User Effect | Strategic Website Usability

The Inevitable Apology Post

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 09:01:39 -0500

It's that time of year again - no, not that time when the clocks change and Halloween candy makes way for Christmas decorations in the store - that time when I make the inevitable blogger apology for mysteriously disappearing. Business has been good for User Effect, and we managed to come out of the recession with a bang in Q3. So, first off, I'd like to thank everyone who has made that possible.

Second, many of you may know that I'm active in the search marketing community. One of the things that pulled me away from the User Effect blog recently is a more active role guest-blogging for SEOmoz. If you're interested, here are some recent posts.

7 Tips for Surviving PubCon

SEO Cheat Sheet: Anatomy of A URL

Architecture for Commerce with Dr. Pete

Third, as one of the blog titles suggests, I will be attending Pubcon Las Vegas next week. If you'll be there, let me know, and don't be shy about saying "hi". If you have no idea what I look like, that last link above is a video mini-interview of me with SEOmoz's CEO, Rand Fishkin.

Finally, I haven't forgotten about my own blog. I've been working on a resource that started as a long blog post and has evolved into my next e-book. Look for an announcement on that in the next few weeks.

Stop Losing Your Best Ideas

Tue, 8 Sep 2009 17:45:43 -0400

As a psychologist, blogger, and occasional designer, I'm obsessed with the concept of creativity, especially how to capture the muse when she finally shows up to the party (usually, fashionably late). I won't claim to be an expert, but over the years I've learned a few (let's call it 5) tricks to keep myself from losing my best ideas:

1. Write It Down

You can't control when your best ideas will strike, and if you think you'll remember them later, you're going to be sorely disappointed. When a good idea hits you, do whatever it takes to record it, whether it's good old-fashioned pen and paper, a digital document, or a voice recording. If you tend to have good ideas in inconvenient places, like the car or the shower, be prepared. I often run out of the shower in a towel just to jot something in a Word document - my wife thinks I'm crazy, but at least I grab that towel first.

2. Know Your Cycles

I have a confession: I am not a 9-5 kind of guy. I used to worry about this obsessively when I first started working, but eventually I came to terms with the truth - I am inhumanly productive for about 2-4 hours/day, and the rest of the day I just have to let my brain relax and do its thing. I'm just wired that way. Once I accepted that, I learned to use my 2-4 hours well, and not stress about the rest of the day. Pay attention to when your creative energy is at its peak and learn to take advantage of it.

3. Don't Force It

Of course, there's a flip side to understanding your creative cycle - when you're in the down phase, don't try to force out good ideas. We're all under time pressure sometimes, but forcing yourself to be creative is only going to end in frustration and bad ideas. If you're someone who needs to be creative regularly (like a writer), it's ok to schedule time every day, but be realistic about what you can get out of that time. Discipline is a good thing, but rigidly trying to control your mental peaks and valleys will only lead to sorrow.

4. Stalk Your Muse

Sometimes inspiration strikes again and again in the same place or situation. For me, it's the elliptical machine, the shower and during incredibly boring talks at conferences. When you notice your muse has an M.O., take advantage of it. Plan to put that time to use for quality thinking and be prepared to capture your ideas. I once read about a Japanese inventor who loved to swim and created a waterproof notepad. As for me, I'm still working on that dry erase shower stall.

5. Put Down The Mouse

Mice are for closers only. We're used to capturing our thoughts a certain way, usually by mouse and keyboard. Unfortunately, this creates two problems: (1) we're bombarded with distractions while sitting at the computer, and (2) that sitting-at-the-PC context traps us in a certain frame of mind. Put the mouse down, grab a notepad and go outside, or pick up your laptop and head to the nearest coffee shop. We all need a change of scenery once in a while.

The Ultimate Idea

Finally, I have to tell a story that adds nothing to the usefulness of this post but is the inspiration for the photo. Back in college, I was doing some dream research at Stanford - they had me using all kinds of gadgets to record my sleep patterns, which gave me the unique opportunity to capture my late-night ideas. You know the ones I'm talking about - the 4am idea that would change the world as you know it but that you instantly forget when you wake up.

One night, I had just such an epiphany. It would feed the hungry, put hair on the bald, and end the browser wars. The next morning, I awoke like a rich, suburban kid on Christmas morning to discover that I had written the following:

Cheese log castles

Needless to say, I'm still working on how to monetize that one.

Simple Optical Illusion CAPTCHA

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:22:25 -0400

Regular readers know that I have a bit of an obsession with CAPTCHA (and all things spam-related). Every now and then, I get an idea stuck in my head for a way to improve CAPTCHA to make it more people-friendly. This is one of those posts.

One of the core questions in creating a good CAPTCHA is essentially this: What capabilities do people have that machines don't? For example, can we take advantage of the human visual system somehow to make a task that's easy for people but tough for bots? Consider the sample CAPTCHA image below:

Looks like your average, everyday low-security CAPTCHA, right? To a person, yes, but looks can be deceiving. What you see above is actually two partially-transparent images laid on top of each other (with CSS). Separated, the two images actually look like this:

Interpreting the first image is easy for us humans - we don't even have to think about it. The two images merge seamlessly into one. For a bot, though, the source code clearly shows two full-sized images, neither of which contains a legible word. Of course, there are ways to programmatically combine the images, but for your average bot, who doesn't notice the dual-image trap, the task is effectively impossible.

As with all of my CAPTCHA experiments, the goal is to help make existing word-based CAPTCHA slightly more difficult for bots, without increasing the difficulty for humans. Of course, I welcome any feedback, and thank you for once again indulging my CAPTCHA obsession.

Usability Contest Winners!

Wed, 5 Aug 2009 15:51:29 -0400

First things first - I just want to thank everyone who entered the usability library contest. This is the part where I tell you I wish you all could be winners, but you can't, because then I'd be broke :) In all seriousness, though, it was great to hear your stories and see such a wide variety of people interested in learning more about usability. I take that as a good sign for the industry.

There was apparently a little bit of confusion about the rules, with some people writing blog posts and some commenting on the original post, so I've opted to pick two winners: (1) A full library winner from the blog posts, and (2) A 1-book runner-up from the comments.

Without further ado, I'd like to announce the full library winner: Pek Pongpaet for his post The Importance of Usability. Here's an excerpt from the post:

"If only the user would do this." "The user is doing it wrong." "Why can't they just see the button." "It's right in front of them." These are the excuses we make to ourselves when first presented with the evidence that our product might not be all that user friendly. We write it off as the user's fault.

Congratulations, Pek - you've got a lot of reading to catch up on :)

Our runner-up award goes to the comment from Kevin Ushko. As a small business owner, I really related to his story of trying to start over and educate his team after losing his UX job a few years ago. Congratulations, Kevin!

There were some great, personal stories in the comments, and I hate to have to pick just two winners, but I wish everyone the best and hope you'll consider reading some of what's on the list as you have the chance. Thanks again to everyone who entered.

Usability Library Contest Reminder

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:01:46 -0400

Just a reminder that there's still time to enter the Win a Usability Library contest. Official deadline is July 31, 2009, just 10 days from now. Just write a blog post about why you love usability and want to jump-start your usability training, and you can win a starter library of 9 usability books worth approximately $200.

Please leave any entries or comments on the original contest post, and best of luck. I'll announce the winner sometime in the first week of August.

Profitable Usability in 5 Steps

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:58:04 -0400

Just for a change of pace, I'd like to start this post with a picture. I'd say that it's "self-explanatory", but that's just something lazy people say before they eventually give in and explain it anyway...

As a usability professional and small-business owner, one of the questions I get asked the most by prospective clients boils down to something like this:

I know what you do, but what do you DO?

Many site owners seems to have a rough idea of what usability is and even why they might need it, but they have little or no understanding of what a usability consultant does in any concrete sense. It's a perfectly valid question that deserves a clear answer, so I've decided to try to quantify my own process. The diagram above represents my 5-step process for improving the usability of an existing website. This process is designed to be cost-effective and to drive tangible, bottom-line results.

1. The Checklist — Heuristic Evaluation

There's a dirty little secret in psychology that we don't like to share - when evaluating anything from a website to a person's intelligence, sometimes a regular Joe (or Jane) armed with a structured approach will do a better job than we so-called experts. Why? Because we all sometimes get in our own way, and as powerful as experience is, it also creates a certain amount of bias. With that in mind, I like to start the process with a structured approach, such as my 25-point usability checklist. This is essentially a set of heuristics, rules of thumb and best practices that summarize my own experience and the collective knowledge of other experts. Starting with this structured approach not only helps combat my own bias, but it helps me not to forget any important pieces.

2. The Expert — Professional Review

Only after I consult the checklist do I put my own experience to work, both as an expert and as an end-user. This usually means walking through a website as if I were a visitor, trying to understand the intent and accomplish my imaginary goals (like adding a product to a shopping cart), and then walking through it again as an expert, looking for all of the red flags that experience has taught me to spot. Steps 1 & 2 are generally the most basic (and cheapest) approach and are at the heart of site audits such as my 5-point website clinic.

3. The Data — Website Analytics

To get real, lasting improvement, you need to be able to measure what you're trying to improve. I call this Step 3, but it really happens throughout the process. It starts by setting quantifiable goals, benchmarking where you're at now, and then deciding how best to measure those goals going forward. The only way to know if any of this process is working is to take a long, hard look at the data, early and often.

4. The Users — Qualitative Testing

In traditional consulting, this is where I'd stop, write a 100-page PowerPoint deck, and send you the bill. In usability consulting, we're just getting started. The bias that affects usability experts also affects everyone involved in a website long-term, from designers to marketers to C-level decision makers. Usability is all about seeing through the eyes of the visitor - ideally, we want to put some regular folk in front of your website and see what they do. I tend to prefer remote testing (via the internet), because, quite frankly, it's fast, cheap, and good enough to get some valuable insights. Qualitative testing isn't about hard science - it's about those "A-ha!" moments when you see your website in a whole new light and understand the obstacles that real people encounter. Step 4 is represented by my 10-user testing package.

5. The World — Quantitative Testing

Finally, armed with everything we've learned in Steps 1-4, it's time to put some improvements out to the world and see what happens. This is when quantitative testing comes into play. The simplest form is "split" or "A/B" testing, where two versions of your site are presented to two different groups of visitors, and you measure until the best version wins. Even with the best intentions and informed decision-making, every audience is different, and the only way to really know what's going to improve your bottom-line is to measure and test.

6. The Wrap-up — Rinse and Repeat

Of course, this is an ongoing process, especially Steps 3-5. Armed with your data and solid testing, you'll be able to tell if your approach is working, whether you should continue, and where best to spend your money to create the most impact. The exact order isn't important, but if you follow this structured approach and are disciplined about measuring and testing, your usability efforts will produce real results in no time.

Some Changes at UserEffect.com

Tue, 7 Jul 2009 09:46:45 -0400

Pardon a bit of a housekeeping post, but I wanted to announce a few changes to the User Effect website. I've decided that it's high time we had a proper home page - the original company site evolved out of my usability blog, and I opted to originally keep the site blog-centered (the home-page was the blog). Companies grow, though, priorities change, and I need to start treating the business more like a business.

So, long story short, you'll now see a "Home" link on the left of the top menu, and the "Blog" link has been moved to the opposite end. Please rest assured that all past blog post URLs, RSS feeds, etc. will continue to work in exactly the same way. For those very few people who read the blog by going straight to the home page, please bookmark the blog page for future reference.

Another site-wide change you may notice is that I've removed the Blogroll on the lower-left. This was a tough decision - I firmly believe in linking out to good content and supporting industry friends. Unfortunately, I ran into two problems. One, I realized that the "Resources" page was really just a collection of 3-4 links that would work better as sidebar. Two, I've been trying to practice what I preach on this site, and have been applying more user testing. One consistent finding is that visitors think that the blogroll links are links to page on this site - when they click through, they invariably get confused. Since the test users came from my target market, this represents a serious business issue. In lieu of the blogroll, I'm going to work to be a better blogosphere and social media citizen. I do believe in promoting good content and will continue to support blogs and resources that I think have value.