Lisa Halabi, Usability Specialist, The
Usability Company
It's amazing how often the same design mistakes appear on
different websites. Testing in our usability laboratories enables
us to critique and study a wide range of websites with end users
running through a series of tasks that they might perform on the
site in the real world. Alarmingly, we often see the same issues
occur with regular frequency on a number of sites. The sectors
might be different, from banking and insurance to gaming and
entertainment, but the mistakes stay the same. These mistakes tend
to frustrate and annoy your customers to the extent that they
can't complete the tasks that they came on the site to accomplish
and may go elsewhere. Below we've put together a list of some of
the five common usability mistakes we see. Have a look and ask
yourself, how does your site compare?
1) Not telling people in advance about information required
to complete a process.
Many of you may have experienced the frustration of getting to
the end of a lengthy online process only to find that you're
missing a piece of vital information. The sheer irritation of
having spent an hour completing your online mortgage application
only to find you need your previous employers post code. "If
only I was told I would need this in advance" you wail. A
sure fire way to waste your customer's time and send them packing
elsewhere. Best to tell them in advance about any necessary
information they will need to have to hand. Failing that, allow
them to save the session for later.
2) Forcing people to register with your site.
Registration is often seen as a barrier to users unless there
is a clear reason for it. Why? Because it forces your users to
work and who wants to do that unless you really have to? Imagine a
friend has sent you a link to an interesting news article. You
click on it only to discover you must register with the site
first. There's a good chance you simply won't bother. So if it
isn't strictly necessary to do so, consider whether you are
prepared to loose a significant proportion of visitors before you
force them to register with your site. In many instances removing
this barrier is advantageous to both you and them.
3) Hiding prices.
When people visit your website, they will want to find out the
necessary information to enable them to make a decision about a
product or service. For many e-commerce sites, one of the most
important aspects is naturally the cost. Yet, during usability
testing sessions, we often observe people unable to find prices on
sites because they have been hidden away. "All I want is
the price! Where is it?" Holiday websites are often
notoriously bad at this. Most people would rather see the prices
displayed alongside the descriptions to which they relate rather
than on a cryptic table hidden away somewhere. Being clear and
upfront about prices is good for your customers because it means
that they are not required to hunt them down. Furthermore, this
transparency can often increase the customer's trust in your
website
4) Not writing for the web.
Writing for the web is not the same as writing for any other
medium. It is not okay to take printed matter and place it on your
website mostly because it will be too lengthy. Users do not like
to read information online and presenting them with wall-to-wall
text shows a lack of understanding of how people read online. So
how do they read online? In essence, they don't. Eye tracking
studies have shown that people don't read screens of text; instead
they scan, stopping only to look at things that look interesting
or relevant to them. So the key is to make information as short
and concise as possible and to enhance "scanability" by
using lists and bullet points. Less is definitely more in this
instance, but make sure your content is good.
5) Search engines that don't work.
The 'hunter gathers' of the web world know exactly what they're
looking for and will often use the search facility to help them
find it quicker than browsing. If people don't get good search
results and if they can't find what they're looking for after a
couple of attempts, there's a strong chance they will leave your
site and try their luck on your competitors. It therefore makes
good business sense to help your customers find what they're
looking for. You need to ensure your Search is up to the task for
natural queries and that results are helpful and informative.
Google is a really good example, it anticipates that people make
spelling mistakes and goes the extra mile by providing assistance
when you do. Indeed, some people have even started to use Google
as an alternative dictionary to find the correct spelling of words
they don't know!
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