Usability Tank
Categories
Landing Page Usability
Landing Page Usability
Although it’s important for websites to be user friendly and easy to navigate, it’s important that the landing page delivers return on investment (ROI). To do this, it must be usable and engaging,; making the visitor stay for longer and increase the likelihood of them completing an action. Remember that visitors can be impatient and should be able to find the information they need quickly and easily.
Sky.com – Landing page example. ( The site has too much content, users need scroll through the site to find information, and call to actions should be stronger)
Few tips for improving landing page usability:
- Keep content above the fold.
- Provide a menu and main navigation to enable the user to navigate to your main website. And add breadcrumbs (which will provide the user with orientation cues) ,this will enable the user to know where they are on the site, and how to return to the page!
- Avoid slow content – such as videos, unnecessary animation. This just distracts the user from their main goal, which could be making a purchase, registering etc.
- Keep content in short blocks of text., as users tend to scan text online. Usability studies suggest that people don’t read on the Web. They scan and are action based, looking for a link to click on. So ensure you don’t over whelm the visitor with content!
- Use clear headers and bullet points.
- Use call to action. E.g. ‘Book now!’ at the end of the text. This can help encourage bookings. And repeat this where appropriate!
- Add information on current offers, which may appeal to your target audience. Ensure the landing page is structured in a way, which will meet the requirements of the different user needs.
iPhone Usability
Usability and the iPhone
With the recent growth in mobile phone technologies and increasing usage, the industry has seen rapid growth of mobile phone services and features over the past few years. Manufacturers Nokia and Samsung are constantly looking to be ahead of competition by developing smaller, slimmer phones with excellent specification such as 5+ Megapixels, fast web browsing, mp3 music downloads… the list goes on and on. It seems mobile phones today are no longer just about making phone calls but providing entertainment and infotainment services to users anytime and anywhere.
Whilst technology seems to have been the driver for quite some time now, a new area within the mobile industry is growing; user experience.
Companies are no longer primarily focussed on developing technically advanced terminals, they are now looking at providing users with the best user experience possible. The aim is to either maintain their current market share (especially Nokia) or break into new paradigms (such as Apple and Google). Whilst the technical capabilities grow and advance, the need for more usable phones grows with it. Users are now able to access the web via their phones for example, and they also want to be able to access content more easily and more quickly, providing a richer holistic user experience. Location based services now also mean content is more specific to where the user is and what they are doing.
Let us look at one example, one of the latest mobile phone releases: the iphone. The iphone enables users to make calls, browse the web, send emails, and download music easily and quickly using its highly innovative touch screen. Although many (if not all) phones today tend to have similar features not many offer all these features with a simple touch of a screen.
So how does the iphone differ?
Whilst the iphone is able to deliver all that is required from a mobile phone and more, what probably makes it different is its innovative approach but more so the user experience it offers. ItÂ’s aim is to clearly go beyond the mobile phone boundaries by trying to deliver all the typical mobile phone features expected from todayÂ’s phones but delivering them better, allowing users to achieve more, faster and easier. Whilst other mobile phone companies were trying to provide slimmer phones, more space and a better phone camera, Apple saw the opportunity to create something unique in the industry. A phone that doesnÂ’t involve small buttons, or scroll keys .but a smooth touch screen to enable access to its features easily and quickly.
So how is usability defined and does the iphone meet the usability requirements?
According to Jakob Nielsen, usability is quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. And usability is defined by 5 quality components:
Learnability: how easy it is for users to complete their tasks first time.
Efficiency: how quickly users can complete tasks
Memorability: how easily it is for users to memorise how to use the system
Errors: number of errors and severity
Satisfaction: the over all user satisfaction from using the system.
So considering the iphone and the above 5 attributes, how does it meet them?
The various phone reviews online and Apple’s iphone guide suggest that the phone is easy to use with features which switch depending on the need of the user. For example apple states that “the proximity sensor immediately turns off the display to save power and prevent inadvertent touches until iPhone is moved away”. This feature for example prevents touch screen problems occurring when talking on the phone. It can stop the user accidentally selecting something on the touch screen when making a phone call. Having this clever feature also easily offers user satisfaction.
Another useful feature is the ability for the phone to detect when the user rotates the phone from portrait to landscape and adjusting the screen display the content correctly. This reduces the need for the user to adjust the phone settings, making it more efficient for the user to complete the task, and with less need to memorise steps to change the settings. Comparing this to the Nokia phone 6680 Adam Greenfield an expert in computing culture at New York University found that to change a ringtone on the 6680 takes 13 clicks.
One interesting point to see is if the phone can be easily used by people with large fingers/hands, as I imagine the touch screen might be sensitive to the touch and might not accommodate all types of users, causing the user to select the wrong person in the address book or send the text to the wrong number. WouldnÂ’t that be irritating to the user?
In today’s world of technology, there will always be the struggle between style and usability for most products. Whilst some phones may not meet usability requirements such as efficiency and learnability, a new product like the iphone is still a stylish gadget, with apple managing to sell “270,000 iPhones during the first 30 hours of sales” reported engadget.
One thing for certain is that AppleÂ’s use of the Mac OS X on the iphone is what truly differentiates it from the competition, and in the next few years we may see a huge change in all new mobile phones and hand held computers, with competitors in the industry focusing equally on the technology and the user experience when developing products.
Content Placement
Content placement, does it influence usability?
Where designers should place different elements of websites, such as:
The key notes below can help you when designing your website and helps you plan where content will be placed :
Advertising: - Users learn quickly where adverts are placed on websites and therefore learn to ignore these parts of the websites when browsing. For example, once people have viewed the adverts on the home page on the right hand side, in subsequent pages of the site, users rarely or never look at the right hand side again. People learn where the adverts are placed. The same applies to banners on the top of websites, once users have viewed the banner on the main page; the following banners are ignored in other pages of the site. This can be an issue for websites where the site has template designs. - One solution is to alter the position of the adverts in different sections of the website. - Eye Tracking Study by the Poynter Institute states that ads perform better in the left hand column over the right. “The right column is treated by users as an “after-thought” area and should be designed with that in mind”, but itÂ’s also important to realise that just because ads received the most eye fixation by placing them in the left hand column, it doesnÂ’t mean that users were happy to have them there. Location should depend on the website.”
Eye movement: - People tend to mainly look at the middle of the page, followed by looking towards the main logo, followed by the left hand side menu, before scanning the areas to the right of the page. So ensure the right content is in the right place is vital to capturing the userÂ’s attention.
Navigation: - Navigation placed at the top of a homepage performed best. This is probably due to the majority of applications which users use which have standard menus (file, edit, view) starting from the top left corner. Ensure the website design and navigation is kept consistent through out the website.
Audio: – In “What Consumers Hate about Online Ads” Cia Romano explains that auto launch of audio in adverts and websites is one of the greatest irritants. A better choice is to let users know which audio is available and then allow them to control when they can play it and how often.
For more information visit : Usability news article for more information.
The new blog
Hello =)
We have updated our blog and have now moved to wordpress!
We will soon be adding new content and updated the site regularly!
Come back soon for the latest on UX and Usability
Lara