Nothing replaces hand testing forms

I fill out a lot of forms during the day, some on existing sites and others as new internal forms that need review. When testing I have a habit of submitting forms with every error combination possible. I know there are automated tools for this but nothing beats seeing it from the users prospective. It is different to run a command line tool and get a number of fails and successes as it is to spend 2 minutes to fill in a bunch of fields and get some weird screen state, odd colors or wording that doesn’t make sense.

That is exactly what is happening above. I clearly filled out the form to my best understanding and still got an error.

Things I notice about this error:

1. There is something wrong with these three fields, but it doesn’t point out which one(s)
2. The wording of the error forces me to look up and then scan down to see where the field is
3. In my mind I did place the area code in the phone field
4. There is no explanation of the preferred format for the phone number

After understanding that my method isn’t working and they were not going to automatically transform my format to their preferred format I tried every phone number combination I could think of. In the end none of them worked. Being the curious person I am I ended up digging through their validation javascript and found this regular expression it was validating against:

^((\\(\\d{3}\\) ?)|(\\d{3}[-\\s]))?\\d{3}[-\\s]\\d{4}$

Doing a little more investigation I found that it didn’t work at all. Try every combination you can think of at: http://j.mp/9sIWEn

Good error messages should include:

1. A summary at the top of the page of all the errors (long forms usually push the user back to the top of the page)
2. A highlight around each field with an error
3. An explanation with an example or clear direction where the visitor went wrong
4. Not be nit-picky about formatting, transform as much as possible automatically

In the end I brought this issue up to Groupon and they fixed it within an hour. The issue was not with their code, but on the survey vendor’s site. It got me thinking about the time and effort the user has gone through to get to this point and end up confronted with a road block. These small things have the potential to be a huge turn off for the average user. Command line tools may be great but nothing replaces what you can learn by testing things by hand.

* Note, that is not my real phone number

The Setup

I went to the self checkout, scanned my few items, clicked to end the order and pay by credit card. After swiping my card I was presented with this screen:

What I did

Typically when I see a screen like this: a large title, the total of my order and then a “Yes” and “No” button. I think to myself, “Yes I confirm this charge, lets continue.” So naturally I click Yes because I didn’t want to cancel, and then I was presented with this screen:

Not what I expected

So now I was confused, why is it asking me for cash back? I just wanted to complete my order. So naturally I hit “No” and it went to the “Thank You” screen I expected before.

What happened

After using the machine a few times over the course of a few days I finally realized what was going on. The question on the confirmation screen was not what I expected. It is asking for “Cash Back” and not to confirm the total at all. I then felt silly that I had missed this large print text.

Thinking to myself, “am I the only one who missed this?” I looked around for a few minutes as others were checking out. Four people checked out with credit cards, they were all presented with the same screen, two of them clicked “No” and went on with their day. The other two clicked the “Yes” button and in the same state of confusion paused for a minute before clicking the “No” cash back. Neither of them wanted cash back but yet still clicked the “Yes” button.

Buttons can be dangerous

This reminds me a lot of Microsoft Windows and the issue it has had in the past with users installing spyware simply because they click an “Okay” button on a dialog box. They don’t read the box they just assume that “Yes” is the default and preferred choice. It reminds me of a great TED talk by Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice. When presented with options users will choose the easiest way out.

The lesson is, as a user be careful about what you click. As a producer be good to your users, design to delight, and not to fool them.

Repetitive

Someone checking for the same piece of information over and over again, like checking the same stock quotes or weather. Google uses cookies to help cater to mobile users who check and recheck the same data points.

Bored

Users who have time on their hands. People on trains or waiting in airports or sitting in cafes. Mobile users in this behavior group look a lot more like casual Web surfers, but mobile phones don’t offer the robust user input of a desktop, so the applications have to be tailored.

Urgent

Request to find something specific fast, like the location of a bakery or directions to the airport. Since a lot of these questions are location-aware, Google tries to build location into the mobile versions of these queries.

Keeping these three user types in context can really help shape your project. If your site doesn’t accomplish your users goals they likely won’t come back.

How much care do you put into your work? You might not realize who is noticing.

A few weeks ago at the CaseV conference I was trying to get wifi in the Chicago Sheraton and unfortunately it was not free, they charge by the day. I fired up my laptop fully prepared to pay the $13.63 for a day’s worth of internet when I was presented with the form above.

A few things struck me as odd.

The first of course was the inability to read the labels for each field. This made it very difficult to use unless you highlight the entire page.

The second was the URL, it was a local address and the page was not protected by an SSL. No way was I going to put my credit card into a form without an SSL. Even a self signed certificate would have worked but CC information going over the air with potentially dozens of people able to intercept it does not sit well with me.

Last but not least the lack of instructions, terms or even description of what I was about to pay for really turned me off. Every customer asks “what is in it for me” before taking any action online. If the benefit doesn’t outweigh the cost the user will not continue. In this case it’s so unclear what the user is getting I would be surprised if anyone has filled out and submitted this form.

Continuous testing

I’m sure they didn’t design the form to be blank like this but whether it was the browser I was using or some change got moved to production that broke the form brings to light a very important lesson. Make sure you test all primary user paths every time a change goes in to production. It might sounds like a daunting task but something like this can easily happen if no one is watching. Just image how many people they are loosing because they didn’t take 10 minutes to test their form.

A film about youth, creativity and insight into the culture of art. It’s now available on iTunes if it’s not playing in a theater near you.

Currently Listening: Raditude (Weezer)

Weezer’s newest album which does have the same feel as their older songs but has a new attitude. My favorite song is “Can’t Stop Partying”

Currently Reading: Eating Animals (Jonathan Safran Foer)

I’m not a vegetarian but do eat more vegetables than meat. A friend recommended this book and I have been addicted to it. In this book Jonathan experiences and details how the meat we eat gets on our plates, the myths and truths about our eating habits and traditions.

A few days ago I did something I’ve never done before, get take out from Applebees Restaurant. (I am in no way endorsing Applebees, just merely writing about an experience I had with them) Upon visiting their site something sparked my attention. Highlighted on the image above is the closest Applebees location to me. I have never been to this site before or set any type of settings previously.

This was great since I came with a purpose, to look at the menu and call the closest location. By them taking that initial step for me I was able to complete my task quicker. Not to mention if I were deciding between two restaurants of equal quality the one that provided me the most information the fastest would probably get my sale.

Location by IP is not anything new, geotargeted ads are everywhere but using it to help users with primary tasks make them feel a greater sense of customer service and increase your sales and ROI. The retail industry is in the best position to take advantage of this since all brick and mortar sales are driven by location. Other industries may have to get a little more creative.

Like I mentioned above location based targeting is not anything new but its use in new ways can really have an impact on your end users. I know I came away happier.

Below is a run through of the day with a few things I wanted to highlight.

In the morning

There were two break out sections, I attended the WCAG 2.0, ARIA and AJAX presentation. It combined low level introductions of the current and future standards and how they are applied. I was surprised to see how little the browsers are taking advantage of these accessibility standards. Firefox 3.6 implements the most, 47 of the 59 total ARIA roles. They also did a recorded session using Jaws (this was my favorite part of the day) with a regular HTML page, regular AJAX and ARIA enabled AJAX. They were nice enough to put the examples and videos online for everyone to see. It made an amazing difference watching the video and see just how easy it was to add ARIA into AJAX applications and actually make your site usable to users on a screen reader.

After lunch

A panel presented the Contemporary Issues of IT in the Sustainable Global Knowledge Economy. This was very interesting because it went beyond the typical accessibility and talked about access. Starting with delivering broadband to rural areas, currently 500,000 Michigan homes are in rural areas where no broadband service is offered. Using the governments stimulus incentives this could all be changed.

Then more locally they talked about how ITEC Lansing is transforming the technology skills for Lansing’s youth. Sharron Rush from Knowbility then talked about how IT is changing the game for people with disabilities, given them the ability to access the outside world like no other time in history. She really put it in perspective when she did an exercise that explained by the time you are 80, a large majority of people (around 90%) will develop a some type of disability.

During the break

We did a usability study with household alarm clocks. We had four different clocks and had people estimate how easy/hard it would be to change the time/alarm. We then timed them changing the clock’s time and if they were successful or not. We then had them give an actual score to how easy/hard it was and comments to why it was that way. Only one clock turned out to be easier than expected. The final results should be up soon.

After the break

An interesting presentation by Shane Schulze from Ford about hybrid cars, batteries and where it is going. During the Q&A a very good point was brought up by a participant who was blind. She asked what Ford was planning to do about how silent electric cars are. She walks everywhere as do people without disabilities and silent cars are a big hazard. This was a great question, unfortunately Shane didn’t have a concrete answer at the time. I really hope this topic stays on Ford’s and the other car manufacturers radar.

Lastly

I wanted to thank everyone from the MSU Usability & Accessibility Center who put this conference on. The MIUPAand all the vendors who made this happen. It was a great experience and I encourage anyone to attend a World Usability Day event near you next year.

Remember, it is us, the every day workers who can make the largest impact in usability, accessibility and access. Don’t accept the status quo, be a leader and demand access for all. Just because you have a disability doesn’t mean you should be locked out of information.

Today I received a LinkedIn invitation from someone I did not know in person. So I checked out her profile and got down to a reference to Wayne State University. I simply scrolled my mouse over the title and this pop-up appeared:

The pop-up is a normal action of LinkedIn but the content is completely wrong. They mixed up Washington State and Wayne State!

I cannot tell which university is correct, my guess is Wayne State since their other positions have been in Michigan. Being a programmer at heart I try to analyze how this could possibly happen in my head but the only reason I continue to come up with is lazy programming.

I wonder how many other LinkedIn blunders are out there.

This last week I attended TEDxDetroit. An independently organized TED event held at Lawrence Tech University in Southfield, Michigan. The idea of TEDxDetroit is to spread positive ideas for the world from Detroit. Seating was limited and I was one of the lucky 150 hand picked attendees. Although the videos from all the speakers will be available shortly I wanted to take some time and reflect on the event as a whole.

The Event

All the speakers were either from the Detroit area or had some connection to Detroit. Charlie Wollborg along with a few others did an amazing job bringing in such a diverse group of speakers. The day was broken into four sections, powering, educating, perceiving and connecting.

The powering section started out strong with some inspiration and then got down to business with an alternative way to gather wind energy and a different way to think about electric cars. Mixed in was musical performances about Michigan and Detroit.

Educating section was a filled with local Detroiters who are really making a difference in the community. Chazz Miller stood out the most because of the amazing things he is doing with art, Detroit and the youth. He was referred to many times by other presenters as a “hurricane”, fundamentally changing Detroit with amazing force.

The perceiving section had some amazing stories about the current and future state of Detroit. Two presenters really stuck out, the first was a poem by D Blair titled “Detroit (While I Was Away)”.  You can see an unofficial recording of it at the link. It’s a view that many of us have of Detroit, it’s what makes Detroit home. Although it’s not the best view it shows the passion, drive and determination of the entire city. The second was Lee Thomas talking about his struggle with vitiligo and turning all lives experiences into positive power.

The last section connecting was also highly inspiring. PJ Jacokes talked about demanding imagination. PJ runs Go Comedy, an improv theater and encourages all of us to take time to explore our imagination. He asks “When was the last time the floor was made of lava”? A world without imagination is boring and mundane, we cannot get caught in the impression of “adulthood” and just let go and dream every once and a while. It will make you focus on the things that are really important.

Takeaways

The attendees were amazing, everyone I met was very open, friendly and doing great work. All the speakers were very inspiring and uplifting and had a very clear vision for Detroit and how to move it forward. The ideas have to start someplace and these speakers took full advantage of their time to inspire us.

I am so glad I was invited to attend TEDxDetroit and have been inspired to go forth to inspire others and move Detroit forward.

I also posted a few photos to Flickr from the event.