Posted on Fri, Nov 30, 2007
Awful lobbies, craptacular controls, dull design. Some video games just are BAD.
In October of this year, Business Week published an article called “Gaming Usability 101.” For a video game nerd, like me, it’s a pretty good read.
Their top ten list of video game usability issues are: (Oh yes, my comments in italics.)
- Never ask a player if they want to save their game. Agreed. Whoever says that they don’t want to save?
- Always say “press any button” to start a game. Never really been an issue for me, but I’m constantly pushing buttons anyway.
- Always let players remap controller buttons to suit their preferences. You bet! Some die-hard gamers (and the left-handed) have their own unique set-ups.
- Always let players skip cut scenes no matter how important they are to the story. I hate having to repeat a level and watch a cut scene again (and again.)
- Never let a camera get too close to a player or bump into a wall. Obvious, but very true.
- Never make use of every controller button just because you can. Personally, I don’t mind lots of buttons. Games with two buttons only are usually crap.
- Always give players full control of accessiblity [sic] options. Yes! I love to tweak. Multiplayer with no options is just wrong.
- Never use insipid, indefensible enemy attacks. Not sure if this is a usability issues, but I hate that too.
- Always present in-game tutorials, FAQs, and help menus for newbie gamers. Disagree. Tutorials are sometimes too slow and boring. Give me a manual!
- Always let gamers get in and out of gameplay as they desire (otherwise they’ll just turn the console off). Yeah – good point. I need an exit point so when my wife comes home I don’t have to completely lose everything I’ve done.
Pretty interesting read, I think you’ll agree.
Posted on Thu, Nov 29, 2007
A good friend of mine recently saw a trailer for I Am Legend – Will Smith’s new flick.
He posted a “review” of the trailer in an online forum, and it reads like this:
“I can’t say for certain if the movie will be good or bad, but THAT is how a movie trailer should be done.
- Give enough story to let you know sort of what’s going on (basic premise, but no details)
- Show an interesting character, either good or bad that you can like or identify with.
- Show some scenes that don’t give away the movie, but give the feeling, mood.
- Kick in the nitrous and blast out of it!
All the while, do NOT show all the bestest/mostest cool shots. Save them for the paying audience.”
That actually reminds me of how a good homepage should be (without Will Smith of course.)
Posted on Wed, Nov 28, 2007
Yesterday I wrote about how easy it is to buy something from Amazon.
Today we’re looking at the navigation system. There is a distinct difference between the UK and US versions of the website.
The UK version features a tabbed (file folder) style primary navigation system and the US one doesn’t (I believe the US site got too large for tabbed browsing – but it used to used to have it.)
UK version
US Version
I much prefer the tabbed browsing featured on the UK site. The color tabs work really well, they act not only as primary navigation, but also as a location indicator (so you know whereabouts on the site you are.)
It’s harder to get an at-a-glance reference when on the US site, and it’s just harder to use – the navigation elements and options just don’t stand out as well.
Of course, that’s just my opinion. I’ll let you decide.
Posted on Wed, Nov 28, 2007
Can you imagine my shock (but certainly not horror) when my wife came home from work and said, “Do you want to get a new TV?”
An hour later, a nice Philips hi-def TV was being liberated from its packaging and set up on my TV stand.
I was a little bit apprehensive about setting this thing up. For one, I didn’t want any finger marks on the TV whatsoever. But the real issue was that I was rather worried about getting this thing working.
The remote control had several thousand buttons, which made me think that this TV was perhaps a little more technical than my Admiral 24 inch COLOR set. I had also read and heard about calibration nightmares, problems with cables, lag between TV and surround sound…
However, upon switching on the TV, it politely asked me which language I’d prefer (easy question) and then the TV said that it was going to auto-setup. I was informed that the process could take between 20 and 40 minutes. So, I hit the “go” button and the TV started to do its thing. The TV displayed a progress bar (which I painstakingly watched slowly fill) which acted as an indicator of exactly where my TV and I were in the process.
After 25 minutes we were done! My TV told me that we were all tuned in and good to go, but it wanted just one more thing from me. It wanted to learn how I like to watch TV. It didn’t scare me with big technical words. It just wanted to learn what I like.
The set displayed a picture sliced in half. The TV then asked me which looked better to me, the picture on the left or the picture on the right. I simply hit my left or right arrow to confirm. I repeated the process for five or six different pictures and then I was asked to do a similar thing with the sound settings.
That was it! My TV said we were all done, and without further ado we were deep into Law & Order SVU.
That whole process was a good example of usability at work. My TV (or Philips) makes things easy for the user. They realize that setting up a hi-def TV can be a little daunting, so they basically take care of it for you. When user input is required, they don’t use jargon or confuse the user with technical information. They just tell me what I need to know in order to get me to where I want to be in the easiest way possible. Sure, the navigation system (i.e. the remote) was intimidating at first, but the TV told me which buttons I needed to use.
At the end of the day, something that is usable is something that empowers the user – it gives them the confidence to believe that they can do what they started out to do. Just like my TV. J
Posted on Tue, Nov 27, 2007
Amazon has always been at the forefront of Internet shopping. They’ve evolved over the last several years, but the evolution has been subtle. That’s because they pretty much got it right from day one.
I’ve been a customer of Amazon since 2000 and every year I return to them time after time to make my ad hoc purchases as well as my Christmas gift purchases. Why? Because they make it easy for me.
When I search for an item, Amazon pulls up the relevant items that I’m searching for. Right, I hear you say, that’s the purpose of a search engine. Well yes it is, however, there aren’t many search engines that do their job well. Amazon’s does.
Popping something in my basket is as easy as clickety-click. No logging in. No being diverted to a ridiculous page asking for details. What I do get is a “people who bought this, also bought this” page – which is genius on their part. That way I spend twice the money that I had planned to.
And when it comes to the check out – I simply enter my log in details. The hardest part is remembering my password. Really, it is.
The check-out process is intuitive. Since I’ve bought stuff from Amazon before and sent things to numerous family members, Amazon makes my life as easy as possible. Do I want to use the credit card on file? Sure. Click. Do I want to ship my purchase to any of the addresses I’ve shipped to in the past? You bet! Click. Would I like it gift wrapped? Yes puh-lease. Click. Should the invoice be sent to the same address or another one? No way, Mister! Click. How about the invoice is sent here? You read my mind, old chum! Click. “Your order has been shipped. Here are the shipping and tracking details.” Thank you, Amazon, I love you.
The thing is, I’ve actually purchased and checked out quicker than you read that last paragraph. Amazing.
The moral of this story is not that I’m a raving Amazon fanboy (um, okay, I am) it’s that Amazon is usable. And good usability encourages repeat visits and purchases.
Posted on Wed, Nov 21, 2007
When you set off on a car journey, you like to know where you’re going before you arrive at your destination. If you didn’t, then you would be driving all over the place until you finally arrived where you needed to be. In most cases, you wouldn’t even make it to your destination – you’d simply give up.
Silly example, I know, but it certainly relates to websites and setting user expectations. Think about it. When you are on a website, you like to know where a link is going to take you before you click on it. One of the worst offences that a website can commit is force the user to click around and make an effort to find what he or she wants. A website is a user-enabling environment, which means it should help the user to find the information that they require in the quickest and easiest way possible.
A website should be obvious. There should be no ambiguity whatsoever and this applies to everything from the wording of hyperlinks to the format the websites’ navigation.
So, don’t be afraid to spell things out. It may mean that you’ll have to sacrifice a cool and quirky design, but don’t worry – your users will thank you.
Posted on Tue, Nov 20, 2007
Several months ago, I started to use Google Analytics as my website statistics package. I must say, it’s pretty darn awesome – I have a serious case of the Googlelytics.
By pasting a simple piece of code into every page of my website (good job my site only has about 9 pages), the Google software is able to track all sorts of information about my website.
Google Analytics can do things that many other website statistics packages can, but they present the information in a very logical and usable way. You really don’t need to know much about “webalytics” in order to make sense of the data that the package gathers.
I can see exactly who is visiting my site – very useful for pre-empting business enquiries. I can determine how people are arriving at my website (which websites they are arriving from) – that way I can assess how worthwhile online marketing opportunities are. I can see which pages people are reading (and how long they are spending on each page) and I can even get a rather nice looking graphical overlay of my website superimposed with click rates. Way cool.
So, by looking at the various statistics, I can determine the role and impact that my website has upon my business.
What’s the best thing about Google Analytics? It’s free!
Posted on Mon, Nov 19, 2007
Q: Why does my home page need to kick butt?
A: Because it’s usually the first thing your visitors see!
But don’t take my word for it – have a look at your web stats. I bet for most of you, most users arrive on your website via your home page. It is imperative that your home page screams usability, or your website will be underutilized.
Think of your home page as the starting point for your users. It is from this point that they are invited into your website to seek the information they require. If there are barriers to usability at this point, then your users simply may not give your website a chance. Again, have a look at your web stats – if you see lots of hits on your home page, but far fewer on other pages, then you may be suffering from Nasty Home Page Syndrome.
When designing, or rearranging content, ask yourself the following questions:
- Why are my users here? What do they want to know?
- Does my home page present the kind of image that I want associated with my organization?
- Does my home page aid or interfere with my users’ quest for information?
- Does my home page look cluttered or require a lot of reading?
Just remember, first impressions last. Your home page is your opportunity to encourage website visitation and turn those visitors into customers.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll dive into more specific components of website usability, but for now I’ll leave you with this: if your home page doesn’t work, then the rest of your website doesn’t work.
Posted on Fri, Nov 16, 2007
Kristen and I were conducting usability labs several months ago. Our purpose was to evaluate the purchase experience of a client’s e-commerce site before it went live.
Our user-base consisted of likely customers, ranging in age and computer literacy. In one particular exercise we were dealing with an older gentleman. Halfway through the exercise, the website prompted the user to enter an email address. The guy looks over at us for encouragement, so we tell him to do everything as he would if we weren’t there.
“But what email address shall I use?”
“Use whichever one you want, Ben.”
“Well, I have one for work, and a couple for home.”
“Okay, do you have a hotmail account?”
At this point, the user looks at both of us in a very strange fashion.
“What the hell would I need a hot male for?”
You see, oftentimes, your customers don’t talk the same language you do. We often use tech-talk or marking-speak and it’s easy to forget that our website users may not. Sure, if your users are younger, then they are more likely to be familiar with modern terminology. However, if some of your users are older folk then you really may need to boil your rhetoric down in order to evaporate the needless terminology.
The lesson: Always write your website copy with your users in mind. A website is there to make your users’ lives easier and using unnecessary jargon is a barrier to usability. Keep it brief and keep it simple.
Posted on Thu, Nov 15, 2007
I can’t believe I nearly let this one slide by.
If you haven’t already been there, I’d recommend clicking on over to the US governments’ excellent website usability and accessibility resource, usability.gov.
Not only does the site feature some cool usability testing resources, it also has an entire book on usability that you can download! See that exclamation point on attached to the end of the last sentence? Well, that’s there because this “free” book is absolutely awesome.
The Research-Based Web Design And Usability Guidelines book highlights usability do’s and don’ts (always citing government websites as illustrative examples), and prioritizes the impact of each guideline based upon evidence or research. The title of the book, although not particularly catchy, even screams usability – it lets the user, or reader, know exactly what to expect from it before they open the front cover. Amazing!
For a fee of $25 you can order a hard-copy of the book, which is what I did. I must say, the book is a really good read. It is presented in a logical fashion and features plenty of color and screenshots to keep the attention of those with serious ADD.
That is all, carry on.
Posted on Wed, Nov 14, 2007
I’m about to do some online Christmas shopping. I prefer shopping online because, a) I loathe crowded shops and, b) I’m lazy.
However, I’ve had online shopping experiences which have been Frustrating (that’s right, with a capital “F.”) If a website is so poorly designed that it forces me contemplate going real-world shopping then I am going to be really mad. And when I say really mad, I mean:
- I will not visit your website again.
- I will tell everyone I know about how awful your website is.
- I’ll probably go straight to a competitor of yours and if their website is better, they’ll get my business.
- I will not view the reputation of your company positively.
Guess what? I’m not the only one who has that sentiment. In fact, one could probably argue that most people who shop online feel that way.
Businesses that rely on e-commerce must pay extra special attention to ensuring that their website is as usable as possible. The site must help the user to find what they want, which means navigation, presentation and search tools must be effective. The check-out process needs to be quick (don’t make users re-input data) and credible (confirmation emails with transaction details are a must.)
Finally, any e-commerce business needs to continuously acknowledge that they are not the only option. Clicking on that little red “X” in the corner of the browser is all it takes for a customer to leave the website and take their business elsewhere. One click is all.
[digg=http://digg.com/design/E_commerce_companies_don_t_make_me_mad/blog]
Posted on Mon, Nov 12, 2007
There has been a lot of debate about the future of the web. What will it look like in ten years time when we’re all using Intel Quadruple Uranium Core Processors?
Many tech visionaries have contributed their take on the future of the good ol’ Net, and some have offered that the web might involve into some sort of Second Life experience. That thought just gives me the heeby geebies.
The idea is this. The experience is all immersive. For example, if you want to buy an HP computer, you’d take your avatar for a stroll to the virtual HP building (no idea how you get there – maybe take a virtual cab or something). Once in the HP lobby, you would take the elevator up to the HP Shop floor to peruse the store and see what they have to offer – maybe you will even buy a thing or two.
YIKES!
The thing about the web, the usable web, is to help me find what I want easily and quickly. See those words in bold there? They’re bold for a reason. Having a super-sexy-ultra-slick web interface is all well and good, but these things are only impressive for the first or second time. After that, the idea gets old.
The web is a user-enabling environment, and the all-immersive model seems to collide with the notion of a usable web. I want to be able to type in a URL and get to where I’m going immediately. When I type in my search criteria, my options need to spring up straight away. I don’t have time to take a stroll down Memory Chip Lane in search of what I want.
The vision is cool, but the vision is not practical. Not in the slightest.
[digg=http://digg.com/design/The_future_of_the_web_seriously/blog]