If you’ve read something about web usability and user experience, you probably already realize how valuable they are, and how much they significantly contribute to a site’s success (which is a lot by the way).
Web usability, however, seems to be fairly new to the average person involved in creating and/or managing sites, especially in businesses. And, unfortunately, the majority still don’t care about it since they can’t see how it could help them succeed. In fact, those people might be against its practices, since they conflicts with how they envision a site should be.
So, in this article, I’ll write about 4 characters (or positions) that are involved in making and managing web sites the most, along with examples of how they tend to think (stereotypically) based on my experience with each one of them, and how to respond to them and hopefully convince them otherwise.
1. Graphic Designers
How they tend to think
- A site should look beautiful and artistic.
- “Conventional” equates to “not creative”. A site should be visually unique and creative.
How you could respond
- All what a web site needs is a professional, presentable layout. People judge sites based on their usefulness and ease of use, not on how pretty they are.
- If possible, give an example of a site that the designer uses often, which doesn’t have a fancy design (most likely Flickr), and ask him why he isn’t using a different one.
2. Developers
How they tend to think
- Error messages that display technical details of the error to the user is OK.
- If users can’t figure out how to use a feature in their application, they should read the documentation or invest some time on it.
How you could respond
- Error messages need to be simple and informative so users can understand them. It’s not like everyone is a geek after all.
- If users are having problems using a specific feature, it means it’s not usable and should be improved. You will lose a plenty of users if you assume they will stick around long enough to figure out how a feature work. They would either stop using it and do their task in a different way (if possible), or start using a different application.
3. Marketing People
How they tend to think
- Want to add an unnecessarily big picture on the top area of every page on the site to send a specific “message” to visitors.
- Think that the best web forms are the ones that asks for as much information as possible from users.
- Want to use cheesy marketing headings or links like “People We Shared Our Success With” instead of “Portfolio”.
How you could respond
- The first thing people see when they visit a site is what’s in the top area (aka: “above the fold”) of the site. So, instead of using a big picture to take up that space, you could utilize it for something more useful.
- People won’t provide you with any information you ask for #during a task# unless it’s necessary to complete it.
- If you don’t use descriptive headings and links, visitors will have a much smaller chance of finding what they’re looking for. Which means they might end up frustrated and going to a competitor’s site.
4. Managers
How they tend to think
- A site without animation, music or a “splash page” is boring.
- Putting an introduction written by the CEO or the history of the company on the home page is a good idea.
- Assume that their professional designer is already capable of producing usable layouts, and that extra work to improve on usability isn’t needed.
How you could respond
- A site’s layout can never be “boring”, even if it was an entertainment site. It’s all about the contents, and how easy it is for users to find or do what they need. YouTube has a very simple layout, yet it’s one of the most entertaining sites on the web.
- Home pages should tell visitors (in as few words as possible) what they can do or they expect to find on the site, not some information that probably no one besides the company’s employees would ever read.
- You still needs someone to evaluate and improve your site’s usability, no matter how good your designer is. As Jakob Nielsen put it in his analogy:
Even the best writers ask editors to improve the correctness and readability of their writing before publishing it. Using an editor is not the sign of an unskilled writer; it’s the sign of a writer who knows what it takes to write well.
Conclusion
You could be any of the above. It doesn’t matter as long as you try to make your team members aware of the usability factor, and give it a higher priority. Even if you’re hiring someone to take care of it for you; having usability in everyone’s mind would save you a lot of time and money.
The best thing about the usability field is that most of it is built on common sense, which will save you a lot of trouble when trying to convince those who influence the site you’re working on.
Note that all of the stereotypical thoughts I’ve written here aren’t always “bad”. They might be suitable in specific scenarios if implemented by someone who knows what he’s doing.
[...] 2. The Enemies of Web Usability [stereotypes] [...]