Web Usability

Making the Web User Experience Human

If you get five usability designers (or usability experts or user experience directors or whatever they want to call themselves) and ask them to describe the meaning of the term user experience, you will probably get five different explanations. In this edition of A List Apart, Sharon Lee tackles the subject of user experience and its application for the web in her article “Human-to-Human design“. It’s an excellent read so be sure to check it out. I would like to share some of my thoughts on the subject with you and provide some good, concise examples of how the user experience mindset that Sharon wrote about can be and is already implemented on the web. I’ll be using her headlines for structure.

Respect me

The person visiting your site has taken the time and effort to look you up – the least you can do is treat her with respect. The classical golden rule of ethics (“treat others as you would like to be treated“) is only partially true for the web. You still have to remember that “you are not your user” so you have to be aware that what might be an acceptable treatment for you might not be acceptable to person with a different background, a different skill-set, a different culture and a different mindset.

Don’t patronize or mislead your user. Don’t confuse her. Don’t insult her intelligence but give her enough information and help. Don’t make it hard for her to get to the information she was looking for or to perform the task she came to you to do.

Show your face to your user. If you have confused her or caused her trouble, say that you are sorry. If you can (without any legal repercussions), try to say it in a non-corporate, non-”booming voice from above” way. Digg is really good at this.

Also, respect your user’s personal integrity and privacy. Ask about her preferences to provide her with a more personal and appropriate user experience but don’t ask for and store information you don’t have an immediate need for. Try to explain to your user why you ask for this information (“Provide your zip code to view your local weather every time you visit this page.”). Make it easy and straightforward for the user to delete stored information about her – this builds trust. Linkedin is a good example of asking for additional information in an unobtrusive way in direct connection to the feature that will take advantage of the additional information.

Tell me a story

Non-linear storytelling can be a big part of a successful site. One way to do this is to avoid having dead ends at the bottom of articles / web pages. Instead, suggest similar stories or navigation paths – basically try to second-guess your user’s needs and interests at this point of the journey. If you can base your decisions dynamically on user preferences, you have an advantage. Make surfing your site an exploration and act as a guide for the user, don’t make it a linear journey.

A lot of news media sites have adopted this approach, a move made feasible by the ease of relating articles to each other in their already database driven publishing systems. Good examples in the field include Guardian Unlimited and recently redesigned swedish newspaper Helsingborgs Dagblad. Just remember that this approach isn’t restricted to news sites, although their content is especially suited for it.

Engage me

There is a ton of web technology out there (AJAX, Flash, clever CSS, PHP to name a few) that allows you to create a much richer user experience for your user than run-of-the-mill text and hyperlink sites. Sites could be made smarter and better in a lot of areas – content presentation and navigation for example. But despite the technology being available, there really isn’t too much innovation going on.

But maybe this is a good thing? Jakob Nielsen wrote in an Alertbox article about the Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design:

“Jakob Nielsen’s Law of the Web User Experience states that ‘users spend most of their time on other websites.’ This means that they form their expectations for your site based on what’s commonly done on most other sites. If you deviate, your site will be harder to use and users will leave.”

It is certainly true that no one should have to learn an entirely new way to navigate your site to be able to use it – few if any would bother. But if no one tried out “new” stuff there would be no improvement of the user experience of the web, ever. If you know why you deviate from the norm and do it in moderation, then go for it. It can bring something unique to your site and with enough small, unexpected but clever innovations, it can become the thing that sets your site apart from the competition.

Commercial campaign sites, such as the one for the Volvo C30, are usually pretty creative with navigation and presentation. All of the ideas obviously don’t work for sites heavy on content or corporate intranets for example but a add few things here and there and you will be amazed how fresh an otherwise traditional site can feel. The details are the stuff that make a site special so take a good look at the small things on your site and try to figure out where you can make it a little bit smarter, faster or more enjoyable.

Inspire me

Sites isn’t just about conveying information – it is also about conveying the values and attitudes of the site owners. Are you trustworthy? Reliable? Knowledgeable? Funny? Friendly? Independent? There is a lot of ways to subtly convey this to the user in a non-direct way without getting in the way of the content that the user is primarily visiting your site for. You can use colors, icons, hierarchies, navigational features or tailor the tone of your information and instructions – it all adds up to provide a glimpse to the user of what you or your company is about.

Sites like Threadless and Feedburner have a very relaxed and unofficial feel to their messages and feedback while still coming across as very trustworthy, reliable and competent when it comes to the tangible, more serious stuff (ordering information and statistical reliability respectively).

Enchant me

Sharon Lee states:

“A beautiful design will give the user the impression that the site is easy to use, whether it is or not.”

Research have shown that there is truth to this when it comes to the credibility of a site. The information of a professional and aesthetically pleasing web site is perceived as more credible than the information of a site designed in an unprofessional and inappropriate manner. Obviously, the aesthetic and presentation of a site need to be carefully planned.

As a company in the money lending business (even though it is peer to peer), Zopa obviously need a lot of credibility to be able to attract users. Their site certainly helps them in this, being very well structured and good-looking.

(More on the fascinating subject of web credibility can be found on the site for the Stanford Web Credibility Project.)

How about the non-humans?

Finally, remember that even though most your visitors are in fact human, some of them aren’t. Cater to the search bots when you can without spoiling the user experience for the humans. For example, keep the bots in mind when designing your informational hierarchy and make sure that the code you write is valid.

Featured, Usability, Web