Web Usability Blog

Recently, we have spent a lot of time watching testers navigate their way around the smartphone apps of a well-known British newspaper. What is becoming increasingly apparent is the importance iconography has to play in a user’s experience of a site. With the growing dominance of smartphones and tablets, and the limited real estate these smaller devices offer, icons are especially important, when words will not fit. At times icons can be misleading or misunderstood but the rise in digital conventions is aiding a smoother UX experience in many mobile sites.

People use multiple devices to access the web – increasingly, they’ll refer to the same site at different times and in different contexts on different devices. So it’s important to ensure that they get a great user experience – whatever device they use, and regardless of whether it’s a responsive or adaptive design, or separate desktop and mobile sites. Just because desktop and tablet sites may look similar, it doesn’t mean people will use them in the same way – see the experience we describe in multi-device testing. The only way to check that people get a great experience – and which will build and reinforce your brand values – is to undertake user testing with real representative users.
Smart companies undertake user testing on desktop/laptop, tablet and smartphone devices – and we’ve got a lot of smart clients: here are some of the things we’ve been working on:

We have recently taken delivery of a Microsoft Surface tablet and a couple of touch screen monitors. For Peter, our director, it was like Christmas had come early. Delivery day saw him happily ripping opening packaging and focusing completely on his new toys. We could have asked him for 100% pay-rises and a week off work and he would have agreed.

I am a recent addition to the World of Web Usability and quickly getting to grips with the complexities of UX research. One of the first projects I worked on required us to user test a complex financial site aimed at personal investors. As a recent graduate, with a small mountain of debt and minimal income this is, unsurprisingly, an area I have little knowledge of.

Web Usability is a specialist UX agency – this is all we do. We don’t design or build websites, provide SEO or other services: we focus on understanding the user experience and providing advice to make sites more effective.

User research isn’t only useful in identifying issues on a site, but a great way to change the way in which an organisation works and thinks about their customers. Web Usability worked with Cancer Research UK to design their new masthead Information Architecture, and with their skills and expertise conducted several workshops, each with up to 30 key stakeholders to gain buy in and support for their site strategy.

Think about user goals and put yourself in their shoes. Provide usable and useful content.

• Why go mobile?
• Mobile sites
• Why have a mobile site compared with an app?
• Apps
• Why have an app compared with a mobile site?
• Why not have both?
• Combining mobile and traditional channels
• Conclusion
• References

Download this article in PDF format

• Why use a faceted search?
• Pitfalls
• Current trends
• Faceted search across different sectors
• Position of faceted search
• Number of facets
• Type of facets
• Facet selection method
• Displaying results
• Breadcrumbs
• Variations
• Faceted search and usability
• Conclusion
• References

We were delighted to hear recently that one of our private sector clients has achieved a fourfold improvement in purchase conversion rates, which translates into a significant increase in the bottom line, after the implementation of recommendations from usability testing undertaken by Web Usability. This is tangible evidence of the power of usability testing to both improve the user experience and yield considerable return on investment for site owners; it also reinforces the finding in the Econsultancy Conversion Report  that survey respondents whose conversion had improved over the last 12 months carried out on average three times more website tests than those whose conversion had not improved.