Transcript Where’s the Darn Button?The Value of an Intuitive Interface

Where’s the Darn Button?
The Value of an Intuitive Interface
www.ranked-one.com
571-933-3706
Michelle Chance, CEO
Ranked One, Inc.
571-933-3706
[email protected]
[email protected]
Michelle has been creating websites for about 20 years, and
implementing Tridion since 2006. Ranked One’s clients are
primarily Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and
non-profit organizations.
Ranked One offers both end-to-end solutions and specialized staff
augmentation in support for Tridion CMS implementations, ECRM
Solutions, Customized Decision Support Systems, system
integrations, and training.
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How many times have you become
frustrated when searching for
information on a website? What makes
you frustrated?
Learn how to avoid the common pitfalls
and leverage SDL Tridion’s power to
deliver a better user experience.
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“There is too much information on this page”
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“I know what I want, why are they making it so hard for me to get to it?”
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“The website I was just on disappeared. Where did it go? How do I get back
to it?”
“There was a button here before and now it’s gone”
“Why does the Contact Us link keep moving all over the page as I move
through the site?”
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“27,153 search results! How do I find what I want?”
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“I’m getting errors…where do I go to fix them? How do I fix them?”
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“I am unable to tell if this content is current or outdated”
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“Why must I register on the site?”
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What are YOUR pet peeves?
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Facts:
◦ Most people don’t go beyond the first page of
search results when using search engines
◦ A 30% Bounce Rate is considered good
◦ You have about 3 seconds to convince the User that
your website is worth reviewing
◦ People spend 1-2 minutes on detail pages they care
about
Make visiting your website an enjoyable
and rewarding experience for your
Users.
 Happy customers are repeat customers!
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DEFINITION:
A Target Audience is the primary group of
Users that are or will become customers and
regularly access your information.
◦ Stakeholders may or may NOT be your target
audience
◦ If it’s an eCommerce site, these are the people who
will or have bought products
◦ You can’t please all of the people all of the time
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Step 1: Basic Usability Testing
Conduct 5 interviews of various types of Users
◦ Use this data to create Personas
◦ Have at least one person from each User Group
◦ Ideally observe these Users working on the current site to understand how they
interact with the content and where the challenges are
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Step 2: Taxonomy (Card Sort)
Organize your content into categories and sub-categories
◦ Use this data for your Categories and Keywords for content metadata tagging
◦ Use this data for creating the organization of your Structure Groups
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Step 3: Gap Analysis
Identify the issues/challenges that exist between how the website is set
up currently, and what the Users need it to do for them
◦ Use this data to create a list of improvements to make the website
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Better Organized
Easier to Navigate
Consistent
Searchable
Helpful
User-friendly
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“I can’t go back to the previous page”
“The website I was just on disappeared.
Where did it go? How do I get back to it?”
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“I can’t go back and correct what I typed in”
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Design Solution:
 Carefully design your navigation links to allow Users to move through the
site easily and efficiently; don’t rely on the browser’s buttons for your
website.
 Open files and other’s websites in a new browser window so Users can
always navigate back to your website.
 All types of forms should give the Users the option to skip a section, go
back to a section, and review and edit their input prior to submission.
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“I can’t find what I’m looking for”
“There is too much information on
this page.”
Design Solution:
 Don’t overload your audience with too much information per
page.
 Remove clutter.
 Present information in a consistent manner.
 Minimize the number of pages one must click through, but not
at the expense of a page that scrolls on and on.
 Always give User the option to “Browse” through your content or
“Jump” to the conversion.
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“There was a button here before and
now it’s gone”
“Why does the Contact Us link keep
moving all over the page as I move
through the site?”
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Design solution:
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 Streamline page layout throughout your site.
 Create a Master Template to be set as the global
parameters for all of your pages so they are consistent.
 Global Headers and Footers make maintaining that
consistency easy.
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“Why must I register on the site?”
“I know what I want, why are they making it so hard
for me to get to it?”
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Design solution:
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 Reduce the number of steps to the conversion.
 Only ask for the information you MUST have to allow for
hassle-free browsing.
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“27,153 search results! How do I find
what I want?”
“I have to start the search AGAIN!!! Why can’t it just
remember what I asked for?”
Design solution:
 Use terms you Users will likely use versus terms used within your
company, and avoid acronyms.
 Carefully design your taxonomy so the Categories and Keywords
you use to tag your Components will really help your Users find
what they are looking for.
 Offer Users advanced search features like filters and faceted
search so they can manually manipulate the data to drill down to
what they are looking for.
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“I’m getting errors…where do I go to fix
them? How do I fix them?”
“I am unable to tell if this content is current
or outdated”
“Who do I ask for help?”
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Design solution:
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Provide straightforward, easy-to-understand error messages.
Make sure that the placement of the error message will be easily visible by the
Users regardless of their device or screen size.
Provide timestamps on the content to indicate when it was last updated
Help the Users help themselves by giving them the tools to find answers and
contact the organization if they need to.
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Include contact information on every page
Provide a detailed FAQs page and an easy-to-find link to it
Provide Users a Feedback Form so they can communicate with you and provide
you with comments and suggestions
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Is all of your content organized into categories and sub-categories and
reflected in your navigation?
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Is your content concise and current?
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Are you using standardized templates and Global Headers/Footers to ensure
your navigation is consistent?
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Does your navigation allow Users to freely move from page to page, make
edits to forms, and always opens up a new browser window when a file or
another website is being accessed?
Is your Search intuitive to your Users (their language, technology level, geared
towards their needs), and provides them with the ability to fine-tune their
search results via filters, faceted search, etc.?
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Is your Contact Information easy to find and accessible from every page?
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When the information on a form is validated, are the error messages clearly
visible to the Users and explain what needs to be modified?
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Have you set up your website with the fewest number of barriers possible, by
only collecting the data you MUST have instead of what you want to have?
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Whenever possible, include time to observe a sample of Users doing usual
tasks on your website to see how they really interactive with the content
versus what your best guesses are.
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What are your challenges on your projects?
Michelle Chance, CEO
Ranked One, Inc.
571-933-3706
[email protected]
[email protected]
Where’s the Darn Button?
The Value of an Intuitive Interface
www.ranked-one.com
571-933-3706