Web Usability Blog

How we browse the web is determined by a number of different things: what we are trying to find, how high value our search query is, the sort of person that we are.

The number one piece of advice we can give anyone embarking on a user research project, is for you and your colleagues to watch it live, as it happens.

Accessibility is about universality, not disability. It is about making sure as many people as possible, no matter their physical location or ability, can access your content.

We sometimes come across clients who argue that they don’t need to do any UX testing because they undertake A/B or multivariate testing. They say that these approaches provide hard evidence of what actually works. It is hard to argue with “We made this change and there was a 10% uplift in sales”.

Having been approached by a large national charity to develop a new information architecture for their website, we were about to suggest a traditional user-centred approach - open card sorting followed by iterative testing of a prototype - when we learnt that the client had already experienced a card sorting exercise, along with usability testing, carried out by another agency.

Regardless of the industry a business operates in, the online user journey will most likely look significantly different today than it did at the start of March 2020. The user has relied perhaps more notably than ever on the digital experience. Equally the digital experience has adapted alongside the pandemic in response to remote working and increased time online in our own homes. This has prompted more sectors to be user-led and accessible; 2022 will hopefully be a year for expanding this further. So, what are the trends for 2022 to look out for and to adapt into your New Year digital goals? 

Usability testing is the best way to find out if your site is effective – that is, will it work with real users and help you achieve your online goals. Watching real users interacting with a site or app (both in development and live) is the best way to understand the issues that interfere with a good user experience; it also forces those with responsibility for the site or app to ‘walk in the users’ shoes’ – often an unsettling experience!

Facilitating usability testing can be a daunting prospect. How can I get through all these tasks, stay on time and listen to what the tester is saying?

We had to have a plumber round the other day. Watching him at work (and pestering him with plenty of annoying questions) it quickly became apparent how much of his knowledge was subconscious. Decades of grovelling around under sinks and fiddling with boilers had ingrained these skills and expertise so deep in his brain that he often couldn’t articulate precisely what he was doing.

In the ongoing pursuit for an inclusive online environment, the native accessibility features inbuilt into smartphones are a step in the right direction.  

The two major operating systems: Android and iOS, are constantly updating and expanding their features in response to the call for equal online access for all.