Introducing Usability 2.0

There’s a disturbing trend emerging in the world of usability. More and more, clients are conducting their own “usability” tests and claiming those tests justify what is clearly a suboptimal, or even unusable, design. Equally unnerving is their conviction about the longevity of these results; once they’ve “done usability”, they can’t be persuaded to re-open discussion on the topic. Putting aside the initial and obvious question of why they hired me to conduct a usability assessment, I’ve been left to ponder the larger question:

Why has this trend surfaced?

And the answer that occurred to me is based on scenarios I encountered circa 1998 when I talked to people about why they needed to take the Internet more seriously. At the time, many people I spoke with didn’t understand the Internet or the opportunity it presented. Thus, they preferred to treat it like a “checkbox” item. While few of these people would admit it now or then, their actions belied a thought process that looked like this:

“Do we have a web site?”

“Yes.”

“We can check that off our list then.”

The problem with this process, of course, was that not all web sites were (or are) created equal, a lesson which has only recently become conventional wisdom. Companies and the individuals responsible for web sites now generally understand that to compete successfully in the online space they have to provide a decent online user experience with a design that reflects how people really use the Web.

Thus we see the rising popularity and increasing buzz around Web usability and user testing. As an early advocate and practitioner of usability, it has been a real joy for me to see this transition.

But I’m getting the sense that many organizations are only paying lip service to Web usability in the same way they previously paid lip service to the Internet itself. Rather than taking the time to truly understand usability and find ways to harness its power for their organization, they are treating it like a checkbox item:.

“Did we do usability testing?”

“Yes.”

“Then we can check that off our list…”

This trend worries me, as it runs the risk of devaluing usability itself. By taking such a narrow view on usability and conducting ill-conceived tests, it would be understandable for many organizations to conclude:

“We tried user testing and it didn’t work.”

As if usability is a yes/no proposition.

I call this old school approach Usability 1.0. (This is actually a step forward from Usability 0.0, in that Usability 1.0 practitioners at least acknowledge the need for usability and are aware of the benefits it can yield for an organization, even if they are only scratching the surface.)

In a Usability 1.0 world, usability is treated like a formal white-tie affair conducted on a regular basis “whether we need it or not.” The usability events include expensive consultants, elaborate methodologies and, of course, lots of documentation. But because usability is treated like one of many steps in the overall Web development process rather than a core part of that process, the impact is muted. In essence, the people involved are just going through the motions, with no intention of changing how they think or how they operate as a result of what they learn from their usability efforts.

And because the focus is on “doing usability” and producing reports, little attention is paid to the strategy and design of the tests, which gives tremendous leeway for the person conducting the test (and/or their agency) to utilize the tests to reinforce their personal beliefs or desires. Don’t laugh. I’ve seen it happen.

So let’s clear this up once and for all: it is intellectually dishonest to defend an obviously flawed design by saying: “But we did usability testing and this one was the best,” especially if there were only three designs and they were all variations on the design the VP of Marketing liked.

Done properly, usability testing consists of an objective and open-minded discussion of all possible ways in which an interface can accomplish its function in a manner that melds both the organizations’ and the users’ needs.

More enlightened organizations are now starting to practice a form of usability I call Usability 2.0 (yes, the comparison to the Web 1.0 and 2.0 discussion is intentional), which moves us beyond the utilitarianism of Usability 1.0 toward a more holistic approach to usability and all the ways its power can be harnessed to help an organization succeed. I’m including only a few of the most important elements of Usability 2.0 here in the interest of time.

Qualitative Factors Drive Quantitative Results

One of the great things about the Web is that it gives us the ability to measure so much. In fact, many organizations have built metrics dashboards to summarize the daily, monthly and weekly performance of their sites. I’m a huge proponent of knowing your metrics and using them to track your success. But the easy availability of this data has fostered an overreliance on it in many cases – to the point that the data is all many executives see or think about when considering their sites. And because they are fixated on the numbers, they have a very hard time seeing how something as seemingly squishy as usability can help improve their metrics. This self-limiting mindset is characteristic of Usability 1.0.We have an arsenal of case studies that show how enhancing the usability of a site has improved key online business metrics considerably – and costs peanuts compared to most other online marketing initiatives. But when we try to help connect the dots between usability, an improved user experience and better metrics, Usability 1.0 practioners don’t usually get it.

As such, it’s become apparent to us that many people simply don’t (or can’t) believe that something as seemingly simple as improving the usability of an interface can yield substantial gains in business metrics. But it can and it does. And the companies who get this and make the leap to Usability 2.0 are going to outperform those that don’t over time.

Usability as a Cultural Paradigm

One of the key elements of Usability 2.0 is that practitioners incorporate usability into the ethos of the organization. That means not leaving it to your web design agency, not even having a “usability” person whose job it is to make sure usability “gets done” – but ensuring good usability thinking is incorporated into all appropriate projects across the entire company. Minimally, this should usually involve some form of education about usability.

One approach to this that has caught on recently is persona-based design, where typical customer personas are developed and then communicated throughout the entire organization with rich biographies, such that everyone in the company has better insight into who their customers are and what makes them tick. Done properly, this is an excellent way to infuse an appreciation for usability into an organization.

But regardless of how you do it, the idea is to find a way to get everyone in the organization to start thinking from the perspective of their customers and then applying the insights gained to make their products (or web site) function better for that audience.

Usability as Strategy

Organizations aiming to tap into the full power of usability are those who are willing and able to utilize it as one of their core principles. But this is not for the faint of heart. To be willing to change your entire online marketing approach, and possibly even your business strategy, in response to what your customers tell you they want requires an unwavering belief that a good customer experience will yield good business results. It also requires the ability, and even willingness, to be wrong on occasion. This requires a level of transparency and humility that does not come naturally to most organizations. It takes leaders who believe that focusing on the needs of their users is not just a good thing, but the best thing, for their business. It is the lack of this belief that has led to the lip service approach to usability characterized by 1.0.

Do you believe in the power of usability to deliver outsized returns for your organization? If so, welcome to the budding world of Usability 2.0. If not, then you can at least check reading this article off your to-do list.