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The Freelance Studio Denver, Co. User Experience Agency How To Use The System Usability Scale (SUS) To Evaluate The Usability Of Your Website July 13, 2015 by Nathan Thomas 3 Comments sus-system-usability-scale-evaluate-usability Is your website usable? If your job depends on getting a definite answer to this question, then you should start using the System Usability Scale. The System Usability Scale (SUS) was invented by John Brooke who, in 1986, created this ‘quick and dirty’ usability scale to evaluate practically any kind of system. The SUS has been tried and tested throughout almost 30 years of use, and has proven itself to be a dependable method of evaluating the usability of systems compared to industry standards. Why The System Usability Scale Beats the Competition Quick to administer and cheap to start using, particularly online, the System Usability Scale is one of the most efficient ways of gathering statistically valid data and giving your website a clear and reasonably precise score. Compared to other tests, the System Usability Scale is: Cheaper: It’s a short quiz that doesn’t require a lot of resources to administer, so very useful if you’re constrained by budget but still need good info fast Quicker: The SUS template already exists (see below) so all the hard work has been done for you. Rather than researching and designing a brand new study, just copy, paste, tweak and you’re away. The kicker is that despite being cheaper and faster than many other tests out there, the System Usability Scale is still valid – it measures what it sets out to measure and has shown itself time and time again to be solid and dependable. How to Administer the System Usability Scale The System Usability Scale is a Likert Scale which includes 10 questions which users of your website will answer. Participants will rank each question from 1 to 5 based on how much they agree with the statement they are reading. 5 means they agree completely, 1 means they disagree vehemently. Here are the 10 template questions which you can adapt to suit your website: I think that I would like to use this system frequently. I found the system unnecessarily complex. I thought the system was easy to use. I think that I would need the support of a technical person to be able to use this system. I found the various functions in this system were well integrated. I thought there was too much inconsistency in this system. I would imagine that most people would learn to use this system very quickly. I found the system very cumbersome to use. I felt very confident using the system. I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with this system. This means that each question placed next to the Likert scale will look as below: Sample statement from SUS (Source) Sample statement from SUS (Source) To see a live demo of the System Usability Scale in action: click here How to Calculate Your Usability Score using SUS If complex mathematics isn’t your idea of a good time, don’t worry. Although adding up the score of the System Usability Scale can be tricky, we’ve created a simple Excel spreadsheet that will do if for you, automatically. In case you’re interested and because it helps to understand the process, here’s an overview of the method used in finding your SUS score. Your users will have ranked each of the 10 templates questions above from 1 to 5, based on their level of agreement. For each of the odd numbered questions, subtract 1 from the score. For each of the even numbered questions, subtract their value from 5. Take these new values which you have found, and add up the total score. Then multiply this by 2.5. The result of all these tricky calculations is that you now have your score out of 100. This is NOT a percentage, but it is a clear way of seeing your score. Rather than sweating away doing it yourself though, use this spreadsheet we created to calculate your score automatically. Simply plug in your numbers where the example values are, and the machine will do the rest. What Your SUS Score Means Compared to Industry Standards The System Usability Scale is not diagnostic and will not tell you what specific problems you face, but it will give you a red or green light to know how badly your usability needs work. The average System Usability Scale score is 68. If your score is under 68, then there are probably serious problems with your website usability which you should address. If your score is above 68, then you can relax a little bit. Here’s an overview of how your scores should measure: 80.3 or higher is an A. People love your site and will recommend it to their friends 68 or thereabouts gets you a C. You’re doing OK but could improve 51 or under gets you a big fat F. Make usability your priority now and fix this fast. Some Ways to Use the SUS to Evaluate Your Website The most basic way to use the SUS is to get a quick and clear judgement about the usability of your website. This works by asking your users to: First experience your website, and then Second participate in the SUS. sus-system-usability-scale-evaluate-usability-people How to Use the SUS to Compare to Different Designs A more advanced way to use the SUS is to compare different designs. If you’re debating which layout or style to go with for a new website, using this method will help you know with reasonable certainty which option will deliver the best usability to your users. This works by asking one half of your users or sample group to experience version A of your website, and take the SUS after experiencing that version, and a separate half of your users to experience version B of your website, and take the SUS after experiencing that version. Group One → Experiences Version One → Evaluates Version One with SUS Group Two → Experiences Version Two → Evaluates Version Two with SUS sus-system-usability-scale-evaluate-usability-evaluation Simply compare the scores; the version with the highest SUS score wins. Other Ways to Evaluate the Usability Of Your Website The System Usability Scale is an example of a test level satisfaction questionnaire. The advantages of SUS is that it is comparatively quick, easy and inexpensive, whilst still being a reliable way of gauging usability. There are also several other options which you can use to judge the usability of your website, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Here are some Alternative Questionnaires Qualtrics has a list of 5 customer satisfaction surveys. Most of these can be adapted without too much difficulty to suit the purpose of evaluating the UX of a website. Adrian Garcia recommends using SUMI – Software Usability Measurement Inventory – a lengthy 50 question quiz which takes more resources to administer but gives you more information that the SUS. The SUPR-Q – Standardized User Experience Percentile Rank Questionnaire – is a 13 question quiz that will evaluate your website based on four factors: usability, trust & credibility, appearance and loyalty. QUIS – The Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction – is more diagnostic than SUS and will help guide you if you are considering a redesign of your website. Resources to Help You Get Started The System Usability Scale and the tests above will help you get a definite grade for the usability of your website. Rather than guessing, you’ll know exactly how well you are doing benchmarked against industry standards. To help get started, check out these resources: Live Demo of the SUS in Action – experience the System Usability Scale from the perspective of a user SUS Calculator – a spreadsheet to automatically calculate your SUS score without the need for mind bending mathematics If you would like to read John Brooke’s research papers about the System Usability Scale, here are two links retrieved from Usability.gov: SUS: A Quick and Dirty Usability Scale [MS Word Document]. SUS: A Retrospective [PDF]. Armed with the SUS and the tools mentioned in this article, you’ll be able to gauge the usability of your website in a fairly accurate manner. (Lead image source: Alan Levine) Smartwatch UX Design – The Top Considerations July 23, 2015 by Zev Ginzburg 0 Comments smartwatch-ux-design One of the most noticeable implementations of the Internet of Things is the smartwatch. We are actually past the dawn of the smartwatch and have entered a period of refinement. The next few generations of smartwatches will undoubtedly possess even more rigorously designed screens and, most importantly, drastic improvements to battery life. Smartwatch Hardware Incorporations The hardware used in smartwatches is diverse. Apple seems to be a major player. However, the market has seen LG, Samsung, Motorola, and Huawei come out with Android Wear products. Designing and developing for each is totally different. Becoming familiar with their respective styles means investing in the necessary research. Apple’s WatchKit provides extensive recommendations for interactions between users, devices, and wearables. This arrangement is a factorial of three, so accounting for each interaction is crucial. With Apple, there is less to be concerned about because the screen ratio is equal across all devices. For Android, there are many more challenges, but the advantage is that the market has a better price point on the devices, so the user pool is potentially much greater. That Software Though Apple doesn’t have a search engine yet, but many industry insiders believe it will be slowly rolled out over the next year or two. This is important when considering design and development for smartwatches. Siri is not a search engine itself. It is simply a mediator between a user’s thought and the web. The drawback is that Siri has to take that extra step to input a query into an engine, and then filter through results to provide the user with the best possible answer. On the other hand, Google Now has the advantage of using a direct query, because it is integrated with Google Search much more densely. Then again, Google Search does not make the extra effort to integrate with an Apple device assistant. The difference is thus obvious – Siri is more human like, and Google Now doesn’t attempt to be human or your friend, it just outputs. smartwatch-ux-design-motorola The Moto 360 smartwatch (Source: IKnowToday) A good user experience should ideally blend with human familiarity, but its more important to reduce the steps a user takes to complete a task. Search is just one component in the usability of smartwatches that is adapting to it’s own principles. Following design guides is crucial for both Apple’s and Google’s smartwatch operating systems. Android Wear does not support the same mechanical features like Apple Watch’s crown. For the most part, other than the power button, its all on­screen. So if a user’s finger is roughly a third to a half of the screen size, an app needs to follow suit to accommodate that. When it comes to notifications, except for phone calls, Android Wear heavily utilizes the Google Card overlay. The card overlay attempts to be recognizable and similar across platforms: desktops, mobile, and ultra mobile (the smartwatch). Apple provides a little less room, but the UX is very similar to iMessage: smartwatch-ux-design-apple-watch-imessage Voice messaging on the Apple Watch (Source: The Verge) On Android Wear, Google’s material design chooses function over form, displaying the most pertinent information possible: smartwatch-ux-android-wear Hangouts on the Android Wear (Source: Android Community) It is all in the Wrist There is no generally intuitive nature for gesture controls on smartwatches, except for one: bringing the watch into eyesight. Everything else is new. With such a small screen size, gestures like pinch­to­zoom, or double­tap will probably not work on most apps. Designing around this means sacrificing lots of features. Distilling these features is a feat all unto itself. In order to take full advantage of one of the few intuitive gestures for ultra-mobile implementations, smartwatch interface designers have sought to offer a means of expanding on the platform’s inherently limited functionality. Remember, the primary function of a smartwatch is to serve as a “satellite accessory” to a user’s smartphone. As such, an effective smartwatch implementation ought to display only the most relevant information, then direct the user to their smartphone for more information. smartwatch-ux-design-apple-watch-handoff Apple Watch “Handoff” (Source: iMore) smartwatch-ux-android-wear-open Android Wear “Open on Phone” (Source: Make Tech Easier) Apple Watch users have come to know the seamless transfer of information between portable and ultra portable devices as the “Handoff,” while Android Wear users know this simply as the button that suggests, “Open on Phone.” Both major ecosystems have numerous apps that take advantage of the unique interactivity paradigm created by the introduction of the smartwatch. There are a number of messaging, navigation, and fitness apps that particularly excel in this area. To name a few apps on Google’s platform that take exceptional advantage of the “Open on Phone” function: Hangouts, Uber, Google Fit, Skype, Evernote, and IFTTT. On Apple’s platform: Target, American Airlines, Nike+ Running, Instagram, and MLB.com At Bat. When designing for one of the two major smartwatch platforms, it is important to take full advantage of the interactivity between the smartphone and the smartwatch. Consider the intuitiveness of looking at one’s wrist to acquire relevant information, and weigh that against the perceived hassle of taking one’s phone out to do the same. A productive UX design ought to find a balance between the two. All By Myself As with any platform there are standalone apps for both Apple Watch and Android Wear, such as calculators, compasses, timers, stopwatches, alarms, and of course, a clock. As each ecosystem continues to grow, the number of standalone apps is sure to rise. Standalone apps ought to address the core functionality of the smartwatch, which is to keep time, while taking full advantage of the technological developments that have allowed the watch to become “smart.” Think about this all the Time When designing for either platform, UX designers ought to keep in mind the various usability requirements, and new functionalities, brought about with the introduction of the smartwatch. The decrease in screen real estate has made the size of a “touch target” a very important consideration. Likewise, the role of the smartwatch as a “satellite device” is an important factor when designing apps. Keeping all of these factors in mind when designing the user experience of an app is crucial to the design of a successful smartwatch UX. (Lead image source: LWYang) Related Posts ux-stock-photos-interview-curatorUX And Stock Photos: An Interview With A Curatorux-enterprise-iotUX For Enterprise: Using IoT To Design Integrated Systems For The Workplaceux-in-mvpThe Art Of UX In MVPcustomer-experience-user-experience-differenceCustomer Experience vs. User Experience: What’s The Difference? Filed Under: Guidelines Tagged With: Android, Apple, User Experience, Wearable Technology Share This Post 137 inShare About Zev Ginzburg Zev Ginzburg is Codal’s resident UX Researcher. His responsibilities include taking the vision of a client’s idea and conveying this to managed resources at home and abroad. Producing technical specifications for developers is a crucial ​first s​tep in mobile development, and development overall. Codal is a global and full circle solution for mobile development. Based in Chicago, we develop on an agile process for iOS, Android, and provide services in tech strategy and web dev. With a robust UX research process, we help create the ideas of today into the solutions of tomorrow. 4 Tools For A Successful Usability Test July 27, 2015 by Tracy Vides 1 Comment tools-usability-test In this day and age of instant gratification, usability testing is often relegated to crisis situations when a website or an app does not perform to expectations. However, ask any conversion optimization expert and they’ll tell you that usability testing is not a complicated afterthought. It’s a necessary precursor to the launch of every successful online property. While it is imperative that you perform usability tests before launch, existing websites and apps can also stand to gain big by discovering usability loopholes and efficiency sinks. Here’s a step by step walk-through to build your very own usability test along with a snapshot of the tools that will help your test succeed. Before we begin though, here is a small but important disclaimer. This article mentions tools that I have personally used to conduct usability tests. May I clearly state that this should not be regarded as a promotional endeavor and none of the software development companies behind these tools have been involved or contacted for the selection process for this article. Simply put, these are just some great tools that I use and would like to share with you. That being said, the tools mentioned in this article are not the only ones that are available. In fact, we have previously published a comprehensive list of user experience tools that you can use, and, because we have always maintained that testing need not be an expensive task, we have also published a list of usability testing tools when on a budget. Now back to the article … Step 1: Define Testing Objectives and Create a Project Why do you need to do a usability test? What are you trying to achieve? Is there a specific part of your website or app that needs scrutiny? Are you trying to solve a specific user problem? Which tasks need to be tested for their interaction experience? All of these are legitimate questions that need answering before you can plunge into a usability testing session. Once you know the objectives of the test, you need a plan of what you’re going to do to implement it, which teams are going to be involved, what aspects of your website or app need improvements before testing is carried out and so on. I rely on a multi-faceted collaborative (and free!) project management tool, Bitrix24. Bitrix24 allows you to do each of the tasks listed above with fluency and a whole lot more. tools-usability-test-bitrix24 From collaborating with your entire team on building a testing plan, to creating a step by step Gantt chart for the test process, sharing data between your testing team members, creating checklists of things to do, assigning responsibility among team members to storing data and files related to your usability tests; Bitrix24 covers the entire gamut of project management and collaboration needs. What I love about this tool is that it offers a host of applications beyond usability testing needs. There’s a dedicated social network for your team and company. Bitrix’s instant messaging and video chat feature rivals the best in the business. With over 35 dedicated tools rolled into one versatile platform, Bitrix is a tempting free tool for startups looking for an efficient in-house communications and productivity platform. Step 2: Build a Test Prototype / Wireframe Now that you have narrowed down what your testing goals are and defined the path to achieving those goals, you need to create a prototype or wireframe of your app / website so users can test it out. Fidelity is key for choosing whether to prototype or wireframe. Now, many of you may wonder why you need to invest more resources into building a prototype, when users can test the final version of your website directly. The reason is simple. By testing a prototype instead of the final product, you’re pre-empting any major design flaws or usability issues that might crop up when it is too late or too expensive to undo those errors. A prototype is quicker and cheaper to build, offers developers the option of exploring multiple variants of the final product at a fraction of the cost of the final version and provides a platform to iterate and create a finished, final product. Justinmind is a simple and extremely flexible (did I mention free?) wire-framing tool that you can use to build rich prototypes with a simple drag and drop interface. Unlike many others on the market, this tool allows you to build clickable prototypes that can be used in a real world usability test. tools-usability-test-justinmind Justinmind lets you build an unlimited number of prototypes and variants for each use case scenario, while allowing you to embed HTML code, widgets, images and videos into your prototype as you go along. I especially fancy their extensive library of readymade widgets, templates, buttons and forms that you can incorporate into your prototypes with just a click. Step 3: Recruit Test Participants and Conduct Tests With a testing plan and a working prototype, you are already halfway there. Since the proof of the pudding lies in the eating, you now need to find the right test participants to test your prototype and carry out your tests as impartially as possible. How you find test participants depends on the type of product you’re handling and the size of audience your specific test needs to be statistically significant. The best kind of test participant is one who is a part of the actual target audience for your product. There are various ways on how you can recruit participants for usability testing. You can recruit them from research company panels, from among real visitors to your website, paid participants whose profile matches that of your target audience and so on. Once you identify the test participants, you can then invite them via email. I prefer using UserTesting for this step. For me it is hands down one of the easiest and most efficient means of recruiting the ideal participants for your test as well as for administering the test efficiently. This usability testing tool allows you to pick your desired test participants based on age, location, sex, familiarity with your product, income levels, online habits, and more. tools-usability-test-usertesting You can design your own tests using your prototypes and administer them to the pre-selected audience via this tool. UserTesting provides you with videos of users interacting with your prototype, comments they make as they use it, stumbling blocks faced by them, and net promoter scores for your prototype. All of this comes within an hour of launching your test and at an attractive price of $39 per video. Step 4: Collect Data and Analyze Results While most testing platforms will offer you a summary of each test participant’s experience with your prototype, detailed questions regarding the product, difficulties they faced, suggestions on improvements etc. cannot be obtained without directly interacting with the participants. Invest in post-test session questionnaires with your test participants and probe them to know more about their experience with your product or prototype. In tests that are administered face to face, you can rely on verbal questions and get your answers on the spot. However, a large number of usability tests are remotely administered and testers are not in direct contact with the business owners. In such a scenario, it is necessary to create a quick, but incisive questionnaire (or use an established post-test session questionnaire such as the System Usability Scale) that reveals the critical aspects of the test that are not revealed by the testing tool and test video. My tool of choice for this final step is SurveyGizmo. This robust survey tool allows you to build your own surveys from scratch or pick from their vast library of sample survey templates. You have the option of creating your own rating scales, skip logic, personalized survey design and branding and the like. tools-usability-test-surveygizmo SurveyGizmo collects responses that are available to you in real time with detailed analysis, charts and reporting features. Reports can be exported out of the tool in CSV, PDF, PowerPoint or SPSS and examined further to uncover insights about your usability tests and problem areas that need your attention. Parting Thought Usability testing helps you fix problems much before they manifest in the real world. It reduces both the development as well as the support costs by assessing the real usage of your website or application using real users (or a representative sample). As can be seen in this article, a number of tools are readily available for free or at a minimal cost in order to facilitate the testing process. Now that’s a practice worth the time, don’t you think? (Lead image source: Thomas Link) Unleashing Mobile Gesture UX August 3, 2015 by Gil Toledo 1 Comment unleashing-mobile-gesture-ux With mobile visitors creating an ever-growing traffic source to websites these days, mobile-centric problems arise for those seeking to engage their users with this new medium. With it this new traffic, engagement metrics are not on par with desktop. Pages per session, time spent, and various other popular metrics, seem to fall short of the desktop benchmark. So why not find other ways to design interaction for content sites, based on a mobile first approach of Gestures, which fit perfectly with the concept? If apps can do it, so should web. And in some way, web pages on mobile already react to taps and scrolls, swipes and pinches. But First, the Definition of Gesture ges·ture (Source – Oxford Dictionaries) ˈjesCHər noun plural: gestures a movement of part of the body, especially a hand or the head, to express an idea or meaning. “Alex made a gesture of apology” synonyms: signal, sign, motion, indication, gesticulation; show “a gesture of surrender” verb 3rd person present: gestures make a gesture. “she gestured meaningfully with the pistol” on mobile phones: screen gesture An action with a finger on a mobile device screen to indicate intent. Tap, Zoom, Scroll, Swipe “Swipe left, I like her!” “ooohhh, scroll down i need to see more” From Clicking To Tapping Touchscreens have changed the input method for interacting with our mobile devices. Once we evolved beyond the Nokia bricks and the Palm Pilots, multi touch paved the way to use screens for direct interaction. It’s a new experience that has given us the ability to interact more intimately with our (relatively) tiny devices. We’re doing much more, with fairly less, in a natural and familiar way. So it’s no surprise that young children adopt touchscreens so fast. Here’s a few examples of what gestures do on mobile screens and browsers: Selecting a text: brings up tools that relate to a piece of text we select with a tap action. Pinching: Zooming in or out on pages and their different elements. Scrolling: view/scan/read information/content, moving the page up and down and increasing the view space on the browser. Swiping: moves us from section to section or from item to item, and can be used to move between back and forward. Findings From Our Study Surveying about 5000+ sites, a recent analysis I made on our data set at errnio, which is basically an add-on which let’s web publishers control gesture interactions, shows a lot of gestures. Mobile users browse 5-10 mobile websites a day, our network data shows that an average user performs 10-15 gestures with every visit to a mobile page. Obviously, Scroll is the gesture performed the most, but other gestures are not far behind, and we were initially very surprised by how many zooms or text selections are performed. Here’s an average displacement for 100 sessions: 200 scrolls 60 swipes 100 zooms 50 long taps I’ll note that it’s a matter of determining how to measure each gesture, and we hardly measure all of them to the pixel, but i’ve yet to find a proper study about this. Would be great to get some feedback on this in the future from a reliable source. We also confirm industry wide figures about mobile traffic and interaction: Approximately 40% of traffic to sites is mobile Time spent on mobile sites is 50% less than desktop 30% less pages are seen per visit session on mobile What’s interesting is the connection between this low mobile site performance, and the potential for interaction through gestures. A lot of use can be made to circulate content, enhance discovery, and engage users with actions. iOS and Android Behavior Here are some examples of what two of the major browsers do with our physical actions, and how they react in turn. iOS Using Safari Browser The iOS default browser began it all. We may now see these gestures as perfectly banal and mundane yet some of them might be less recognized. Swipe: Back/next page Zoom: Zoom entire page. Select: Engages a simple button toolbar with items such as copy and define, which is being enhanced with a share feature on iOS9. Scroll down: Minimize the top and bottom bar to an almost fullscreen experience. Scroll up: Returns the popular search and tools items at the top and bottom of the browser. mobile-gesture-ux-ios-safari Android Using Google Chrome Browser Select: The main difference here lies in the visual. As opposed to the buttons on iOS, selection on chrome reveals a toolbar with clipping options at the top. Scroll down: Minimizes the top bar to an almost fullscreen experience. Scroll up: Returns the popular search and tools items at the top and bottom of the browser. mobile-gesture-ux-android-chrome Do More We can extend the gestures’ use and set of actions to let the publisher and website control these. Android and iOS attach an action to those gestures to improve the user experience … so why not piggy back? Here is an example: An obvious gesture is that of long tapping and text, and selecting it for the purpose of copying. On Google Chrome running on Android, upon text selection, not only will you get the copy action but also a toolbar offering more (one might say too much) actions like search, share, etc. Publishers / designers / product managers can do a lot better, and customize these gestures to fit the required action or intent on the website. We assume the users want to either search or copy the selected text, and mostly for the purpose of searching and using the information. They usually do this outside of the site once they copy it. Here’s a way of bringing the information and the actions to them. We can use the selected text to bring information from Wikipedia in this case, and also provide useful follow on searches. As we’re assuming the user is focused on the text, we can make use of the peripheral space of the screen for this information. In the case above, a definition is brought in from Wikipedia, which can be made to fit the semantic comprehension of the text. It’s not always a perfect fit, but there are ways to deal with it. The added value is that you don’t have users leaving the site when reading this. In addition, offering related items below that selection presents a way of circulating recommended content or possible offers, which make use of this space for the better. Imagine engaging users with an enhanced experience on each gesture, with a relevant action for each intended direction. Mobile phones have evolved from a brick to a supercomputer powered by our fingers. Mobile apps have evolved from a flat operational UX to a multi-gesture platform where each app can customize gestures for their use. Mobile web can and will evolve to harness the power of gestures so users are be able to better interact with sites in context of what their fingers are saying. Gestures can open up a whole new engagement platform that is less intrusive and more tailor made for mobile web publishers. There are serviceable frameworks which can help in achieving these design goals, and a fair bit of coding. There are also challenges that go into designing the right design language per device, OS, platform or browser. These are all dimensions to think about when applying a design like this, and different verticals may require more nuanced approaches. Overall, the main game we’re hinting at here is that you can create more interactions, which leverage native mobile behavior to achieve better results and friendlier UX. (Lead image source: Judit Klein) Making UX Research Usable August 10, 2015 by Keval Baxi 0 Comments ux-research-usable An end user rarely takes into account the diversity of the User Experience Design process when they reap its benefits. To be proficient in UX Design is to be proficient in a dozen other disciplines – namely user research, interaction design, information architecture, and visual design, among others. It is precisely for this reason that, while all UX designers ought to have an adequate understanding of UX design in its entirety, they often specialize in a particular part of the process. User Experience Research and Information Architecture specialists are fundamentally linked by the importance of organizing data in a way that is easily accessible by users. The Researcher’s Role UX Research describes the practice of determining and understanding user needs, motivations, and behaviors through a wide range of feedback methodologies. UX Research serves to make the IA process, indeed the entire UX process, more tailored to the specific usability requirements of the target audience. ux-research-usable-guide User ­Centered Design Process Map (Source) There are numerous methods for conducting User Research. Some of these are as follows: Contextual Interviews Interviews are a goldmine for researchers, but those who explore with the intention of finding something usually do. It is the explorers job to be on the lookout for the unexpected. In any UX manual, chances are one will encounter a great deal of literature on the importance of planning. While planning is the critical aspect before an interview, seldom do the researchers plan for the unplannable, or at the very least accommodate for it. First Click Testing In order to craft a highly usable navigation overlay, First Click Testing ought to be performed on either a wireframe, prototype, or functional website. First Click Testing gives the researcher insight into the effectiveness of the linking structure of your application or website. Participants who click down the wrong path on the first click are not likely to complete their task successfully, with a success rate of approximately 46%. Heuristic Evaluation/Expert Review Heuristic Evaluations bring usability experts onto a project for the purpose of reviewing and evaluating the project’s interface in terms of its closeness to accepted industry standards of usability. Some of the factors that can be addressed by a Heuristic Analysis are: The visibility of system status The ability of a user to maintain control and freedom The consistency of a project with accepted standards Recognition vs Recollection The use of aesthetics and minimalism Ease of access to help and documentation Ease of diagnosis of, and recovery from, errors The efficiency of the system in place The capacity in which a build, design, project, or partnership can be compliant is reliant on those in the industry that set the standards. Incorporating these principles, most notably documented by Nielsen, can greatly mitigate any issues in compliance. System Usability Scale (SUS) Through the use of the SUS, UX Researchers are able to determine a baseline measurement for the general usability of the project in question. Users fill out a 10 item questionnaire, based on which the SUS provides a number from 1­ to 100 which may be used by a UX Researcher to interpret a normalized, tentative percentile of “usability.” Task Analysis Conducting research prior to task analysis is where the sun really shines. A client comes with an idea and the research has to mold it into tools and materials for the build. Task analysis post­ research ought to be quick and retrospective. It is not a time for implementing new tasks or functions. Execution: The link between Research and Information Architecture Information Architects fill a crucial role in the UX process, and are responsible for the flow of information in a particular system, such as an app or website. IA builds on the information accumulated during the UX Research phase, by using it to optimize the findability and usability of a data structure. Information Architecture is typically discussed in terms that describe the three layers that separate users from the data present in a given system. Information as metadata Information structure or organization Findability of information Insofar as UX Design is concerned with the ability of a system to facilitate and simplify the engagement of a user, Information Architecture serves to aid in the maximization of the “findability” of information. Thus, the three fundamental aspects of IA are typically addressed in a manner which aids in the process of sculpting information across a system. In order to present the information on an application or website in a way that is findable, it must be structured and organized at a low level, such as through the use of descriptive metadata. This is an Information Architects’ bread and butter, so to speak. Consider adding focus to the UX Research phase UX Designers who really want their User Experience to shine through the crowd of merely adequate applications and websites, ought to ensure that there is sufficient focus on UX Research. Determining the precise needs and expectations of a user, and producing a resultant Information Architecture that fully addresses these needs and expectations is one of the fundamental goals of UX Design. In order to do so, consider implementing some of the techniques outlined in this article, and do some extensive research of your own into the fundamentals of User Research. The Difference Between UX And UI Design August 17, 2015 by Amanda Cline 2 Comments difference-ux-and-ui How many times have we heard the statement that ‘web design is dead?’ While catchy, it stems from the fact that the profession that what was once referred to as ‘web design’ nowadays doesn’t consist of a single skill (design) but actually encompasses a number of skills – so many skills that it is practically impossible and not feasible to employ a single person to do the entire job. Not just this. A web design professional would need to understand the needs of the industry sectors they are working in – be it the printing industry, a technology firm or the manufacturing sector. Considering the recent influx of technology-oriented companies focusing on creation of great user interfaces for mobile screens, it has become imperative to realize what your role as a ‘web designer’ entails. In this scenario we no longer find job opportunities for a ‘web designer’ but rather one would find job profiles requiring the services of a UX or UI designer. Unfortunately (and this is where the problems start), these terms are very often used interchangeably, adding to the confusion of prospective job applicants. Learning the key differences between the terms User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) is beneficial in settling down for the right job role. This is exactly what I will be discussing in this article. I will first be discussing UX and UI separately, thus allowing you to grab a better understanding of the two ‘web design’ terms. Now, get into your learning shoes and read on! Understanding UX (User Experience) Design User Experience, abbreviated as UX is the area of web design wherein the professional works on enhancing the whole experience that a user has with a company, its products or services. Speaking in terms of a website, this essentially means that UX includes aspects such as the website’s content, the systems that support it, its structure, and its design (yes that also means but is not limited to, the User Interface). A good user experience would translates to customer satisfaction and loyalty by taking measures for improving the site’s ease of use, usability and interaction between product and end user. Knowing the Responsibilities of a UX Designer Popular as “Designing for Emotion” UX (User Experience) is something that cannot be ignored. It isn’t surprising to know that people tend to get emotional about a particular design. Thus, the user experience designer would be concerned with understanding the site’s users (and potential users), creating personas, determining user stories, developing prototypes and carrying out user testing. For instance, if you navigate across the product pages of the popular emailing marketing solution company MailChimp, you will find yourself in a whole new world that comprises of step by step guides which will walk you through everything that the company has in store for you. You can find examples and handy tips on improving the forms or forms behaviour after you’ve started using the MailChimp service. With eye-catchy reminders popping up on your monitor, you will never forget anything crucial that needs to be done in order to promote products/services via email marketing. This is just one example of how a company did not just offer a properly-functioning product with a good user interface, but topped it up with great experiences through the interactions that the user would have with the product and the company behind it. Confusing UX Design with Market Research is a Complete ‘No-No’ Although as a UX designer you are expected to achieve a specific goal, you should not confuse your job profile with that of a market researcher. The job description of a UX designer basically includes the process of exploring multiple approaches that must be followed for solving a specific problem faced by a majority of targeted users. As a further elaboration, the UX designer needs to ensure that there is a logical flow for the product. One popular method that a UX designer uses for this is conducting face-to-face tests to observe how the users behave for the product that the client is intending to offer via his/her website. The UX designer refines and iteartes both, verbal as well as non-verbal blocks in order to create a truly amazing user experience. Apart from this, the UX designer is also engaged in developing and maintaining mockups, wireframes and specifications that can result into creation of the desired website. Now, let’s get to know about User Interface Design Despite being considered as a ‘conventional’ web design practice, User Interface design has witnessed numerous misinterpretations. Well, User Interface design basically focuses on improving the overall presentation, look, feel and interactivity of the product. Thus, the term ‘User Interface’ (abbreviated as UI) refers to the means by which a user and a product (for example a website) interact with one another (but do not confuse it with Human Computer Interaction, with which UI simply overlaps). Knowing the Responsibilities of a UI (User Interface) Designer As a UI designer, your role is primarily related to graphic / visual front-end design. Your main attention is on improving the overall feel of the product and the way it is being laid out over the website / web application. Talking about the job description, you are mainly involved in designing the pages which will be used by the end user for interacting with the product. In addition to this, you would also be in charge of ensuring that the created UI is competent in visually communicating the path that has been designed to guide the visitors. Some of the most talked about responsibilities of a UI designer include: UI prototyping, implementation with the developer, design research, branding and graphic development, documentation and user guides. Ultimately, the UI designer produces something tangible that can be tested and shipped. Whether it’s about creation of a cohesive style guide or maintaining complete consistency in different visual elements; a UI designer has to take care of everything that falls under the purview of a website’s user interface. But let us not forget the Similarities Between UX and UI As with this article (so far) it is very easy to get immersed in pinpointing the differences between UX and UI to a point that you forget that UI overlaps with UX. In fact they do share similarities, namely that both UX and UI: Have a primary objective of improving customer satisfaction Focus on the user and his/her interaction with a product/service Can be applied to any product UX and UI- Which one is More Important? Here’s a popular saying by renowned designer and expert Helga Moreno: Something that looks great but is difficult to use is exemplary of great UI and poor UX. While Something very usable that looks terrible is exemplary of great UX and poor UI. By now it should be clear that both UX and UI are crucial for the success of a product (or a website if we stick to the web design example). While both roles are still misinterpreted and errorneously sought after, if you’re looking into any of the two, your decision should definitely not be based on which one is more important than the other. When it comes to learning the skills, there are several institutions which offer interactive class-style and bootcamp programs which allow you to understand all the nuts and bolts of UX and UI design. And not to forget, there are also some great, free online resources too. For those who prefer a more academic, structured approach to learning, they can head over to popular online platforms like Udemy, Udacity and Tuts+ for digging deep into designing a website using the concepts of UX (User Experience) and UI (User Interface). If, on the other hand you would like to know what ‘making it’ in the field of UX design entails, be sure to read Leah Ryz’ article “From UX-ling To UX Swan – How To Make It In UX With No Experience“. Another recommended article is Nadim Farah’s 5-part account of his experience as a UI designer who wanted to transition to a UX designer. Part 1 can be found here. Remember that UX is not UI and while the two disciplines share (very few) common traits, they do have very recognizable differences. (Lead image source: Jeff Kubina) UX And Culture: Bridging The Gap In Six Strides August 24, 2015 by Keval Baxi 1 Comment ux-culture UX Designers — know this: culture affects an individual’s perception of usability. As obvious as it may seem, many UX Designers fall victim to the impression that users are culturally homogenous (from the same background). Such an assumption can prove to be detrimental to the success of even the most effective UX Design efforts. Understanding this concept may require UX Designers to take a step back and reevaluate what makes a product or design usable. Contemporary and generally accepted practices, as they are taught in the United States, may not be applicable in other countries. This is due to the effect of culture on the perception of usability. Designing with Culture in Mind Geert Hofstede, Professor Emeritus of Organizational Anthropology and International Management at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, conducted a comprehensive study on the ways in which values in the workplace are influenced by differences among cultures. Hofstede determined six “dimensions of national culture” which drive differences in cross-cultural sensitivity to similar stimuli. Hofstede’s findings ought to be used as a tool to aid in designing the most culturally optimized and specific User Experience possible. 1. Power Distance Index (PDI) ux-culture-power-distance-index-pdi Power Distance Index (Source) Hofstede’s first cultural dimension: PDI, quantifies the relative degree to which social inequality is perceived across a societal spectrum—and especially by those that may represent the lower end of the distribution. People in societies exhibiting a large degree of Power Distance accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. In societies with low Power Distance, people strive to equalize the distribution of power and demand justification for inequalities of power (Source: The Hofstede Center). UX Designers ought to keep in mind that people in societies with a small PDI do not take kindly to perceived authority and leadership. According to Hofstede’s findings, such users only accept leadership in cases where objectivity and abundant detail gives them the capacity to make up their own mind. Gaining trust among this group is simply a matter of informality, directness, and openness to participation. Users belonging to cultures with a large PDI are not typically compelled by the notion of personal responsibility, and tend to respond well to direct guidance—i.e., information presented in a factual manner, and concise statements. 2. Individualism vs. Collectivism (IDV) ux-culture-individualism-collectivism-idv Individualism vs. Collectivism Index (Source) Hofstede’s second cultural dimension, IDV, describes the relative perception within a particular cultural group for an “I” or “we” mentality. The high side of this dimension, called individualism, can be defined as a preference for a loosely-knit social framework in which individuals are expected to take care of only themselves. Its opposite, collectivism, represents a preference for a tightly-knit framework in society in which individuals can expect members of a particular in-group to look after them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty (Source: The Hofstede Center). In UX Design, IDV is a useful metric from which one can deduce the proper way to contextualize site engagement—such as through call-to-actions (CTAs) and social media integration. Users from cultures that exhibit a high level of IDV want to know how a product or service will benefit them. Users belonging to cultures that exhibit a low level of IDV are more interested in how a product or service will either a) benefit the cultural group as a whole, or b) reflect on them in the eyes of society. 3. Masculinity vs. Femininity (MAS) ux-culture-masculinity-femmininity-mas Masculinity vs. Femininity Index (Source) The third cultural dimension, MAS, describes the expectations within a cultural group to place value on a particular set of ideals. The Masculinity side of this dimension represents a preference in society for achievement, heroism, assertiveness and material rewards for success. Its opposite, Femininity, stands for a preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life (Source: The Hofstede Center). UX Designers ought to use this cultural dimension when crafting the incentives with which a product or service will drive interaction or loyalty. Users belonging to a culture which places value in a high level of MAS are likely to respond well to User Experiences that offer significant rewards—whether monetary, or conceptual in nature. Alternatively, users with cultural backgrounds which value a low level of MAS are likely to be drawn to UXs which impress upon the user that they are operating solely on the premise of an “all for one and one for all” mentality. A good example of this would be offering the user a chance to donate a nominal sum to charity during checkout. 4. Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) ux-culture-uncertainty-avoidance-uai Uncertainty Avoidance Index (Source) Hofstede’s fourth cultural dimension, UAI, reflects the degree to which a particular culture tolerates new ideas and behavior. Countries exhibiting strong UAI maintain rigid codes of belief and behavior and are intolerant of unorthodox behavior and ideas. Weak UAI societies maintain a more relaxed attitude in which practice counts more than principles (Source: The Hofstede Center). UAI ought to be among the primary considerations among UX Designers that know their product or service will be used by populations outside his/her culture. Users belonging to a culture with a strong UAI are less likely to respond well to cutting edge designs and new-age ideals, such as prevalent nudity and use of foul or informal language. Users belonging to a culture with a weak UAI tend to be significantly more progressive in their adoption of the latest design trends and social conventions. 5. Long-Term vs. Short-Term Normative Orientation (LTO) ux-culture-long-short-term-normative-orientation-lto Long-Term vs. Short-Term Normative Orientation Index (Source) Hofstede’s fifth cultural dimension, LTO, describes the relative ease with which a particular culture adopts social and normative changes. Societies who score low on this dimension prefer to maintain time-honored traditions and norms while viewing societal change with suspicion. Those with a culture which scores high, on the other hand, take a more pragmatic approach: they encourage thrift and efforts in modern education as a way to prepare for the future (Source: The Hofstede Center) UX Designers ought to keep in mind that individuals belonging to societies which rank low on the LTO scale are conservative, and not likely to respond well to User Experiences which reflect agents of social change. An excellent example in the United States is same-sex marriage. Conservative members of society are likely to be repelled by products or services which claim to support “gay marriage”. 6. Indulgence vs. Constraint (IND) ux-culture-indulgence-constraint-ind Indulgence vs. Constraint Index (Source) Hofstede’s sixth cultural dimension, IND, represents the likelihood of a particular cultural group to be receptive to things like the uninhibited gratification of basic needs. Indulgence stands for a society that allows relatively free gratification of basic and natural human drives related to enjoying life and having fun. Restraint stands for a society that suppresses gratification of needs and regulates it by means of strict social norms (Source: The Hofstede Center) UX Designers ought to keep in mind that cultures which rank high on the IND scale will not be offended by the notion that they ought to indulge in more. More food items, more color options, more modes of operation, etc. Cultures which rank low on the IND scale are not likely to respond well to an abundance of options—this can often be perceived fearfully, especially in countries where socialism is the dominant social movement. Use this Information on Every Project Hofstede’s dimensions of national cultural can be used to bridge the gap between culture and User Experience by changing the way visual elements, navigation, and information are designed. By designing contextually, UX Designers can rest assured that they are not alienating any major audiences. Use this tool to help you determine specific cultural dimension rankings by country. While the metrics listed here can be quantified in a sense, this information can only be used meaningfully by comparison, as we are all human, and inherently unique. Those wishing to develop a deeper understand of the cultural dynamics which determine usability across cultures ought to check out some of Hofstede’s works. (Lead image source: Shelby H.) Related Posts ux-stock-photos-interview-curatorUX And Stock Photos: An Interview With A Curatorux-enterprise-iotUX For Enterprise: Using IoT To Design Integrated Systems For The Workplaceux-in-mvpThe Art Of UX In MVPcustomer-experience-user-experience-differenceCustomer Experience vs. User Experience: What’s The Difference? Filed Under: Guidelines Tagged With: User Experience, User Psychology Share This Post 109 inShare About Keval Baxi As CEO and Chairman ​of Codal​​, ​Keval Baxi oversees all executive operations. He has held the position for nearly eight years. Keval is responsible for the end product on all projects, partnerships, and business forecasting. He does this by recruiting and building the best technical team possible in the field. In this way Keval has a bit of himself in everything Codal develops. He has seen the growth of Codal into new markets and continues to identify new avenues for the growth of Codal and its stakeholders. Keval sits on various boards of companies which have seen successful trajectories through KBMG Capital. His involvement is not just as an investor, but as a mentor in a role to help promote beneficial business activity and encourage innovation through growth. In his spare time, Keval enjoys basketball, traveling, running, and being an avid Chicago restaurant connoisseur. Keval purchases more books and magazines than he can read, including Harvard Business Review, MIT Review, and other related entrepreneurial literature.​ 8 Mobile App Trends Of 2015 September 3, 2015 by Christopher Meloni 0 Comments 8-mobile-app-trends-2015 Imagine a day without your phone. You will feel as a body without a soul, right! Whether it is a deed of hiring a cab, recharging your phone, ordering a pizza or shopping online, you will instantly reach for your smartphone. The phone is your friend in need and is one of the most crucial accessories in our life. Mobile technology and apps continue to thrive with its awe-inspiring presence across various aspects of life. We cannot deny the fact that mobile apps have become an essential element of the digital anatomy. In fact, they are on their way to become (even more) omnipresent. The increasing number of usages associated with smartphones and wearable devices will continue to be important for businesses and life. A new era of Internet of Things apps, wearable devices began in 2014. Enterprise apps continued to thrive for some time as businesses are increasingly focusing on integrating mobility in their core business process. Developers exclaim everyday that the app landscape is constantly changing. So keeping up with mobile app development trends isn’t an option anymore. It’s the order of the day. Trend #1: The Ecommerce App-Only Trend Today everyone is getting mobile savvy. So is the case in ecommerce. Two big giants of ecommerce companies in India Myntra and Flipkart decided to shut their website and transit to app-only platform. According to them, 90% of the traffic and sales were made on smartphone or tablet. Various analysts believe this positive trend will continue over the next 4 years as more and more consumers adapt to m-commerce. Trend #2: iOS and Android ‘Fight’ will Continue Apple and Android have a strong presence in the mobile OS market. According to research Firm IDC, Andoid has 82.8% market share as at Q2 of 2015, followed by iOS’ 13.9% and Windows phone’s 2.6%. Interestingly enough, the 2% lost by Android over the same period from last year has been mostly gained by iOS. The remaining 0.7% market share is split between all the other smartphone OSs available. This, it is clear that we will continue to see both the mobile leaders iOS and Android entrenching themselves further in not only mobile markets across the world, but also the psyche of mobile users. This ferocious battle is essentially good news for developers and users. Trend #3: Wearable Technology Hacking the Future The sheer presence of wearables brings with it a number of trends. We have trends like the seamless integration of wearables into fashionware. Sure enough wearables have long been associated with fashion but what used to be futuristic concepts of wearable devices that were only suitable for the catwalk have now become more conventional accessories that almost mimic their traditional counterparts. Take for example smartwatches – they look like and are worn like conventional watches. In other words, wearable devices are taking a form that users would be more ready to wear. This in turn means an evolution in the apps designed for wearable devices. So for example in the near future it is more likely that we will see development for fitness tracking apps in a watch rather than device-specific fitness trackers as sales for these devices that can only do fitness tracking plummets at the expense of say, smartwatches. Indeed, wearable devices have been making a lot noise in the digital world and surprisingly for good reason. Wearable technologies in 2015 have moved beyond Google Glass, Samsung Galaxy Gear and Apple Watch. The big brands like Apple, Samsung are trying to go one step further in improving wearable technology and make it more tempting for the end users. Trend #4: More Digital Mobile Payment Providers The launch of Apple Pay in October 2014 has not been so much of a success as promised by Apple. Moving forward, we have now witnessed a change in the way financial transactions take place across the digital world. Samsung played catch up with its very own Samsung Pay and now other mobile payment apps such as Wal-Mart’s CurrentC and Android’s Android Pay are expected to be launched within this year. With these amazing technologies and lessons learnt, it is expected that mobile payments will become easier and safer as time goes by until the ‘standard’ is established. Trend #5: The Internet Of Things will witness Huge Growth More than a new trend, this is a year-on-year trend, although it has gained and will continue to gain a faster traction in years to come. Basically, the smartphone will be even less limited to just being a phone. It will be able to connect with multiple devices in a more seamless manner and it will continue to replace other devices such as remote controls. In terms of app development, this means that we will witness new types of apps as demands for such usage increases. We will also see an increase in the functionality that an app can do as smartphones are set to be equipped with more processing power. The Internet of Things will be the largest device market in the world. The estimation is that by 2019 it will be more than double the size of the smartphone, PC, tablet, connected car, and the wearable market combined. Trend #6: Messaging Apps Boozing High We are currently witnessing a fierce competition between mobile messaging apps and social networks. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and Viber have 2.125 billion monthly active users globally (users who accessed the apps at least once in a 30-day period). That’s compared to the same number, 2.125 billion, users of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram combined. Thus its clear messaging apps have high penetration in comparison so there is great chance of winning the battle. Also, research carried out last month (August 2015) by Pew Research Centre shows that 36% of smartphone owners use messaging apps. Trend #7: More Beacon and Location-based Wi-Fi Services GPS is notoriously variable when it comes to in-door mapping. And thus, the Beacon and location based Wi-Fi comes into picture. These services have been getting a lot of awareness lately and people are increasingly curious about how Wi-Fi and beacons play together in indoor locations. Beacon services will introduce a new world of possibilities for location awareness and countless prospects for interaction with potential customers. Trend #8: Change in Development Objectives Last but not least mobile app development has seen a trend that has yielded an increasing number of cloud-driven apps (such as Dropbox and Google Drive) that seamlessly integrate with their desktop counterparts, so expect more of these. Security is and is set to remain one of the primary challenges of mobile apps. For example, in the case of enterprise mobile apps, end point security still remains a big headache especially where BYOD is practiced. Mobile apps are also characterised by a shorter development lifecyle where the market requires that apps are quickly designed, developed and deployed to obtain a quick return on investment and secure a bigger market share (given that there are so many apps doing essentially the same thing). Luckily for us, in this market that focuses on get-there-quickly and grab-as-much-marketshare as possible, we are still seeing an ever-increasing focus on creating great user experiences for mobile apps too. (Usable) Content Is King September 7, 2015 by Yona Gidalevitz 2 Comments usable-content-is-king Let’s face it: you have heard the phrase “Content is King.” Bill Gates coined the phrase in 1996, when he predicted the role that content would play on the web. The popular adage has since grown to become a mantra of sorts for many SEO strategizers and Content Marketers — and with good reason. UX Designers, listen up: Gates’ widely accepted philosophy holds that content is at the heart of User Experience — even more so than the interface design of an application or website. Indeed, even Google’s so­called “quality update” reflects this. Let’s face the facts. Most content writers are not UX Designers. Yet, much of the content that finds its way onto the Internet is published exactly as it is received by the webmaster or directly by the content writer. If you and your team are playing by the rules — SEO, Design, etc., and you are still failing to see results, it could be the absence of usability in your content. UX Designers ought to involve themselves in the content production process in order to help facilitate content usability. What Makes Content Usable? Content usability refers to the relative ease with which users are able to engage with the content on a website or application. In order for content to be considered wholly usable, users ought to be able to immerse themselves in all facets of the content, without the prospect of distraction or boredom. There are a number of ways to ensure that the content your team puts out is usable. Consider the effects that the following aspects can have on a user’s perception of usability: Form Quality Shareability Style 1. Consider Form As Well As Function Content exists in many forms — text, images, audio, and video are all forms of content. Enrich your site or app with multiple forms of content in order to make it easier for your users to engage in the subject matter. Any UX Designer worth their mettle ought to know that an effective User Experience is fundamentally rooted in its capacity to reduce the threshold for user engagement. In other words, allowing the user to sit back and soak in the content without moving their eyeballs very much is good UX. Don’t forget: in the context of usability, form ought never be placed above function. Even the most media-rich blogs will struggle to keep users if the medium of interaction serves as little more than a mask for the lack of original or engaging material. 2. Quality Means Usability This almost goes without saying. Almost. Qualitative writing is so important. Usable content ought to be pleasant to read. There are no two ways about this. Low quality content is worthless from a usability standpoint. Users don’t have the time, nor the willpower, to read low quality posts. Qualitative content is not limited to text, either. Venturing to minimize the threshold for user engagement through multiple forms of media will most likely not be an effective tactic if the medium for engagement is presented suboptimally. Images ought to optimized for mobile, and presented at the highest resolution allowable by the device viewport, insofar as they do not become a detriment to page load speed. Similarly, low resolution videos, or ones which take an inordinate amount of time to load are a detriment to content usability. 3. Ensure Maximum Shareability Best practices often come from “trending practices.” The rise to prominence of social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Plus has made content shareability an inescapable facet of content usability. Content which is easily shareable not only encourages user engagement, but simplifies it by giving users the opportunity to engage in the content as a community. There are a number of ways to foster shareability in content. Start with a catchy yet descriptive title. Use social metadata tags to control how content is displayed across social media. Integrate social media buttons to make it easier for users to share the content. If you are posting infographics on your site, offer users a chance to embed them on their own site. Consider using a comment hosting service, such as Disqus and Livefyre — they drive cross­community engagement. 4. Publish Content in Style Styling content for maximum usability is essential, and perhaps the easiest place to start. There are a number of elements which can be optimized in order to ensure that the style of the content is conducive to user engagement. When working with text­based content, ensuring usable typography is an excellent place to start. Usable typography refers to an effective combination of font choice, font weight, kerning, line height, and proper use of bold and italic type. Content ought to be positioned on the page in a manner which is conducive to readability. That is, paragraphs ought to be kept to a maximum of three to five lines, and content ought to be broken up in such a way that paragraph length limitations won’t abstract the meaning. Fostering Usable Content Ought to be a One­Two Punch UX Designers, know this: you are responsible for keeping the content on your company’s blog in line with content usability best practices. This can be in the form of an ongoing, inclusionary process, or in the form of a template that you create for your content writers and webmasters. Don’t forget that the content writers and webmasters on your team are not UX Designers. Divorcing yourself from the content production process will likely result in content that is not usable, and therefore not converting users. If you are a content writer reading this, and you do not have an in-house UX Designer, consider hiring one to create a content production strategy for your team. If not, you ought to start learning the fundamentals touched upon in this article. Don’t forget this simple formula: Usable Content = Content Writing + UX Design. (Lead image source: vlasta2) Related Posts 9-guidelines-for-writing-killer-headline-converts9 Guidelines For Writing A Killer Headline For Conversion10-guidelines-for-navigation-usability10 Guidelines For Navigation Usabilitytools-usability-test4 Tools For A Successful Usability Testsus-system-usability-scale-evaluate-usabilityHow To Use The System Usability Scale (SUS) To Evaluate The Usability Of Your Website Filed Under: Guidelines Tagged With: Usability, Writing for the Web