testing) to understand why. Similarly, when a quantitative survey is delivered, the questions it asks have most likely been informed from qualitative research preceding it (i.e. depth interviews).

While there is much debate around which is the better research technique and why, what isn’t attested is that the most accurate results occur when a triangulated approach is taken – that is, when they are used together.

We are often asked by our clients to find out whether their customers would use or need a Smartphone or tablet app to access their functionality or content. Of course the answer depends on the business and the target user group but it often raises the question of whether a native app, web app, or mobile optimized website is the most appropriate approach where the business wants to facilitate use of mobile devices.

Mobile websites are the simplest of the three as they are simply web pages that are designed to be accessed on devices with smaller screens. Native apps are device specific and are downloaded and installed via services like Apple’s App Store. Web apps are somewhere in-between as they are accessed via a device’s browser, are cross platform and offer improved functionality over mobile websites but do not leverage the full power of the device in the way that native apps do.

The pros and cons of each approach are too numerous to list here, however, in depth understand the context in which their users need to interact with them on mobile devices is often an overlooked consideration. Native apps are great for providing a slick, rich and integrated experience. However, if your customers access your content from mobile devices rarely or are more likely to use web search to find you, developing a native app may not represent the most cost effective solution and choosing instead to develop a mobile-optimised website would be more appropriate. Simply having a native app will not enhance the overall experience if users are not likely to download it in the first place. Companies like Amazon take the approach of catering for all eventualities but most online businesses do not have Amazon’s user base or deep pockets and must choose what to implement.

We believe that establishing context of use and the needs of users with respect to mobile device access is an essential when planning how to facilitate mobile device user interaction. This will make sure that the business understand when, where and what users access on their mobile devices and ensure that the most appropriate, and cost effective, implementation is used.

One of the interesting takeouts from our recent eCommerce research is that online ‘window shopping’ is increasingly becoming part of our lives.

So, what does this mean for eCommerce retailers? This information points to the importance of the browsing experience. It also presents a significant opportunity. Providing a site that is intuitive and user friendly, which allows users to quickly and easily browse products has benefits for retailers. It encourages users to spend more time on the site, which provides more opportunity to convert those browsers into purchasers.

How do you increase the usability of an online store in terms of browsing? Beyond the standard usability best practice for websites, our research identified another key aspect: flexibility. Retailers need to create an environment which provides the flexibility for users to browse the site how they wish. This involves allowing users to refine and sort products by a number of different factors such as category, brand, price and size.

A solid understanding of the different ways users may wish to browse products on a particular website is essential for retailers. This will differ depending on the product offerings. For example, a user who is browsing LED TVs will likely wish to sort products by screen size. However, a user browsing a used car website may wish to sort products based on any number of factors (year, manufacturer, kilometers traveled or number of doors to name just a few). The used car website highlights the importance of browsing flexibility for online stores.

Another important aspect of browsing flexibility is the ability for users to control the number of items displayed on a page. Users have expressed that pressing ‘next’ can get very annoying when a website displays a set number of products per page, with no option to increase or decrease this number. Allowing users to decide how many products they wish to view further provides the flexibility users seek from online stores.

Providing relevant, logical sorting options (and the functionality to clear these options at any time) enables users to browse a site according to their needs, facilitating a more enjoyable experience. For retailers, this provides the added benefit of potentially increasing online sales.

For further information related to eCommerce best practice, please view our report: ‘The State of Online Retail – Part 1’ (PDF – 6.4MB).