5 Reasons Why Users Can’t Complete Their Tasks

Average users can’t always complete what they started and leave websites in frustration, never returning again. Why is it happening and what are the main offenders in UI of those websites?

Here are the top 5 usability problems that caused incomplete or wrongly done tasks:

1. Information Architecture – user doesn’t know where to go and what will happen when they get there.
2. Badly done search –  Large percentage of users go to the search box to find what they need. If they can’t, they go to another site.
3. Insufficient product info  - If the user doesn’t have all the information they need about the product, they lose confidence and don’t buy.
4. Content too confusing and fluffy – When writing for the web, the content should be very short and to the point. On average, users read just a few words out of a paragraph.
5. Workflow – when the user has found what s/he was looking for, but the content doesn’t meet expectations.

Why bother with Usability?

Due to enormous competition on the Web, usability is a vital surviving factor. If a website is difficult to use, people turn to your competitors. It’s that simple. Here are some other reasons why visitors leave:

• The homepage fails to communicate what you offer and what problem you solve
• They can’t easily navigate the website or web app
• They don’t understand where they are
• They can’t quickly get what they need
• They are forced to watch a boring presentation
• They see irrelevant links to other websites
• They need to use magnifying glass to read they text
• They need to install a plug in to see your content
  etc…

Visitors never spend time trying to figure out the interface of your site. They don’t read manuals and they don’t contact support. They just go to another website that “just works” and never come back.

Recommended Minimum Screen Resolution For Web Designers

It seems that with the advanced computers and laptops widely available web designers can consider moving from 1024×768 to 1280×800 which covers 76% of the market according to w3schools.com and NetMarketshare. The game is to have all vital information ABOVE THE FOLD LINE. According to  the latest study  from NNg, users scroll much more than they used to but the attention they pay to the infomration above and below the fold line is very different.

“Web users spend 80% of their time looking at information above the page fold. Although users do scroll, they allocate only 20% of their attention below the fold.” - Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, March 22, 2010.

1280×800 screen resolution gives us 1257×600 of real life room for users see without scrolling in the following browsers:

• Mac
  • Safari
  • Camino
  • FireFox 3
  • Omniweb 5
  • Opera 9
• Windows
  • IE6
  • IE7
  • IE8
  • FireFox 3
  • Opera 9
  • Safari

Still it would be a good idea to consult user target audience studies or web analytics data or at least common sense when deciding what minimun resolution you need to support.

Government/Community websites should still support minimum of 1024×768 providing the ability to access data to 99% of the market.

Retail/Financial industries usually don’t upgrade hardware and bank terminals until it is absolutely necessary and 1024×768 may be still safer choice for them.

IT industry routinely tries to be at the tech edge.  Big screens, high resolutions of latest note- and netbooks make it  to take advantage of 1280×800.

These statistics are based on W3Schools users.

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How Much Time Do We Waste on Badly Designed Apps?

Computer load-time, pop-ups, new apps installation, new user interrelations, lack of intuitiveness, search for drivers, frozen system, reboots, etc. – these are just a few of the things that most of us face on daily basis. Dealing with all of these issues takes users up to 30 minutes a day ,according to Telegraph UK, which equals 8 days per year or 400 days in 50 years. That means we spend more than a year of our life dealing with software and hardware problems and suffering from badly designed user interfaces.

According to MSN.co.uk which conducted the survey, computer problems are “as frustrating for people as being stuck in traffic or losing a wallet” . Almost half of users say that they just want a computer that “works” and would like to avoid “flashy updates” or new features.

Probably half of the frustration can be attributed to hardware issues, driver compatibility and overall OS stability issues. But the other half is purely in the hands of UI designers. Things like UI inconsistency, badly designed workflows, confusing colour schemes and mystifying error messages – each taking valuable user time and creating a frustrating user experience.

For those who still think they don’t need to employ UX or UI designers,  just think about saving your valuable customers four days a year by simply creating a better interface.

UPA 2010 International Conference

UPA (Usability Proffesionals’ Association) 2010 International Conference: Embracing Cultural Diversity – User Experience Design for the World will be hosted in Munich, Germany 24 – 28 May, 2010! (more…)

Windows Mobile 6.5 UI issues and Windows Mobile 7

ZDNet reports that Windows Mobile 7 is on track for release to OEMs for testing. It is interesting to see what MS can come up with in the new highly competitive market. Android, Sumsung’s just announced Bada, iPhone OS, Symbian^2 – the first open version of Symbian’s OS.

Windows 6.5 was not up-to-speed with the competition. The UI is complex and hard to use. But, intuitiveness has never been a strong point of MS products. Here is a small analysis of the Windows 6.5 home screen from usability prospective.

Windows 6.5 and iPhone 3.1 Home screen comparison

The iPhone 3.1 home screen is an ample or much better and usable approach. And here’s why the Windows 6.5 screen isn’t as intuitive.

• Uneven grid in additional to uniquely shaped icons makes it look untidy and harder to scan.
• Inconsistent icons style.
• Background under the icons makes it harder to scan the screen.
• Icons are allowed to have unique shape, which theoretically helps to find an icon but the current implementation presents 2 problems:
  • Icons are not consistent for some have unique share and some just use rounded corner “iPhone” frame.
  • Without knowing what background colour might be there is high probability or poor visibility of the icon for lack of contrast. (Camera icon and AT&T Music illustrate the problem).

It may be hard for Windows Mobile to recapture the market unless they make it really usable and appealing to end-users.

Usability over Aesthetics

I really admire good design, a tasteful colour palette and the fine finish of all UI elements. But Google pays no attention to any of it. Their design is completely data driven and they are known for things like testing 64 shades of blue for few months before deciding on the colour of the box boarder. And still I find myself dumping the beautiful Apple Mail for Gmail. I bought Things – a most eye-catching app that scored Apple Design Award and yet find myself using Gmail Tasks. Beautifully designed iCal is also an app I rarely open, opting for Google Calendar instead.

What’s the reason? Usability I guess. Google is an adept in making usable apps. All their apps are highly intuitive and usable, albeit ugly. I save great deal of time when I have all apps in one window talking to each other. The ugliness of design elements does bother me but the usability pays me back in time saved.

I guess to justify Google’s approach to UI, they need to think about every bite going through their server with the amount of data they process. To a certain degree they comply with a basic rule of design: Take out everything that is not necessary until you can’t anymore and then you have a well designed product. (Michelangelo used to joke that his trade is very easy. Take a rock and cut off everything unnecessary).

TweetBoard Alpha

TweetBoard makes Twitter available right on your website. The window is dynamic and doesn’t get in the way. It seems to be very cool and usable way to facilitate your marketing efforts and may be even communicate with your customers. We are awaiting alpha testing approval and will let you know about integration process and usability of the product.

Tweetboard

Apple’s MagicMouse – Most usable mouse ever

MagicMouse is a very well designed device. I got it on the first day they were available and spent about 10 days using it. The mouse is great. Very responsive and  precise. Still runs on the original batteries with about 40% charge left which means it will go for about about 3 weeks.

The gestures work great. Very usable . Especially swiping back though web pages. Scroll with momentum works and feels exactly as one in iPhone, which is very intuitive and beats Logitec’s Hyper-fast scrolling feature.

Apple's MagicMouse

There are only 2 things that bother me so far and they are really minor. First is that the thumb is positioned over 2 movable parts which creates a strange feeling that took me few days to get used to. The other thing is that if your hands are wet the fingers won’t “swipe” over the mouse plastic making gestures almost impossible.

So if you live in a hot place with high humidity without air conditioning MagicMouse not may be a mouse of choice for you. In any other case – highly recommended.