Recently, several colleagues and I were invited by professor Philip Greenspun of MIT to join a panel critiquing the students' final projects in his course, "Software Engineering for Internet Applications." Teams of students worked with real-world clients, for whom they envisioned and produced sophisticated web applications.

Their work was impressive. The sites revealed a solid understanding of the intricacies of web application design, and strong mastery of the technology. However, we felt that some projects had overlooked promising opportunities from the usability perspective. Specifically, in several cases, usability would have been strengthened through greater awareness of users' cognitive and emotional perspectives when interacting with the software.

The students are not alone in the critical omission of the user. Many companies mistake technologically robust solutions for usable solutions, and this confusion can result in sites with laundry lists of mismatched features. Common errors include user registration requirements with little clear benefit; screens that are visually difficult to follow; and confusing task flows. All these errors can translate into user frustration and eventual drop-off.

User-Experience Focus
While a site may meet a company's technological objectives, it may fail to deliver value to users. In order to deliver websites that fulfill technological requirements, while also providing users with compelling reasons to visit, clients must focus on user experience early on. Focusing on user experience maximizes the impact of the time and money spent, and can greatly improve user adoption.

The following points can help software developers think beyond the technical capabilities, and design technical solutions from an end-user perspective:

• Develop clearly articulated business objectives for the site.
• Understand the targeted end-users, in order to best fulfill their needs.
• Use elements of style to make the site more useful.
  

Develop Clearly Articulated Business Objectives
As a first step, a company must articulate the website's purpose. It must clarify the site's value, and define how that value will be delivered. This influences the entire website direction, and helps determine the most appropriate mix of substance (i.e. content, functionality) and style (i.e. tone, personality).

One tactic for defining value is to develop a "Promise" for the site. This Promise--a concise articulation of expectations determined by both user needs and business requirements--guides the site's ongoing development. A sample Promise might be:
This site is a centralised, global repository of market-focused information that promises to enable informed decision-making and foster innovation throughout our company.

Each of the key words (repository, market-focused, informed decision-making, foster, innovation) has larger design, process, text, tenor, and technology implications. All subsequent site design--words, visuals, interface, or code--is driven by this Promise.

How does this tactic apply to what we saw at MIT? Here's an example: Many projects we saw required users to log in, but didn't provide a compelling benefit to the registered user. While a company might be interested in knowing who is visiting the site and establishing a one-to-one relationship with users, the site must deliver specific value in return for registering to avoid alienating users. Only by providing carefully crafted, useful features, in-depth information, and focused service to those who register can sites demand registration.

Understand the Users
Companies developing intranet sites typically tend to focus on their organisational chart for site architecture, instead of the task flows that are typically followed by its various users. Today, intranet site users have little training, and even less patience for poor usability, so a top-down strategy can deter large user segments. To encourage site adoption, companies must understand the tasks its users need to perform, and why.

Think in terms of stimulus and response: if a company wants to elicit a particular response from the user, what stimulus can it provide to encourage that response? The site must ensure that the needs and expectations of each user type are addressed in the site's structure, features, information, and navigation.

While it is impossible to meet the needs of all users all the time, a site can meet the needs of most of the users most of the time. This is done by "modelling" the most critical users of a site. What information/features would these types of users need? What would entice them to visit? How frequently would they visit? Effective modelling can help designers make good decisions about site structure and navigation.

Site functionality (registration, search, etc.) must operate as efficiently as possible. Each screen should indicate clearly where to go, and all assumptions should be validated through user testing. Transactions should flow smoothly from start to finish without any unnecessary steps and/or screens. For instance, a leading package-shipping company knows that most users come to their site primarily to ship or track a package. Logically, the options to Ship or Track a package are the first navigation options on the homepage.

Use elements of style 
Often companies tend to focus purely on functionality, thinking of style as a cosmetic issue. This can render the site a lifeless tool, devoid of sensory interest (i.e., visual, audio, touch, etc.). This approach can compromise site usability and desirability, making it difficult and uninteresting to use.

On the other hand, many sites are over-styled with bells and whistles that cloud the site's true purpose. These sites can be cumbersome, with heavy page weights and long load times. This in turn can frustrate users, and deter them from returning.

To prevent either situation, a site can benefit by using style elements that enhance navigation, information, structure, and the company's brand. The following tips will help you ensure that a site is not only useful, but usable and desirable as well:

• The site should use language understood by all targeted users. Writing style should be engaging, easy to understand, and appropriate to the intended audience. Likewise, the site's tone of voice should encourage users to continue the transaction, while feeling confident and secure.
• Images, animation, sound, and video should add value. Some sites have a plethora of sounds, animations, etc. just because it's possible. These features make the site clunky and difficult to use. Also, from a maintenance perspective, these elements can be problematic to modify and update. Quantitative and qualitative usability research indicates that users are annoyed by gratuitous animation and sound. However, effective use of audio and animations can enhance the overall site experience.
• Type, color, and imagery should be used consistently from screen to screen, making the relationship between elements clear. Each screen should provide visual cues to help users readily understand where to go and what to do next. Pages should contain sufficient visual cues to distinguish between more and less important items, and to show location within the site. Many of the MIT projects provided scope for the introduction of text formatting for prioritisation and increased usability. In many cases, extensive and consistent typography and color for headlines, subheads, and titles could have provided visual cues without adding undue page weight.

By taking some of these factors into account, Greenspun's teams may be able to further increase the usability and desirability of their already-impressive, highly useful applications.

February 2003

Vineet Thapar
Boston Experience Lead at Razorfish, Inc