The Business Case for Usability. Why do IT Projects Fail? Why Most Websites Fail? Forrester Research. The Cost of Change

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1 1 The Business Case for Usability Usability on the Web: from the business case to the design deliverables Elisa del Galdo 2 Why do IT Projects Fail? Scope of Failures- 31% of projects will be cancelled before completion. 52.7% of projects will cost 189% of original estimates Major Contributors to Failure Incomplete Requirements Lack of User Involvement Lack of Resources Major Contributors to Success User Involvement Executive Management Support Clear Statement of Requirements Standish Group 1995 and 1998 (Survey of 23,000 IT projects) Why Most Websites Fail? Usability user experience has serious, measurable business ramifications going forward. The rallying cry of the Web will be usability, usability, usability. In a world of dynamic trade where information is commoditizing products ease-of-use will be the differentiator that drives market share and brand perception. Forrester Why Most Web Sites Fail September Forrester Research Forrester Research audited 20 major sites, finding 51 per cent compliance with simple web usability principles such as "is the site organized by user goals?" and "does a search list retrievals in order of relevance?" (in other words, the average site violated half of these simple design principles). From a study of 25 sites: Half the time we couldn't find enough information to make a purchase decision. For example, a service company claimed to be affordable but did not provide prices. We didn't know whether to believe the company and couldn't compare it with others. The result? Frustrated customers move on. Most sites will waste between $1.5M and $2.1M on redesigns next year (1999). Why? Designers are engaged in an endless cycle of overhauls that don't fix their problems. Their goals of achieving fast performance and consistent look and feel are directionally correct but miss out on at least 20 other more specific usability objectives. And since ease of use is not measured, flaws go undetected. Cost The Cost of Change Cost during project definition 1 unit Cost during project development units Cost during maintenance units Requirements Stage» Pressman 1992 Roll Out 5 6 Development Process

2 7 The Increasing Cost of Change 80% of software life cycle costs occur during the post-release maintenance phase 80% of necessary maintenance is due to unmet or unforeseen user requirements» Pressman 1992 Potential Saving Example: Training Training of 3 days reduced to Users 250 users * 4hours * 25 = 25,000 in the first year. Example: Productivity 250 Users 60 screens/day 230 days/year Reduction of process time by 1 minute 250 users * 60 screens * 230days * 1/3600 * 25 = 23,958 Example: Decreased Errors 250 users.20 errors eliminated/user/day Average 2 minutes spend in recovery time/error 230 days/year 250 users *.2 * 230 *.833/error = 9,580 8 Creative Good s Findings To hammer home its point, Creative Good offered the striking revelation that a dollar spent on advertising during the 1998 holiday season produced $5 in total revenue, while a dollar spent on customer experience improvements yielded more than $60. IBM s Success On IBM's website, the most popular feature was the search function, because the site was difficult to navigate. The second most popular feature was the 'help' button, because the search technology was so ineffective. IBM's solution was a 10-week effort to redesign the site, which involved more than 100 employees at a cost estimated 'in the millions.' The result: in the first week after the redesign, use of the 'help' button decreased 84 per cent, while sales increased 400 per cent Consequences of Failure Poor overall design of the Website will lead to poor performance Users perception on Brand will be damaged Business will forfeit revenue New customers will not be attracted Existing customers will look elsewhere Is it down to Usability? Usability is often sited as a major contributor to Site failure If the Site is difficult to use, users will look elsewhere But, usability is not just ease of use 11 12

3 13 What is Usability? The way users achieve specified goals in a particular environment Criteria on which to base measurement: effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction Influenced by: demographics, work, context Achieved by matching user and system models Components of Usability Meeting Goals and Addressing Requirements Efficiency how easy is it to use Effectiveness what and how well does it perform the work of the user what and how well does it perform the requirements of the business User Satisfaction Is it comfortable to use does it take into account the user and their context does it have any user benefit 14 You can lead a horse to water, but you can not make him drink. Anonymous If you can entice the horse to drink, make sure it is a good experience. If it isn t, he will not be back EdG Collaboration of Disciplines Business: Strategy, people, process organization User Experience: Customer wants and needs, branded front-end & content Technical: Complex backend network and security infrastructures A Good Solution has all three Components of Web Site Development Directives Business objectives, user requirements,application offerings, target audience, competitive sites, brand platform Strategy The definition and refinement of strategy driven by business, technical, and user requirements Concept A conceptual direction which brings emotion to the user experience, making it unique and memorable Functionality A definition of the components of the user interaction Content The identification and development of static, dynamic and interactive content that will populate the web site Implement The production and development of the web site 18 Cognitive User Experience Disciplines Content User Experience Construction Creative

4 19 Addressing the User Experience Content Specialist Cognitive/Usability Specialist Designing the User Interface and Creating a User Experience Creative Specialist UI Developer 20 Design Objectives Effectiveness does it do the work, meet user needs Efficiency does it save time and money, productivity User Satisfaction is it pleasant to use for all users, is it engaging The Development Process Definition The process of defining business, user and brand requirements as a platform for the initial structuring of the solution Design Advancing the initial definition, with respect to the requirements, into a full-fledged framework for the application design Development Developing the comprehensive design of the user experience into a fully functioning web site front-end and creating guidelines for integrating with back-end functionality Phases of the Process Levels of Involvement Cognitive Creative Content Construction Definition Design Development 23 24

5 Definition Assess the problem and make recommendations towards a solution Brand Audit Competitor Evaluation User Research User Profiling User Requirements Content Audit Technical Environment Usability Evaluation of Existing Systems Brainstorming, focus groups, CI, Walkthroughs, Diaries, 25 Getting the big picture... Draft Information Architecture Scenarios/Storyboards Visual Direction Production Requirements Draft Functional Matrix UI Prototypes Site Map, Conceptual Design Draft UI Specification Design Creating the design that will reflect the solution Usability Evaluations Interactive Content Mapping Task Analysis Cognitive Walkthroughs Creation of Design Documents 26 Creating the blueprints... Information Architecture Visual/UI Prototype Style Guide (visual & text) Functional Templates Visual Templates Final Site Map UI Specification Content Management Matrix Navigation Model Development Building the solution as designed Usability Evaluations Cognitive Walkthroughs Quality Assurance Testing User Acceptance Testing Content Formatting Template Construction UI Change Reports UI Templates Production Style Guide Formatted Content UI Soft Launch UI Hard Launch Roll-out and Support Focus Groups Contextual Interviews Usability Evaluation Observational Techniques Questionnaires, Surveys and Diaries and Refinement of UI Design UI Change Reports Usability Recommendations for future versions 27 Finalizing the detail Quality assurance... What has happened It is just like designing a house... Conceptual Interaction Visual 29 30