Defend your design

15 Tips to Help Designers Gain Stakeholder Buy-In

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:55:14 -0400

Solid advices from Catriona Cornett, like:

Involve internal stakeholders as early and as frequently as possible
Set proper expectations before your work begins
Relate your ideas and designs back to the needs of your stakeholders
Support designs with data whenever possible to reduce subjectivity
…

Read on: 15 Tips to Help Designers Gain Stakeholder Buy-In

Myth #25: Aesthetics are not important if you have good usability

Sun, 26 Sep 2010 04:40:56 -0400

There are usability practitioners who completely dismiss the importance of aesthetics, often citing unattractive but popular websites such as Craigslist.

However, aesthetics do have a function. Attractive things work better. Studies show that emotions play an important role in the users’ experience. If a website has a pleasant visual design, users are more relaxed, tend to find the website more credible and easier to use. A positive first impression — usually based on looks rather than interaction — determines the value of the website on the user’s behalf.

Aesthetics also tell a good many about your brand, product or service. It shows that you care.

Read More

Provide reasons for your request to motivate people

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:21:00 -0400

Research findings confirm that people are more likely to comply with your request if you accompany it with a rationale.

In a series of experiments, a stranger tried to cut the waiting line to use a copier by simply asking “May I use the Xerox machine?” In the next round, a legitimate reason was added to the request (“because I’m in a rush”), and then a meaningless reason was added (“because I have to make copies”). While 60 percent agreed to let the stranger cut the line in the first case, when any reason – legitimate or meaningless – was provided, nearly everybody complied (94 and 93 percent).

In web design, it means that for any request that isn’t obvious, conversion rate might be increased by simply providing a rationale. Most of the times, simple microcopy is enough, for example putting a “Why do we ask?” link next to input fields like Social Security Number.

Read on: How a Single Word Can Control Your Prospects’ Actions

The discussion of the experiment can be found in Robert Cialdini’s books: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion and Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive

Users must feel they're in control

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:42:00 -0400

One of the deepest need people have is for control, or at least the sense of control. Good design acknowledges and fulfills this want.

Sometimes, the illusion of control can be achieved by placing placebo buttons on an interface. A placebo button, as Wikipedia puts it, “is a push-button with apparent functionality that actually has no effect when pressed, analogous to a placebo.”

Examples of buttons that don’t actually do anything:

some close buttons in elevators,
thermostats in some offices,
many walk buttons at pedestrian crossings.

Focus on the peak and the end experience

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 04:58:00 -0400

As it’s nearly impossible to provide a flawless service, companies should focus their efforts on having one (or a few) very pleasant, memorable high points in their service, and making the last experience outstanding. These experiences will be remembered the most, not the sum of the experience.

This phenomenon is called the peak-end rule, Wikipedia defines it likes this: “We judge our past experiences almost entirely on how they were at their peak (pleasant or unpleasant) and how they ended. Other information is not lost, but it is not used. This includes net pleasantness or unpleasantness and how long the experience lasted.”

This works the same way for vacations.

Read on: The peak-end rule

Don't make something look more complex than it is

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:42:00 -0400

Researches show that people judge the complexity of a task by such tiny details like the font used on the instructions.

In an experiment, an exercise was described to participants in Arial, a notably easy-to-read font, and in the harder to read Mistral font. The results “were astounding – the subjects who read the same instructions in the hard to read font estimated that the regimen would take nearly twice as long.”

If you want to make your users to perform a task on your website, describe it as simply as possible and use an easily scannable and readable format. Make sure that people will perceive it as something that’s easy to get done.

Read on: Convince with Simple Fonts

Small text changes may have huge impacts

Mon, 24 May 2010 15:02:00 -0400

Campaign Monitor ran A/B tests for a feedback email campaign. What they did was to change the text of the call-to-action (the body of the message remained the same):

Version A: “Tell us what we can do better” and
Version B: “Give us your best Campaign Monitor ideas”

The result: version A clearly outperformed version B with an estimated 51% more clicks.

So do A/B tests if you can, and mind the small details, they make the design!

Read on: A/B testing: the difference one line can make

Design involves compromise

Sun, 02 May 2010 15:53:00 -0400

Design involves compromise:

“Design almost invariably involves compromise…. Rarely can the designer simply optimise one requirement without suffering losses elsewhere…. There are no established methods for deciding just how good or bad solutions are, and still the best test of most design is to wait and see how well it…

Don't go for "wow", go for "of course"

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 08:20:00 -0400

Organizations often want to create “wow” moments while forgetting what could really help them to create long-term relationships with their customers. Colin Raney writes about how organizations should go for “of course” instead:

“Most companies are looking to “wow” with their products, when in reality what they should be looking for is an “of course” reaction from their users.

If you really understand your customer and you’re aligned with what they want, shouldn’t they be looking at your offering and saying to themselves “of course”?

Hey did you hear the new Google phone is a completely open architecture? Of course it is.
Hey, you know my TV was broken on my Jet Blue flight. There wasn’t an open seat, so they gave me a discount voucher for my next ticket! Of course they did.
You know, I wanted to go camping on the west coast but I didn’t want to lug my gear. Did you know REI rents camping gear? Of course they do.
Man, the shoes from Zappos didn’t fit, but returning them was no hassle at all. Of course it wasn’t.

Each of those examples are actually extremely phenomenal in their own right, but in the context of their brand the acts become expected. It’s some sort of higher order of consumer connection. You only reach that place if you take the time to know your customer, know your market, and really know how to deliver.

That’s not “wow”, that’s thoughtful design, incredible focus, and lots of hard work.”

Read on: Of Course…

UX can be greatly improved by random acts of kindness

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 04:02:00 -0400

Jeff Howard writes about how it’s often not sustainable to provide consistently excellent services and that the key might be to design for some random details where you can and do exceed expectations:

“Rather than offering reliably excellent service, what about unpredictability? What if the answer lies in random acts of kindness? The bits of business that add value to a service, but that aren’t part of its core offering. Something we can’t anticipate, something that captures our attention — randomly exceeding our expectations. A foil to the capriciousness of human perception.”

Read on: The Problem with Service Design

Also: Random Acts of Design Kindness

And update: Design for Delight

Asking more information on a web form is always costly

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:20:04 -0400

A/B tests done by Marketo show how costly it is to ask the visitors to enter more information about themselves on a lead generation form.

“I created three different forms, appropriately named “short form” with five fields, “medium form” with seven fields, and “long form” with nine fields, and used these on three different versions of my landing page.

Short Form: Conversion rate 13.4%, cost per conversion $31.24
Medium Form: Conversion rate 12.0%, cost per conversion $34.94
Long Form: Conversion rate 10.0%, cost per conversion $41.90

As much as my sales team and I would like some of that [extra] information, it is not worth paying that much for these extra fields. Instead, we just needed to find a different way to get it. “

Read on: Two Practical Landing Page Tricks That Will Save You Money

People don't read, design for the scan reader

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 09:01:00 -0400

“On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.”

Read on: How Little Do Users Read?

“In publishing, less is nearly always more. Remember, the one word that describes the scan reader is impatient. Here are some guidelines for the length of your content:

Headings: 8 words or less
Sentences: 15-20 words
Paragraphs: 40-70 words
Documents: 500 words or less

Get rid of all your fancy words. Get rid of your ego. Writing effectively is not about showing off. It’s about communicating. It’s about driving actions. Write simply. Get to the point. Then stop.”

Read on: Writing for the web

Text is UI

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 02:58:00 -0400

Though often neglected, usability tests always prove that by far text is the most important element of UI design. It’s better to have a dumb page structure with quality copy than a nice layout with subpar text.

“Copywriting is interface design. Great interfaces are written. If you think every pixel, every icon, every typeface matters, then you also need to believe every letter matters. When you’re writing your interface, always put yourself in the shoes of the person who’s reading your interface. What do they need to know? How you can explain it succinctly and clearly?”

Read on: Copywriting is Interface Design (37 signals)

Also: Twitter Postings: Iterative Design from Jakob Nielsen

Making clients happy doesn't equal doing as they say

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:00:00 -0400

“The following is what I believe to be the biggest myth in the graphic and web design industry: “Our job is to design what the client wants.” […]

Let’s assume you’re not a designer anymore. Rather, you’re an accountant. Your client comes to you and says something like “I like what you’re doing with my tax return this year, but I think it would work better to …”. As an accountant, you know this tactic will hurt their business or may even be illegal.

Would you do it anyway just because the client thinks it’s the best option?”

Read on: The biggest myth of graphic and web design

You are not your user

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:48:40 -0500

Google Buzz was tested by 20,000 Google employees and still launched with a feature that generated loads of complaints until the feature was dropped.

“One of the features of Buzz was that it would automatically connect you to people whom you have emailed in Gmail. On the surface, a great idea. A slick idea, which worked really well with 20,000 Google employees. […]

Google employees are special. They’re very carefully selected by the company. They have skills, abilities, and lives that are very different from most people outside Google. […]

By not using an outside sample, Google ran into a major interaction design problem. About as big as it gets. […]

Google miscalculated when it assumed that everyone you email is someone you want to share things with, and that you might want those people connected to one another. In a work setting, this might be true. In a closed community like a corporation, this might be true. But the outside world is much messier.”

Read on: You are not your user. No matter how good you think you are

Also: You are not your user

Design subtleties heavily influence our decisions

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:05:14 -0500

“William Poundstone dissects the marketing tricks built into menus—for example, how something as simple as typography can drive you toward or away from that $39 steak.”

Read on: Menu mind games

Also:

Highlighted, ad-like content gets less visibility

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:28:00 -0500

“The heatmaps also show how users don’t fixate within design elements that resemble ads, even if they aren’t ads […].

Even when we did record a fixation within a banner, users typically didn’t engage with the advertisement. Often, users didn’t even see the advertiser’s logo or name, even when they glanced at one or two design elements elsewhere inside an ad.”

“There are 3 design elements that are most effective at attracting eyeballs:

Plain text
Faces
Cleavage and other “private” body parts “

Read on: Jakob Nielsen’ Banner Blindness: Old and New Findings

Small details matter

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:43:17 -0500

“It doesn’t matter how amazing the steak is, if it’s served on a cold plate it’s crap. If it’s served with a dull knife it’s crap. If the gravy isn’t piping hot, it’s crap. If you’re eating it on an uncomfortable chair, it’s crap. If it’s served by an ugly waiter who just came in from a smoke break, it’s crap. Because I care about the steak, I have to care about everything around it. […]

We judge humans this way so it shouldn’t be surprising that we judge software the same. That’s what is so clear about Apple. They are what they repeatedly do. They design everything, even the bits that allegedly “don’t matter”.”

Read on: The thickness of napkins

The magical number 7 doesn't apply to everything

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:12:00 -0500

“One of the most misleading arguments used in favour of reducing visual complexity is the rule of 7 +/- 2. The rule states that the human brain can’t handle more than 7 +/- 2 items at a time. […]

The trouble with this rule is that the psychologist George Miller who formulated it was studying the limitations of short-term memory – not limitations of what people can perceive visually at a time. Humans can only retain 7 +/- 2 items in the immediate memory, but have no problem in dealing with great amounts of information in the field of vision. As long as you have information present for continuous reference, immediate memory plays no significant role in your perception.

The rule of 7 +/- 2 can be quite harmful when applied to navigation. On the surface it might seem reasonable that reducing the number of menu items of each web page will make it easier for people to navigate. But this is not true. Reducing the number of menu items will make the site hierarchy deeper and thereby increase structural complexity. Research has shown that users generally find information faster in broad and shallow menu architectures than narrow and deep ones. Roughly 16 top level links leading into 2-3 subsequent menus seems to be the most efficient and least error prone.”

Read on: Balancing visual and structural complexity in interaction design

Anybody can do usability -- just not on the same level

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:16:00 -0500

“Usability is like cooking: everybody needs the results, anybody can do it reasonably well with a bit of training, and yet it takes a master to produce a gourmet outcome. […]

There’s a level of excellence beyond the basics: Going to a fancy restaurant and eating a meal cooked by a master chef is vastly different than eating something you throw together yourself in 20 minutes. Similarly, a usability expert will give you insights into your users’ needs and your possible design directions that are much deeper than advice you’d get from someone whose main job is in a different field.”

Read on: Jakob Nielsen - Anybody can do usability