USEworthy May 2003
The monthly Newsletter from The Usability Company

Welcome to May's edition of USEworthy. In this issue, we present a case study on the work completed by The Usability Company for Jamjar cars, the UK's leading car retailer, to improve the performance of the jamjar.com website. We provide an update on accessibility news including details of the Disability Rights commission's investigation of 1,000 sites and a leaked report from the e-Envoy's office stating that nearly 80% of UK central government websites need redesigning before they can be fully accessible to users with disabilities.

April was an exceptional month at The Usability Company. We achieved record business success and finalised a partnership with Net IQ, a leading provider of web analytics solutions, to provide Usability Analytics™ services for clients using Net IQ's web analytics product, Web Trends. We discuss the partnership further in the Company News section of the newsletter.

 

Company News

The Usability Company has partnered with web analytics provider Net IQ to offer consultancy on Usability Analytics™. Both Forrester and Gartner forecast that the use of web analytics data will increase significantly in the next decade.

Previously the data has been predominantly owned and managed from the IT department but recent research by Marty Carroll, Director of the Usability Practice has shown how this data can be used to provide vital information about the user experience. The response to the research, published in the Interactive Marketing journal Volume 4 Number 3 January/March 2003 has been considerable and has coincided with the launch of a new service from The Usability Company - Usability Analytics™.

The Usability Company's Usability Analytics™ service for web based platforms, combines usability consultancy with web analytic data to provide organisations with vital information about:

  • How users behave on a site
  • The site's weakest areas
  • Performance of the site against key metrics (KPI's)
  • ROI from improvements or work carried out

To speak to a consultant about Usability Analytics™, please call +44 (0)8450 546 500.

Marty Carroll, Director of Usability Practice at The Usability Company participated in a roundtable discussion at the Institute of Directors at the end of March. The theme of the round table was to highlight the issues surrounding the linking of customer service from company's websites, through the call/contact centre and fulfilment of the customer's order. The group discussed methods of measuring the effectiveness of a company web site from an end user's point of view and how this can impact upon a company's sales and brand value.

Marty also took part in a radio talk show on the issues surrounding accessibility. The talk show was broadcast on over 35 radio stations across the country from March 25 – April 24. Marty was interviewed along with John Harris, Accessibility Manager at Macromedia Northern Europe.

April 2003 was a record month for The Usability Company and we would like to thank all our clients for their contribution to our success!

Upcoming Events

Accessibility Training Course Dates
The Usability Company is launching its One-day Accessibility Training Course for managers and anyone responsible for website development and success. The course covers the most important issues surrounding accessibility on the Internet and Intranet. Each course is limited to a maximum of 10 people. The first three course dates are as follows, June 5, July 17 and August 14 2003. Please use these links for more information on the course or to register for the course.

And Finally...

Hot Topics in Usability Conference - Accessibility Day, May 2 2003
Catriona Campbell, founder of The Usability Company, will be chairing the accessibility day of the Hot Topics in Usability conference May 2, 2003. Speakers on the day include Tom Adams from the Office of the E-Envoy, Julie Howell from the RNIB, Kevin Russell from Standard Life and Catriona Campbell herself will be speaking on "getting best value from your investment in accessible e-services".

 

Accessibility News Update:
Part 1 - DRC Begin First Formal Investigation To Focus on Web Access

One thousand websites will be investigated for their ability to be accessed by Britain's 8.5 million disabled people in the Disability Rights Commission's (DRC) first Formal Investigation, it was announced March 27, 2003.

A key aim of the investigation will be to identify recurrent barriers to web access and to help site owners and developers recognise and avoid them.

The investigation will break new ground in its breadth and depth. 1,000 web sites spanning the public and private sectors will be tested for basic compliance with recognised industry accessibility standards. In addition, 50 people with various disabilities will be involved in in-depth testing of a representative sample of these sites for practical usability. This work will help clarify the relationship between a site's compliance with standards and its practical usability for disabled people.

The Disability Rights Commission is empowered by the Disability Rights Commission Act 1999 to instigate formal investigations aimed at eliminating discrimination and encouraging good practice in the treatment of disabled people.

The Formal Investigation into website accessibility for people with disabilities in England, Scotland and Wales 2003 will, through the examination of representative sample sites, include the following:

  • A systematic evaluation of the extent to which the current design of websites accessed via the Internet facilitates or hinders use by disabled people in England, Scotland and Wales;
  • An analysis of the reasons for any recurrent barriers identified by the evaluation, including a provisional assessment of any technical and commercial considerations which are presently discouraging inclusive design;
  • Recommendations for further work, which will contribute towards enabling disabled people to enjoy full access to, and use of, the Web.

The research supporting this Formal Investigation will be conducted in collaboration with a team from the Centre for Human Computer Interaction Design at City University London, led by Professor Helen Petrie. The findings of the DRC's investigation are expected by the end of this year.

The commercial benefits of an accessible site and the DRC investigation suggest that all firms should develop standards and procedures for ensuring accessible sites. Different people have different difficulties such as reading small print or certain fonts, problems with or even inability to position a mouse accurately, distinguishing print from the background, and absolute blindness. Websites can be made accessible to all these disabilities but it requires thought and planning.

If you are considering making your site accessible, The Usability Company works together with the RNIB to offer a fast track service for companies wishing to acquire the RNIB's See It Right website accessibility logo. The See It Right Logo is the only independent evaluation of website accessibility and through this new relationship, we will manage the award process to RNIB's exacting standards. The process can be completed in approximately two months.

 

Accessibility News Update:
Part 2 - UK "must redesign" e-government sites

Nearly 80 percent of UK central government websites need to be redesigned before they can be fully accessible to users with disabilities, judging from a leaked report from the e-Envoy's office. According to eGov Monitor Weekly, around 800 public sector Web sites may need rebuilding to comply with accessibility laws requiring government services to cater for people with disabilities.

The claim is based on details leaked from an internal report carried out by the Office of the e-Envoy (OeE), the cabinet office unit responsible among other things for improving the accessibility and usability of UK government Web sites.

The OeE report draws upon the findings by the National Audit Office investigation, which examined the accessibility of 65 central government Web sites and concluded that nearly all were potentially excluding users.

EGov Monitor estimates that to fix the problems, government departments may need to spend at least 10 percent to 15 per cent of their total annual budget for Web sites. Editor Ian Cuddy told ElectricNews.Net that it was difficult to put a precise figure on the total cost of the redesigns required because the OeE has refused to release further details of the audit, but it is expected to run into millions.

The report has important repercussions for the government and web design agencies. OeE has now warned the Web design industry that future government contracts will demand that companies deliver websites that conform to international Web accessibility standards. Current responsibility for adopting these standards rests with individual government webmasters, not designers, and compliance is not centrally monitored.

The required changes on these government websites range from simple front-end changes to more extensive re-working of their architectures. The high cost involved in these more serious redesigns highlights the fact that it is much cheaper to design in accessibility from scratch rather than add it on at a later stage.

The Usability Company's one-day accessibility training course can help government web managers and anyone responsible for website development and success gain a clear understanding of the digital accessible arena and they will receive clear advice on implementing a simple, practical and effective approach to accessibility on the Internet and Intranet within organisations and projects. The Usability Company also performs Accessibility Audits for websites and Intranet sites.

 

jamjar Case Study

jamjar cars selected The Usability Company to help improve the performance of the www.jamjar.com website. A number of companies were invited to present their proposals to jamjar with the brief being to offer an objective external user view of how the website was actually performing and assess its ease of use. This would highlight any issues that would need to be addressed through the planned future development.

jamjar short-listed three companies, each of which were invited to present and then selected The Usability Company to carry out the project. They ruled out an internal review, preferring a completely independent and objective assessment of the website.

Why?

Paul Evans of jamjar explained, "the project allowed jamjar to judge what we thought needed changing from a commercial perspective compared to what actually needed attention according to the users. The end benefit should be a more usable and enjoyable experience for the visitor".

"We selected The Usability Company not because they were the cheapest, but because they seemed to offer a level of professionalism beyond the other companies we saw. It was very important for us to get it right first time, as the results would play an important role in the future development of the jamjar website."

How?

The Usability Company recommended a Usability Evaluation – lab based testing with real users – to meet jamjar's needs. 8 participants were recruited against jamjar's core buyer profile and asked to attempt tasks similar to those they would be attempting in the real world. The tasks were designed to test the user's interaction with the core areas of the website, starting with the home page.

What was the outcome?

The outputs of the Usability Evaluation were provided via a detailed report that identified usability issues and provided associated recommendations to rectify the problems. The identified issues and recommendations were supported with edited video clips that brought each of the issues to life. Finally, a presentation was used to review the issues and recommendations and brainstorm alternative solutions.

As a result of the findings the homepage was completely redesigned, which vastly improved the navigation through the website without the need for further changes to other pages. This allowed for a significant improvement to be made to the website in a short space of time ensuring benefits could be realised immediately.

The Benefits

The changes to the homepage yielded business improvements and further significant increases in business performance are anticipated when the remaining recommendations are implemented.

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