The Usabilla Blog

The Top 5 User Testing Methods Of UX Professionals

Danielle Arad — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:00:55 +0000

Have you been wondering what type of user testing technique works best for you? Well, you are not the only one. And thank goodness for Linkedin, I had the great opportunity to get in touch with a few UX influencers to get a sense of their favorite user testing methods. I asked them what type of user testing method they found most efficient. The discussion did not only yield some intriguing results, but offered a pretty diverse list. I found it in great interest to present the discussion to you to get a sense of what user testing methods would be the best fit for your next project.

Let’s take a look at some of the user testing methods that were introduced by my new friends. But first, I want you to meet them – the people whose expertise brought light to this topic.

Please meet…

Thai Dang, Senior User Experience Architext at KIT Digital, Inc
Amy Tandon, Product Manager at RockeTalk
Karin Dames, Test Coordinator at Mobistar
Ian Franklin, Business Psychologist and User Experience Consultant
Genie McDonald, Senior Interaction Designer at Travelport

Behold, the most efficient user testing methods:

1. Focus Groups

When I asked Genie what user testing method she found most effective, she told me that she keeps finding herself wondering what “user testing” truly means. Genie believes that the most effective methods are those that allow you watch and interview real users while they interact with a product or service. Working with focus groups allows you to do just that – focus on a user and their skills. Focus groups allow you to deeply and extensively see a group of users interacting with each other to discuss an idea or concept. This can spark some great inspiration as you will gain more insight from the ideas of the group.

2. Tree Testing

Tree testing is an effective method that provides a reality check for the user experience designer and your business. It allows you to see how well users interact and find items or elements in the website hierarchy. This helps you to understand what points in the hierarchy need work based on where the user stumbled. Thai told me that this testing method allows a partial reality check. This approach reveals whether your information architecture structure is easily understandable. A basic paper-print approach can work for this, but now there are softwares available for tree testing as well.

3. Remote User Testing

Remote user testing allows you to conduct testing from the comfort of your personal space, by computer or telephone. It is much easier testing with this method. Ian shared his thoughts with me, stating that a large consensus feels that remote testing is the most efficient because it can be implemented throughout the whole process of development – from concept to post deployment. “All you need is the user’s web cam to be pointed at the device of application and a web-based tool to record the session,” he says.

A nice aspect of this method is that it is budget friendly. Thai mentioned to me and the rest of the group that remote testing can be carried out even if your budget is minimal. The downside of this method is that the mental model of the user – the user’s thought process when using a product or service – might not come through as much as when using in-person methods.

4. Beta-Testing

During my discussion with the group, Karin pointed out the value of beta-testing. It allows you to roll out a product to individuals who are keen on providing an objective feedback, thus creating a win-win situation. This is because you will not only receive valuable feedback for the product, but you will also be able to effectively market your products before they are shipped.

It is obviously assumed that sufficient in-house testing was carried out to test the product functionality, before releasing this product to the customers. Naturally, you do not want your customers to locate bugs, you simply want their feedback on the product usability, product feature completeness, etc.

Beta testers may not like the idea of any major placement alterations. This is because they are accustomed to having things in specific places. This leads us to the last testing method.

5. User Diaries

Amy believes that It is necessary to involve real users when testing. No amount of tools or test cases can substitute for real life testing with real users. These end-users must not be near the product during the production stage. It might be a good idea to hand it over to some beta testers from an existing user base as well as include a few ‘new’ and potential users for an extended use of 4-5 days. This will get users in a space where they can offer real feedback if provided with beta testing. This will happen in their own course of time, whenever it is convenient for them and needs to be unsupervised. Ask them to simply play around and explore the product.

Remember, for people who pretend to act like real users, their judgement may appear clouded. They have been in close proximity to the product as well as the test cases. Hence, they are unable to provide feedback like real users. Ultimately, they are likely to fail to catch the key usability issues.

The post The Top 5 User Testing Methods Of UX Professionals appeared first on The Usabilla Blog.

User Experience: Feedback & The Case For Context

Sarah Doody — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 14:00:28 +0000

Many times throughout my career, I’ve worked on projects and then … I see that email.

It normally goes like this, someone (who doesn’t know user experience) has gone off and done their own user research and has a new fantastic idea. Normally, this is in the form of a critique or a feature request. And more often than not, it comes from someone who is not the actual intended user of the product or service!

Once, I had someone email me and tell me that they’d showed some designs I’d done to their family at dinner, and the kids didn’t like the colors. You guessed it, that resulted in hours of debating colors based on feedback from people who had absolutely nothing in common with the actual user.

As a designer, feedback is a tricky topic that we all have to get better at dealing with. Feedback helps us create great products. But, it can also result in overwhelm if you have a very active client or colleague who seems to be throwing pasta at the wall, so to speak, and hoping that you’ll actually be able to use one of these ideas.

I’m all for feedback, and believe that great ideas can come from anywhere.

But the truth is, the best feedback comes with context. Without context, feedback has no foundation to stand on.

How can we help colleagues and clients create more context in the conversations that they have about our projects? How can we help improve the quality of the feedback that comes our way? Here are three simple tips on how to cultivate more context:

1. Create A New Narrative

I’ve written a lot about the power of story and characters in designing products. The theory continues when it comes to context. By crafting a narrative, an actual story, of how your product is used and who uses it, you can change the conversation.

Instead of people talking about what their kids think of the colors of the website, you’ll end up with people talking about how an actual character (or persona) from your story would use the product, or specific solutions it has for problems in his or her life. Change the conversation from “I wish it did ________.” to “We could really help Jason achieve ________ if the product did ________.”

2. Ask The Hard Questions

If you do find that you receive feedback that doesn’t come with context, don’t just get frustrated and discount that feedback (yes, I feel your pain!!). Instead, ask hard questions to help uncover the context that isn’t visible. If someone on the team or a stakeholder is giving you feedback that’s more of an opinion based solution, it’s your job to find the underlying problem.

With the person whose kids didn’t like the color of the website, if I’d had more experience I would have realized the truth was that they didn’t like the colors (or someone above them didn’t.) I should have asked hard questions to help uncover the problem. What about the colors didn’t they like? Was it too close to a competitors’ colors? Did it remind them of their college’s rival team or vegetables they didn’t like (yes, true story … I know!)

People who ask a lot of questions are often pegged as being annoying – but it’s part of your job to ask the questions! You have to make the invisible problems visible so you can bring context to the solutions and feedback that comes your way.

3. Learn To Manage Input

If you’re working on a large team or a project with many stakeholders, you’ll have to develop a lot of patience, because chances are you’ll receive a fire-house of input and ideas. The problem with ideas is that, as much as we say we’re not attached to them, when they’re our idea, we sometimes do get attached.

As the expert, you have to learn to manage this input and explain to people that sometimes their ideas and feedback won’t work. You have to work hard to help them see it’s not their idea, it’s that the idea doesn’t fit in the context of the problem you’re trying to solve.

Learn to manage this input and become an expert at explaining context. This way, you can help people see why certain feedback just won’t work and can’t be applied to the product.

The post User Experience: Feedback & The Case For Context appeared first on The Usabilla Blog.

Flat Web Design Is Here To Stay

Sabina Idler — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 14:39:06 +0000

Lately, there has been a big discussion going on about flat web design. Some think it’s just a trend. Others believe it will change the way we design for the web forever.

We tested the homepages of four different websites with a flat design to find out what people really think! In a visual Usabilla Survey, we asked a mixed group of web professionals for their opinion about flat web design. In total, we gathered 2624 feedback points and 638 notes from 100 professionals. The results are clear. Flat web design is here to stay. (Download the full report as PDF.)

What web professionals think of flat design

We asked 100 web professionals about their thoughts on flat web design. Participants were asked to rate how familiar they are with flat design on a scale from 1(not at all) to 5 (very familiar). On average, our professionals rated themselves with a 3.56 regarding their expertise on flat design. See the charts below for a distribution of their expertise and an overview of their professions.

Overview of the participants’ expertise of flat design and their profession.

Before we take a closer look at some actual designs, here are some key facts that we discovered.

The 5 things that people associate with flat design are:

Simple
Clean
Colorful
Modern
Boring

We gathered different association and brought them together in the word cloud that you see below:

Word cloud based on what web professionals associate with flat design.

The 5 main advantages of flat design are:

Clarity
Ease of Use
Modern appearance
Efficient responsive design
Fast load times

The 5 main disadvantages of flat design are:

Different from what people are used to
Difficult to execute well
Unclear what’s clickable
Boring design
Lack of personality

68% say that flat design is here to stay

We asked participants whether or not they think flat design will still be around in 5 years from now. 68 percent is positive that flat design is not just a trend, but affects how we design for the web in the long term. 27 percent is not sure about the development of flat design. Only 9% is convinced that flat design is just another trend, which will not last.

68% of the web professionals in our survey think that flat design is here to stay.

Taking a closer look at flat design

We asked the following questions about the homepages of: Wistia, Windows Phone, rdio. and LayerVault.

Click on the first three things that draw your attention? Please leave a note and explain why.
Click on the elements that you like about this design. Please leave a note to let us know how they make you feel.
Click on the elements that you would change about this design. Please leave a note to let us know why.

1. What draws the most attention

The rdio homepage shows a very colorful, big visual to attract attention. With big succes.

What people say about rdio:

“I love the beautiful, vibrant colors silhouetting familiar/famous faces.”
“Red is a very attention-grabbing color.”
“The colors of this image were the first things to catch my eye.”
“I noticed the button b/c it is big. Also, its blue color stood out against the white background.”

What people say about the other pages:

“Video draws my attention, when I see a play button I want to click it.”
“The image of the two people grabs my eye.”
“I immediately looked at the image with the bright yellow border.”
“The big headline and reference to smartphone made me look.”
“Icons are simple and easy to scan.”
“This text stands out given the sparseness of its background.”
“The headline caught my attention first because it was big and bright and in my face.”
“Sky blue color is bold and eye catching without being straining.”

2. What do people like about flat design?

The homepage of Wistia is clean and colorful. At the same time, people think it’s boring and confusing.

What people say about Wistia:

“Logo font size and colors stand out nicely on the white background. Simple and professional design.”
“I like the colors and the simple and clean shape of the logo.”
“The simplicity of the header is refreshing.”
“The navigation bar is very clear and uncluttered. It makes the website easy to navigate.”
“Love the the vibrant blue color. Makes me feel alive.”
“I like the simpleness of this site. It makes me feel calm.”

What people say about the other pages:

“I really like the typography.”
“This is a very neat and easily readable presentation.”
“The images stand out over solid color backgrounds and do not get cluttered.”
“I love the bright colors. They really make the page pop out.”
“So simple and clean. The whole site really catches my attention.”
“That’s an attractive background with lots of colors.”
“Excellent graphic choices, the images are colorful and exciting and definitely grab my attention.”
“I like the image tied with text, it’s easy to read and notice. It makes me feel clarity and purpose.”
“”

3. What do people dislike about flat design?

The LayerVault website is flat and modern – yet, there is a lot of room for improvements.

What people say about LayerVault:

“Boring, what’s your message?”
“This turquoise background is off putting. It’s an odd color for here.”
“I just got on this site, why would I have a left button? Just have a right button, I don’t know where I’m going anyway.”
“The page overall is too wide making me have to scroll.”
“This gray area at the bottom doesn’t seem to fit with the attention-grabbing colorful graphics above. Seems a little bland”
“These links should be easier to see and not greyed out.”

What people say about the other pages:

“I would add a button to activate users to scroll down.”
“This site has so much blue! Use of another color might work well.”
“Bad use of gray and choice of contrast/focus colours.”
“Poor detail contrast. It looks like a white area almost.”
“This font is too thin to be used in reverse on a saturated color. It makes my eyes go buggy, especially the smaller it goes.”
“I like how they make use of whitespace but it’s very inconsistent, especially with regard to the images.”
“The yellow border looks out of place even though it highlights the screen.”
“I feel that this is a big waste of space and could have been shrunk down enormously to save space and make less scrolling by the web visitor.”

4. How usable is flat design?

One argument against flat design is that it’s supposedly less usable. Reason for that is the fact that clickable elements lack an indication that they are clickable. We asked our professionals to identify all clickable elements on the four homepages.

Flat design is clean and simple. However, keeping it usable remains a challenge.

On the Windows Phone website, people identified 50 different clickable areas. However, only 35 of them are actually clickable. This means that 30 percent of what people thought were links are just regular text or visuals.

For the Wistia homepage, people identified 46 clickable elements. The page only comprises 31 links. 33 percent of the identified links are in fact not clickable.

On the rdio homepage, people thought that 40 different elements were clickable. Only 25 elements really are links. Almost 38 percent of the identified links were not interactive.

On the homepage of Layer Vault, people identified 30 links. Only 5 links were identified incorrectly. This means that only 16 percent of the identified links were not correct.

Conclusion

So what do these results tell us? From 100 web professionals, we learned that there are still mixed feelings about flat design. People like it, because of its clear and modern appearance. At the same time, they think that it easily lacks personality and excitement.

Still, 68% of the professionals that we asked thinks that flat design is here to stay. So it does have potential and we can expect it to improve the web for the better – if executed well and with a lot or care. The idea is to keep it simple with a focus on content, colors, negative space, and big fonts. However, challenges remain:

Putting content to the center of design is certainly a change for the better. At the same time, it becomes more important than ever to know what is relevant and to put that content into words.
Colors take in an aesthetic as well as semantic role. They must match the purpose of the site. They may be bright, but must not be dominant. They must remain usable contrasts.
White or negative space is a great design tool – if used consistently and with care. It must not create a burden for the user.
Typography can be used for more than just text. Just keep it mind that readability is still affected by contrast, font size, line height, letter spacing, etc.
What is clickable? The biggest challenge of flat design is to keep it simple and at the same time intuitive.

Your thoughts?

We asked 100 web professionals what they really think about flat design. What do you think are the biggest challenges and chances of flat design?

The post Flat Web Design Is Here To Stay appeared first on The Usabilla Blog.

Our 5 Favorite Articles On UX (May 2013)

Sabina Idler — Tue, 28 May 2013 14:00:36 +0000

It’s the end of the month, once again. And so it’s time for us to share with you a list of our favorite UX articles. We hope you like them! And if you have a nice resource that you’d like to add to the list, please do so by sharing it in the comments.

From this month’s top 5 UX articles, you’ll learn:

How to create a better responsive experience
How much the web has really changed
Which 5 emotions make your website work
Why you need to stop thinking of your designers as artists
How to test your website navigation

1. Create a Better Responsive User Experience

Create a Better Responsive User Experience by Nick Switzer, published on UX Magazine.

“An important first step in dealing with the mobile landscape is taking the time to choose an approach, whether responsive or mobile-specific, that best suits users’ needs. An important first step in dealing with the mobile landscape is taking the time to choose an approach, whether responsive or mobile-specific, that best suits users’ needs…” This is a hands-on guide for planning, designing, and building better responsive websites. Great read for anyone interested in responsive or future proof web design.

2. How Much Has The Web Really Changed?

How Much Has The Web Really Changed? by Vasilis van Gemert, published on Smashing Magazine.

“Responsive design is about more than just layout; it’s about designing for the Web, which means, mostly, for people with browsers. And that’s just about everything we know about the people who visit our websites: they are probably using a browser. All the rest we just don’t know…” In this article, Vasilis takes a close look at all of the things that really have changed about the web.

3. Web Designing is All About Stirring Up the Right Emotions – 5 Emotions that Make a Website Work

Web Designing is All About Stirring Up the Right Emotions – 5 Emotions that Make a Website Work by Pete Juratovic, published on InstantShift.

“The focus on aesthetics in website designing remains as is, but another element has been added to the mix, which is Emotion. A mixture of emotions and aesthetics helps you design user experiences that effectively capture the mood of the website and help deliver the website’s message effectively…” This is a great read on how emotional concepts, such as humor, empathy, passion, envy, and sympathy affect your visitors.

4. Your Designers Are Not Artists, and You Need to Stop Thinking That Way

Your Designers Are Not Artists, and You Need to Stop Thinking That Way by Keith Frankel, published on HubSpot.

“If there was one thing I could convey to non-designers, it is this: designers are not artists, and the fact that you view them as such is hurting not only your working relationship, but the quality of the work you receive from them, as well…” In this article, Keith explains the difference between designers and artists and why it is so important that we recognize they are not the same.

5. 10 Metrics For Testing Website Navigation

10 Metrics For Testing Website Navigation by Jeff Sauro, published on Measuring Usability.

“Website navigation is at the heart of good findability. To measure findability, we perform a tree test or a click test on a live website. In both types of studies, we collect many metrics to help uncover problems with terms and taxonomy. While the fundamental metric of findability is whether users find an item or not, often other metrics provide clues to problems in the hierarchy even if users manage to find an item…” Jeff discusses 10 handy metrics to collect and dig into when you’re looking to improve website navigation.

The post Our 5 Favorite Articles On UX (May 2013) appeared first on The Usabilla Blog.

And the winner is…

Sabina Idler — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:04:30 +0000

A little while back we invited you to ask anything you ever wanted to know about interviewing users. And you did. We gathered a bunch of very interesting questions and a lot of food for thoughts for all of us. Thank you all for that! Also, many thanks to Steve Portigal, who did not only contribute a truly inspiring book to the UX community, but who also shared his ideas and insights with us by answering all of your questions.

We also promised you to give away three copies of Steve’s book Interviewing users for the three most interesting questions. Together with Steve, we selected our three winners. Congratulations to Dennis, Elise, and David!

Here are their questions:

Elise: What are your best tips for handling low-energy / quiet interviewees? I wonder if my extroverted body language is making them shut down more! Also, I have R&D team members who love to be involved in customer-facing activities. What’s worked for you in training teammates in user interviewing?

Steve: See my handout for teammates for that question. In Chapter 8 I talk about “When the participant is reticent” – if you are extroverted maybe you are expecting or hoping that they will come off as extroverts. Maybe everything is just fine and that’s the way they are?

Dennis: Talking to users often provides insights that are valuable to people outside of ux/web teams. What advice do you have for integrating user interviewing into other areas of a business so those insights are shared?

Steve: Try to bring those other groups in as stakeholders at the beginning (and along the way). Can you create deliverables – or meetings where results are discussed – for those other groups?

David: How hard is it for your friends and family to be unbiased interviewees? Is this considered unethical?

Steve: There’s a lot of issues here; I think opportunism is an important aspect of participant recruiting. Ask yourself “who can you get?” At the same time, it’s crucial to identify what are the characteristics of your participants that will make your research valuable. So you need to balance those two.

The problem with friends and family is that they are actually harder to interview. Imagine you are interested in people’s vacation planning process. You can ask a stranger “What was the last vacation you took?” and it’s so much easier to ask that question authentically because you really don’t know. If you are interviewing a family member, you know what their last vacation was. Sure, you can say “Now I think your last vacation was to Italy, is that right?” But already the dynamic has shifted and you are sort of now both playing the role of recapping for the camera things you’ve already talked about. It’s just so much easier to deal with a relative stranger.

My compromise is to get friends-of-friends. So you get the expediency of working your social network but you meet someone you know a lot less about.
I’m not sure what the ethical issues are here; to me it’s more about what will get you the best data. I certainly wouldn’t suggest you misrepresent your sample to someone else though.

Not in the top three, but still very inspiring

Gavin: How do you best eliminate candidate selection bias, whether or not you are involved in finding users? Right now, I am gearing up for user testing and am a bit nervous about a certain client selecting the users to be interviewed.

Steve: Seems like you need to find a way to have the difficult conversation with the client about the concerns you have about getting them the best information that can help them the most. You obviously know your stuff and that’s what they’ve entrusted you to bring, so step up. Note: this is much easier for someone to write in a comment box than it is to actually go out and do it! But consider this a vote of confidence, amirite?

Dante May: Slightly off-topic, but what advice / lessons learned can you give from “Interviewing Users” that can be applied to interviewing internal and client stakeholders?

Steve: The pieces in the book that talk about rapport, listening, and asking questions (Chapter 2 and 6) apply nicely to any interview setting, I think.

Edje: How do you manage giving all users equal opportunity to give honest feedback and not allow discussion to be dominated by tangential aspects as some people desire to impress or show off to others in a participative feedback session?

Steve: It sounds like you are describing a focus group setting and the behavior you are describing is well known by social scientists. If you don’t want to have people socially performing with each other, don’t bring them into a group. I talk in Chapter 8 about interviewing multiple participants, but in that case I am thinking friends, family, not strangers thrown together suddenly. Why do that to them (or yourself)?

Frank: Some users tend to steer their answers towards telling you what specific functionality they want from the ultimate product, no matter what you ask. How can an effective interview be conducted in such cases?

Steve: This is about how the interview is framed – from the point you make the initial request, to the introduction. However, in many cases, people have stuff to tell you and you need to let them tell you that before you go forward from there. You also can keep asking why and why and why for every feature request they make. You can ask who else has the same need, etc. You want to get the discussion to needs, but you can let them dictate the starting point if they are so passionate about that.

Ian: What are your techniques to make sure that questions are completely non-leading and non-subjective? How do you keep users on track? How far do you let them go before you steer them back? How much do you prep users before their interview? How can this influence their behaviours and responses? Looking forward to reading the book!

Steve: I will give people some context for why we’re talking to them, but most people understand “market research.” I definitely do not go on and on about alphas and rollouts and BUs and other things they don’t understand or care about. I say just enough and at the end I ask them if they have any questions for me. Some people will say “What will you do with this information?” or “How many other people are you talking to?” – but the key is to orient this discussion – at least until the end – to their world, not yours.

Erik: How do you balance interviews from different groups of users. I work for a large membership organization. We certainly want our site to give our members them what they want, but we also want to influence non-members. There are also small groups of users that heavily influence our website decisions but are unlikely to subject themselves to interviews in any representative numbers: I’m thinking specifically of journalists and policy makers.

Steve: One reason to look at different user types is to highlight contrasts you wouldn’t otherwise see. The other thing to keep in mind is that there’s a difference between who you do research with and who you design for. The first gives you insight about how to do the second.

Kate: How do you handle a participant who seems determined to find fault with any website or product you mention? Do you treat their feedback as valid or take it with a large pinch of salt?

Steve: It’s always helpful when getting feedback to understand “why” – quant methods are better for simply tabulating the number of issues out there, but you have the chance to dig in. The why may be the same or different and may be enlightening in different ways. And yes, I think that we bring our own interpretation to what we’re hearing from people. If someone says “I hate life and I hate people” and then says “I don’t like the way this peanut butter tastes” then we’ve got some good context for that feedback. Thank goodness we’ve had the opportunity to learn more deeply how they look at the world!

Marc: How can you prevent users telling you what they think you want to hear, rather than how they actually feel?

Steve: You are describing the need for rapport (see page 20 of my book) – it’s up to you to establish this dynamic with your participant. You also need to hear the difference between those two types of responses and adjust your questioning or follow-up further as necessary.

Ann: How can I avoid leading questions when others write the questions and push for them to be asked? How do you avoid or redirect the interviewee answering hypothetically for their demographic? How do you get better responses when the interviewee doesn’t seem engaged?

Steve: You shouldn’t be asking the questions as written. The interview guide is just that – a guide. Otherwise, you are just moderating a survey and not conducting an interview. Chapter 6 of my books talks a lot about how to ask questions and might be helpful for you.

Annemarie: How can you beforehand make sure that you acquire participants that are ‘good’ at thinking aloud during performing a certain task.

Steve: There’s a standard articulation question that should be in your screener (sample.
We often do a 5-minute call before we meet for an interview to develop rapport, see if they have any questions, verify some of the things we are asking about, etc. If you have an exercise for them to try, then you could do it then, too. I think if you decide not to go forward with them after that, though, you should give them a small incentive as thanks.

The post And the winner is… appeared first on The Usabilla Blog.

How To Design A More Effective Website Footer

Sabina Idler — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:26:37 +0000

It goes without saying that the success of a website depends on many different aspects. For example, the overall usability, the visual design, and the brand consistency all affect whether or not users are happy with your site. How easily can they find their way around? How much do they trust you and your content? Do they think it’s fun use your site?

In previous articles, we already discussed some aspects that make your website more effective, such as your website header, navigation menu, and content structure. Now, lets take a look at your website footer. Every website has one and there are many different things you can do improve your website footer.

Here are 6 ways how to design a more effective website footer:

1. Visual appeal

Let’s start with a very basic, yet effective aspect of your website footer: Its visual appeal. Even if you don’t put any social media buttons, links, or other information in your footer, it can still make up a powerful part of your site. You might want to keep your site clear and simple, avoiding unnecessary clutter and confusion. At the same time, you don’t want it to look steril, uncreative, or even boring. Your footer is perfect for adding some visual details and beauty to your site. Grant your visitors some eye candy – without putting the clarity and usability of your site at risk.

This footer is very energetic, bright, and fun, highlighting the essential service of the company.

Yesinsurance.co.uk is a regular insurance company from the UK. However, their site looks anything but typical for their industry. Instead of the classical color scheme that is associated with trust and expertise, Yes Insurance has chosen for more happy and energetic colors. While the header and content area are kept clean and focused, the footer is the exact opposite. It doesn’t hold any information and neither is it in any way serious. Rather, it is very bright, fun, and highlights the essential service of the company: Living a carefree and happy life.

The visual appeal of a website affects your visitors emotionally. Emotions are an essential aspect of effective web design.

The footer of Urban Pie is very appealing as well. The style, visuals, and colors perfectly match the rest of the site, adding to it’s overall appeal and character. The footer does not hold any information. Now, you could argue that this makes it irrelevant, not contributing to the effectiveness of the site at all. However, the emotional aspect of web design is very important and even a simple visual can have huge effects on how we perceive a site.

2. Visual framework

Next to the pure visual appeal, your website footer can also be part of a visual framework for your website. As the word framework already gives away, you can wrap your entire site in a visual frame. The framework starts with a visual element in your header. When repeating this same, or a similar element in the middle, or at the end of a page, you give your visitors a clear indication of what belongs together and that they are still on the same site.

A visual framework can be wrapped around your entire page, guiding your visitors from top to bottom.

The Pixel Creative Blog wraps its entire content in a visual framework. It starts with a beautiful illustration in the header, followed by a tree trunk that goes all the way down to the footer of the page. The footer itself is yet another awesome illustration with lots of details waiting to be discovered by the reader.

The colorful and characteristic illustration from the header is repeated at the end of the page.

The web design blog Webdesigner Depot has chosen to make their footer part of a visual framework. The colorful and characteristic illustration from their header is repeated at the end of the site. This way, visitors are not distracted by random design elements while reading through the content area. However, at the very top and at the end of the page, they are being reminded what site they are on.

3. Content summary

You can also use your footer to offer your users a summary of your content. Imagine, a visitor is looking for something very specific on your site. They start at the very top and follow the path that seems most promising to bring them to the desired content. Eventually, they will reach the bottom of one of your pages and if they still haven’t reached their goal, they might get frustrated at that point. However, when offering them an alternative navigation at the end of every page, it’s like you say: “Sorry for that, why don’t you try again?”

Use your footer area to ensure your visitors they are on the right track and help them find what they are looking for.

The web design and SEO agency HitReach have a very detailed footer area. Not only do they show a clear, hierarchical link structure for their site, they also offer a visual and very inviting graphical explanation of what they do. So in case you scroll all the way down their page and start doubting whether you are even on the right site, they kindly reassure you that you are.

The top navigation only holds the most important links. All other links are exclusively listed in the footer area.

Wistia even goeas a step further. While they only place the most important links in their top navigation, their footer offers a comprehensive list of links to all their content. The links are structured well and its easy to decide where to go next – assuming you are actually looking for something specific.

4. Interesting links

Do you have interesting content that you want to share with your visitors? But dedicating an entire content area would be too much? Or just not reasonable? Your footer is the perfect place to provide your visitors with interesting links and resources. This way, you can make content available on every page, without giving up valuable screen real estate in your content area. Keep your content area to what’s really relevant, not nice to have.

The footer is used to display a selection of links on every page of the site.

The eco-lifestyle community Ecoki have dedicated their footer area to popular and featured articles of their own blog as well as recommended resources, such as other eco focused websites. This allows them to display these links on every page, while the rest of the content changes according to the selected content category.

*The visual is a great attention grabber, guiding the visitor’s line of sight to the provided content. *

Branded07 also decided to feature a selection of favorite and inspiring links in the footer area. Besides these links, the footer contains a subtle contact form and a big visual. The visual is a great attention grabber to guide the visitor’s line of sight to the provided content.

5. Trust

Your footer can also be a great way to convey trust. Remember, your footer should be the same, or at least very similar on every page of your site. This allows you use it for information that is also handy to provide throughout your visitors’ stay on your site. Also, you can place information here that is important, but doesn’t fit in with the rest of your content, such as contact details, social media buttons, copyright statements, etc.

The footer contains a lot of information that makes the site trustworthy.

The site of Stone Laboratory packs a lot of information in their footer area. However, they manage to do so in a very clear and not at all overwhelming way. Besides an overview of the sites’ content, there is a lot of information that adds to the trustworthiness of the site. For example, detailed contact information allow me not only to get in touch, but I can even decide whether I want to send an email, call, or even visit them in person. I even get directions to their physical address if I want.

A personal design adds to the trustworthiness of the whole site.

The designer and developer Brad Candullo has chosen for a very personal design for his online portfolio. The footer of the site is no exception, which adds a lot of trust to the site. It is divided into three columns: Contact info, a contact form, and his resume for download. That information together with the chosen colors and design elements leave no doubt that Brad is a real and authentic person, and that I actually get to speak to him when calling one of the numbers provided.

The post How To Design A More Effective Website Footer appeared first on The Usabilla Blog.

Pepper.nl Engages Users In Active Conversation With Usabilla Live

Sabina Idler — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:00:45 +0000

“The feedback and user comments are very valuable, because they offer qualitative insights. We learn a lot about our users and how they use Pepper.nl. This helps us further improve our service.”

– Michelle Theeuwen, Econometrics and Operations Researcher at Pepper.nl

The company Pepper.nl

Industry: Social, dating
Using Usabilla Live Since: January 2013

Pepper.nl is a Dutch dating site. It was started in 2011 with the goal to create a dating site that was different from all the others. A dating site that shows people the way they really are. A dating site with profiles that are transparent and fun, both to set up and to use. In order to achieve this, Pepper.nl based their entire concept on the needs and desires of actual users: daters. A group of five daters took the insights they got from conversations with each other and with more than 1000 Dutch singles and turned them into a trendy and popular dating site.

The Opportunity

At Pepper.nl, everything is about conversation. That’s why Pepper.nl offers easy ways for users to get in touch with their matches. That’s also how Pepper.nl was created and why they are one of the most popular dating sites in the Netherlands. In the past, Pepper.nl used different tools, such as Surveymonkey and Salesforce to start a conversation with their users. However, these tools were limited. For example, with Salesforce, Pepper.nl would get detailed information about why people decided to cancel their account. The problem: People had already left Pepper.nl.

Pepper.nl wants to start a conversation with their users.

Pepper.nl wants to know what users don’t like, what can be improved, or what doesn’t work. They want to listen to their customers, get to know them, and take their complaints and concerns seriously – before they decide to leave.

With this motivation, Pepper.nl was looking for a solution that would combine all their user research activities in one tool. While the marketing department wants to run targeted surveys on the site, it is also essential for Pepper.nl to offer an easy to use feedback mechanism for visitors on the site. Pepper.nl is based on user insights and that should also be the input for continuous improvements to the site.

The Solution

With Usabilla Live, Pepper.nl found the ideal solution to combine active marketing efforts with a passive feedback mechanism. The feedback button invites active users to share their thoughts and concerns about the site. Targeted (exit) surveys allow the Marketing department to run regular surveys on the live site to learn more about their users.

The custom Live Feedback button blends in perfectly with the rest of the site.

Passive Feedback

Pepper.nl uses a custom Live Feedback button that blends in perfectly with the rest of their site. They get more than 100 feedback items per day on all different kind of topic. Users offer ideas for improvements, report bugs, and complain about missing or complicated features. For example, users want (1) better filter options for their matches, (2) better access to their personal messages, and (3) easy editing options to delete or respond to messages.

Feedback items get labeled automatically with one of eight different categories. These categories are selected by the users themselves when giving feedback. Based on the different labels, Michelle Theeuwen, Econometrics and Operations Researcher at Pepper.nl, organizes the Usabilla Live feedback. Once a week, Michelle analyzes all Feedback by label and exports it to Excel: “It is important to look at the feedback regularly. We gather feedback, because we are interested in what our users think. If we don’t act upon feedback in a timely manner, we shouldn’t ask for it.”

All feedback is automatically labeled with one out of eight feedback categories.

Michelle clusters the feedback by comments and prioritizes them for further processing. She explains: “The user comments are very valuable, because they are qualitative. We learn a lot about our users and how they use Pepper.nl, but we have to take the time to read and cluster all comments.” Recurring complaints get picked up and fixed immediately, while less urgent feedback is marked on the roadmap for future improvements.

Active Feedback

Pepper.nl doesn’t only listen to their users, they also use targeted campaigns for marketing purposes. For example, over the period of several weeks, they invited their users to participate in a series of quick slide-out polls. This data was used to create a festival survival guide for singles in form of a fun infographic. With some creativity, Usabilla Live can turn any website and its users into a goldmine for marketeers:

The post Pepper.nl Engages Users In Active Conversation With Usabilla Live appeared first on The Usabilla Blog.

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Interviewing Users

Steve Portigal — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:00:54 +0000

How difficult can it be to ask users the right questions? Why is the kind of user I interview so important? And what are the ways that the interviewer can influence the conversation?

There are more than enough questions that we should ask ourselves about interviewing users before we go out there and ask people all sorts of questions. Today, you get the chance to ask me anything you could possibly want to know about interviewing users. And when I say anything, I mean anything!

In an earlier post Tomer Sharon interviewed me about the challenges organizations face when using interviewing as research method (we’re reposting that video below). And now, my new book, Interviewing Users, is on sale!

Published by Rosenfeld Media, Interviewing Users explains how to succeed with interviewing, including:

Embracing how other people see the world
Building rapport to create engaging and exciting interactions
How to listen effectively in order to build rapport

What do you want to know about interviewing users?

Ask your questions in the comments below. Usabilla has three copies of my book to give away for the best questions!

If you don’t make it into the top three, you can get still a 20% discount when you purchase the book at Rosenfeld Media using this code: USABILLAINTUSER.

In this interview, Tomer and I talked about why it is so hard for people to do user research and how startups should approach it, what clients expect from user research, and about the interesting interaction with clients who work with a user research agency.

The post Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Interviewing Users appeared first on The Usabilla Blog.

Why You Should Care About Web Accessibility

Leanne Byrom — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:00:09 +0000

Research has shown that almost 30% of internet users have a disability of some sort. As such, as user experience designers we need to make sure that we cater for these disabilities so that the widest possible audience can use our website or application. This means designing with accessibility and disability in mind, from the outset.

I’m not going to go into detail on web accessibility as much has already been written about it over the years, with really useful guides and resources available at W3 and Web Credible looks into the act in more detail in relation to websites.

Save on mobile adaptation

Working with both accessibility and disability requirements on websites, I’ve seen an interesting and really useful side to it. What I’ve found is that by building your web application to be fully accessible and to cater for people with disabilities, you end up with an application/website that works really well for smartphones, without much extra effort.

This is because in many instances, designing an experience for someone who CANNOT use your website/software due to a disability also ensures that we are catering for those who SHOULD not be using the website/software in the standard manner.

Design for speech input

One example is designing for speech input. Some disabled users cannot use a keyboard and/or touchscreen device. There are also instances where able bodied people should not be using the keyboard or touch screen – while they’re driving is a typical one – and thus these users would be able to take advantage of a system such as speech input instead of text input.

Continuing with the “driving” theme, designing your click, or touch interactions to be speech activated as well makes it safe for drivers to use on the go. Designing in-car navigation systems – by using speech input and output can be really useful by being less distracting and easier to use for able people and also for disabled or less able people who have poor vision, no use of hands/fingers.

In-car navigation

A few basic rules

Designing the experience for mobile is a little different to web or software, however there are still the same basic rules with regards to accessibility and disability. It’s important to note that the initiative put in place by W3C for mobile accessibility (available here) actually includes devices such as TVs and tablets and not just mobile phones (or cell phones in the USA). Some of the guidelines for mobile are the same as those already in existence for web best practice. As a result, time spent investing in your web accessibility standards is well spent as there is an automatic benefit for when users access your software/website with a mobile device.

Accessibility is Key

Four key areas of focus

As per the W3C guidelines, our main focus as experience designers is to ensure that our application / website is

perceivable,
operable,
understandable and
robust.

For a full breakdown of what’s included in these four areas, have a look at Shared Web Experiences: Barriers Common to Mobile Device Users and People with Disabilities

The mobile challenge

With mobile there are some additional areas that we need to think about. Mobile phones in particular can be challenging to design for, as we have to think about small fonts, small keyboards, no mouse, touch gestures, small screen sizes, poor light and even glare.

Trying to address all disability or accessibility issues with experience design alone won’t solve all your problems, however, and work will need to be undertaken with the supported platform operating system or APIs.

Multi device usage

Platform accessibility APIs

Platform accessibility APIs are the bridge between applications and assistive technology and these are becoming better and more widely supported as time goes by. Knowing what these APIs can help you achieve as an experience designer is crucial, so you will need to get to grips with a little of the technical things, or discuss with your developers. Be sure to also read the Research Report on Mobile Web Accessibility.

The post Why You Should Care About Web Accessibility appeared first on The Usabilla Blog.

Our 5 Favorite Articles On UX (April 2013)

Sabina Idler — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Have you already been waiting for our list of recommended readings on UX? Just in time before the weekend, here are our 5 favorite articles of the month April. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we did.

This is what you will find out if you continue reading:

How web posture affects user experience
10 reasons why you should hire a user experience manager
How feedback pertains to best user experience design practices
How to design an emotionally engaging experience
What UI really is and how UX confuses matters

Sounds good? We thought so, too. Enjoy and don’t forget to let us know which one you liked best!

1. How web posture affects user experience

How web posture affects user experience by Irwin Lagman, published on Webdesigner Depot.

“What makes a great website? There are many ways to measure the effectiveness and quality of a website. Web designers can use a handful of quantitative data that will help them determine if the web design is effective, especially for e-commerce where the added value to a business is measurable. But for any site, one of the most telling signs is user experience…” In this article, Irwan sheds some light on how we can influence the way visitors feel about a website by paying attention to elements like user flow and web posture. This is an interesting read for any designer.

2. Hire A User Experience Manager – 10 Reasons Why You Should Do So

[Hire A User Experience Manager – 10 Reasons Why You Should Do So](Hire A User Experience Manager – 10 Reasons Why You Should Do So) by Danielle Arad, published on Usability Geek.

“It is difficult for those not in Research & Development, Quality Assurance, Marketing or other non-customer related departments to immediately see the reasoning behind the need to hire a User Experience Manager. This is understandable. Those in more financial or executive positions have their own sophisticated sciences and logistics with which to be concerned and are forced, often against their desires, to leave the “creative” sciences to those who specialize in them…” In this article, Danielle gives us ten good reasons why all enterprise level businesses need a User Experience manager.

3. Practicing What We Preach : Feedback

Practicing What We Preach : Feedback by Astrid Chow, published on UX Magazine.

“”One of the most basic but frequently overlooked components of being a designer is the need to be a deft communication facilitator. As we discussed in the first article in this series, initiating a dialogue with users can be difficult and it’s within those first interactions that we either make or break our relationship with them…” In this article, Astrid looks at the idea of feedback and defines how it pertains not only to best user experience design practices but also to organizational practices. Interesting read for anyone really who is involved in the product development.

4. 5 Must-Dos in Designing an Emotionally Engaging Experience

5 Must-Dos in Designing an Emotionally Engaging Experience
by Zhecho Dobrev, published on Bezong Psychology.

“Think of how many times you had an impulse to buy a more expensive brand and later convinced yourself that you did it because the quality is much better. Truth is that in most cases you did it because you trust the brand more or you feel a sort of sympathy towards that brand and want a product that will make you feel good and boost your confidence..” In this article, Zhecho shows us some best practices of how to design an emotionally engaging experience.

5. What UI really is (and how UX confuses matters)

What UI really is (and how UX confuses matters) by Ryan Singer, published on feltpresence.com.

“People mix the terms UI and UX together. UX is tricky because it doesn’t refer to any one thing. Interface design, visual styling, code performance, uptime, and feature set all contribute to the user’s “experience.” Books on UX further complicate matters by including research methods and development methodologies. All of this makes the field confusing for people who want to understand the fundamentals…” In this article, Ryan explains why it is important to understand the individual skills of UX. For software design, he defines user interface design as the core skill among all user-facing concerns.

The post Our 5 Favorite Articles On UX (April 2013) appeared first on The Usabilla Blog.