What is Usability? : Optimal Usability

Usability is common sense made common. The most frequently-asked questions we get about usability are: What is it? Why is it important? And how much does it cost? These are our answers.

"Usability really just means making sure that something works well: that a person of average (or even below average) ability and experience can use the thing - whether it's a web site, remote control, or revolving door - for its intended purpose without getting hopelessly frustrated."
- Steve Krug

There are a number of different definitions for web usability. The one that we find the most palatable describes web usability as developing web content that is useful, enjoyable and easy to use. "Usability" is also shorthand for the approaches used to make a site easy to learn, easy to use and perform such that users will be satisfied with it.

The important thing is to remember that usability is about people. It is about designing THINGS (in this case, web sites) so that people can use them easily. It is NOT about training people to cope with badly designed things.

The importance of usability

"Usability rules the web. Simply stated, if the customer can't find a product, then he or she will not buy it."
- Jakob Nielsen, Designing Web Usability

All the evidence shows that sites that are easier to use perform better in terms of: selling more, holding users for longer, prompting more frequent visits and reinforcing the reputation of the site owner. Using well-designed sites is faster, easier, and will keep your blood pressure down. Providing your users with well-designed sites will reduce the number of people who want to throw their computers at you.

People come to sites to achieve goals. These goals vary of course according to the site and can include finding information, subscribing to receive information and buying products or services. In most circumstances the users' goals correspond directly to business goals. However, the issue is in how users want to achieve these goals and how organisations prescribe that users should achieve them. Often, there is a gap.

The key in reducing the gap between how businesses believe users achieve their goals and how they actually achieve them is not in trying to alter human behaviour (a more than difficult undertaking), but in designing the site to reflect this behaviour. Ultimately it is far easier to change the design of a site than to modify the behaviour of the huge numbers of people using it. The focus should be on building a comprehensive understanding of why people are behaving in a certain way, and using this knowledge to provide a design more attuned to people's needs.

The price of usability

"One study estimated that improving the customer experience increases the number of buyers by 40% and increases order size by 10%."
- Creative Good, 2000

"Convoluted e-commerce sites can lose up to half of their potential sales if customers can't find merchandise, according to Forrester Research."
- Kalin, 1999

"On a corporate intranet, poor usability means poor employee productivity; usability guru Jakob Nielsen estimates that any investment in making an intranet easier to use can pay off by a factor of 10 or more, especially at large companies."
- Kalin, 1999

Many organisations believe in the benefits of usability but find it increasingly difficult to justify increases in expenditure because they lack validation to warrant such an increase in investment. Ultimately ingraining usability into the offering is about one (or both) of two things: increasing revenues or reducing costs.

Increasing Revenue

Making a site easier to use means that it is easier for customers to do business with the company. Customers who cannot buy will not buy. Convoluted e-business sites can lose many visitors and sales opportunities if customers cannot find the information or products they are interested in. Usability pays for itself.

Reducing Costs

Can you imagine turning 3 seconds into $9,500?

You have 200 employees each using 10 intranet screens per day. Your fully loaded hourly rate is $25 and you are open for business 230 days per year. If you can shave just 3 seconds off the time they need to spend on each screen, that's a saving of $9,500 a year. Usability pays for itself.

When combined with appropriate measuring tools and metrics, usability has a return on investment (ROI) that is very high, allowing a site owner to recoup expenditure rapidly. Not only that, it is becoming increasingly clear that usability problems ultimately lead to low return on investment.

References

Boston Consulting Group (2000) The Canadian Online Retailing Report, BCG, Boston, MA

Zona Research (1999). Zona Research's Online Shopping Report. Zona Research, Redwood City, CA.

Did this page answer your questions about usability? If you have more questions about what usability is, why it's important or how much it costs then please send us some email. We'd love to hear from you.

If you are interested in learning more about how usability can benefit your organisation, or if you are thinking about doing usability testing, please send an email to funstuff@optimalusability.com here at Optimal Usability. You might also want to visit our services page.