Manchester Council recently launched a radically different, user-centred website following research with local residents by Manchester UX agency Keep It Usable. The result? An overwhelming success.
Releasing a new council website can be tricky – it’s hard to please everyone and people don’t always have a good opinion of their local council. Get it wrong and you can be facing a backlash from residents and councillors.
Council sites need to be user-focussed. Mobile use is growing phenomenally and it’s a trend we see with users during the research we do. The mobile phone is now the new PC. Some people tell us they don’t even turn their computer on, they do everything on their phone because it’s always with them. Knowing that mobile and tablet traffic will double in the next couple of years, the site has been designed responsively to support all devices.
Importantly, the site is designed around the top things that people want to do “Research showed us that 80 per cent of people visit the site to carry out specific tasks and the new site has been designed with this in mind…There is a financial aspect to this too. The more people access services online, the more it helps us to deliver those services more cost effectively.”
“We’ve looked carefully at what residents actually use our website for and redesigned it with their needs in mind. It’s also been tested by real people who tell us that they find it refreshingly easy to use. The way people use the internet has changed dramatically, and as half of all visits to our website will be made using tablets and smart phones within a couple of years, we’ve made sure it can be used easily on these devices as well as more traditional computers. Having a well-designed website is therefore hugely beneficial,” commented Councillor Nigel Murphy, executive member for environment for Manchester City Council”.
The new website was tested by groups of real people from a wide range of ages and backgrounds. Lisa Duddington, head of research for Keep It Usable, said: “Everyone was very positive about the new direction and it was evident that a well-designed council site improves people’s perception of the council and changes their behaviour. The site was so easy and quick to use that people who traditionally always called the council said they would now use the website.”
When the site went live we monitored responses on social networks and the result was overwhelmingly positive. Have a look at the comments below and be convinced that making your website user-centred is not an option, it’s a necessity.
This month, we’re focussing on the importance of Content Strategy. This coincides nicely with the launch of a new book titled ‘Content Everywhere’ by Sara Wacheter-Boettcher who is also the editor of A List Apart. We interviewed Sara to talk to you about her new book and explain exactly what content strategy is, how it fits into the User Experience (UX) process and why it’s important for you to have a content strategy.
Hi Sara! Please could you tell our readers about yourself and what you do
I’m an independent content strategist, the editor of A List Apart magazine, and a general loudmouth. Right now I live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in the heart of Amish country, because my husband has a visiting professorship here. Before that, I lived in Arizona, and before that, Oregon, which I still miss every day.
I work directly with clients or partner with agencies to solve complex content problems, and I spend a lot of time writing articles and speaking at conferences to help other web professionals deal with the complexities of content and how it affects their business.
Congratulations on your new book ‘Content Everywhere’. What is it about?
The idea for book came out of all the hubbub over mobile and responsive design that started in the summer of 2011. I had this realization: The problems that we already had with content—both with managing and maintaining it, and with users being able to find content that was relevant to them—were about to be exacerbated by mobile.
That’s because the way we’ve been conceiving of and creating web content has been in big, monolithic pages—and those pages just wouldn’t hold up against the onslaught of different devices and services that are coming. It just looked like big, broken blobs of stuff. Creating new, separate content for every new device wouldn’t work for long, either—there are just too many to keep up with. Instead, we need to make our content more flexible—more capable of being shifted and moved around however it’s needed—and that comes from structure.
When we break content down according to what it is and what it is trying to communicate, and store it in a way that respects its natural shape and flow, then we can do so much more with it: We can connect it to other content based on shared attributes and relationships. We can reformat and reflow it for different devices. We can mash it up with third parties’ data via an API. So that’s what the book is all about: Showing you how to break your content down and turn it into a flexible foundation, and then showing you all the different types of things that will allow you to do.
Who would benefit from reading your book?
It’s definitely a practitioner’s guide—a book for people who want to work hands-on with content. That includes people in content strategy, editorial, and writing roles, but it’s not limited to them. It’s also for people in IA and UX, who are often tasked with organizing and labeling information. The book helps you take those skills and apply them to a micro plane, within a single piece of content.
What I didn’t expect when I wrote the book was how many people from mobile design and development fields would pick it up because they want to really learn how to deal with content—and that’s been really exciting to see as well.
How does the role of content fit within UX?
You can’t really have one without the other, I don’t think. If you’re trying to design an experience and you don’t think about the content, what exactly are you designing? And if you are thinking about content without thinking about the people who will ultimately read or use it, then what’s the point?
What’s interesting about content strategy work is that it both fits within and outside of typical UX roles, because content has to deal with so many other things: the people and workflows and departmental silos and skillsets inside an organization, the content management system, the relationship between groups like IT and marketing and their ability to communicate and get things done, the ongoing needs of the business and how much content will need to be produced in the long run to serve them. The list could go on.
What are the benefits for those companies that include content in their UX process?
If you don’t think about content, you get delays. You get content that “breaks” the design. You get a beautiful interaction stuffed with defensive and condescending error messages. You get a system that works beautifully, but no one on staff who understands how to care for it—how to update the content effectively, what to do when content needs to archived, what sorts of content are appropriate for the experience in the first place. And so, the benefit of including content considerations in every project and every organization is that you can skip all that mess and wasted time and budget, and deliver something that fits the brand, resonates with users, and smooths the entire process—oftentimes with a lot fewer headaches.
Richard Ingram’s illustration shows ways in which a UX team might collaborate with a content strategist
How would user research feed into content strategy?
Well, it’s really hard to connect with your users and get them to care if you don’t understand much about them. I personally work on user research as often as possible, conducting user interviews, synthesizing analytics data, observing users in action. If I’m not the one conducting the research, I want to hear as much as I can from those who are. The more you can empathize with users and understand what’s important to them, the better you can make your content resonate with them, and also the more you can avoid the lure of pretty-yet-meaningless marketing copy, which is shallow and useless.
Could you share one thing people reading this article can do right now to improve their content?
Just go look at it—really look at it. What are all the things you’re putting out there? Do they reflect the organization you want to be? Do they sound human and relatable? Can thou figure out why they’re there? How much are you publishing, anyway, and for whom? Every piece of content you put out there takes time, money, and resources away from your organization. Ask yourself whether it’s helping you reach your goals. Once you’ve taken a good, hard look, don’t get overwhelmed. You can tame the beast, but it’ll take some time. Do a little thing to start, and work from there. It will pay off in saved time, better experiences for users, and a lot more clarity about what you’re trying to accomplish.
Other than your book, are their any other online or offline resources you’d recommend to learn more about content?
The magazine I edit, A List Apart, publishes frequently about content, as does Contents. I’d also suggest some books. The foundational text is Content Strategy for the Web from Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach. I’d also suggest Margot Bloomstein’s Content Strategy at Work, especially if you’re from a neighboring field and want to understand what focusing on content or working with someone who does can do for you as a designer, a project manager, etc. And finally, Karen McGrane’s new Content Strategy for Mobile is a great complement to my book, especially if you need to convince the powers that be to stop blowing budget on glittery mobile apps and actually make all your content mobile-ready.
If you want to increase your engagement metrics, increase page views, increase the amount of enquiries and much more then follow these simple techniques.
1. Know your audience
If you don’t know who your audience is then you won’t know what makes them tick. You can’t persuade people if you don’t know much about them. Knowing your audience helps you to shape your message in a way that’s most likely to gain their acceptance. That’s all the more important when your goal is to persuade, and not simply to inform.
2. Speak the same language
Once you know who your audience is, you need to make sure you communicate with them in an effective manner. This involves speaking their language, using phrases and expressions they’re familiar with, limiting unfamiliar words where possible. The tone of voice and content should match the level and knowledge of your audience. If it’s too technical or not technical enough you will lose the user.
3. Stay concise
People will actually read more your text, the less text you write. Why? People are busy, they’re bombarded by text and adverts all day every day and there’s an internet full of content for them to sift through for answers. Long paragraphs of text drive people away so make sure you keep your content short and snappy, full of content, not waffle.
4. Use good layout
People scan content for things that stand out to them. If nothing interests them they’ll head off somewhere else. To make sure they’re able to get a good overview of your content within a few seconds, make sure that content is sectioned with good headings, that key words visually stand out (i.e. bold them or use colour), make use of bullets, use white space to draw attention to things and let content breathe, and of course use good imagery leads us nicely to our next point.
5. Use engaging imagery
People are drawn to imagery over text. In eye tracking studies, people are instantly drawn to photographs on a page. Our brains are wired to prefer visuals, they are processed faster and enable us to draw quicker conclusions. In short, people prefer them. However, it isn’t quite as simple as that. You need to ensure any images you use appeal to your target audience. They also need to feel real so don’t be tempted to use stock imagery (unless it’s really good). People see through stock imagery, they know you’ve paid for the images and they aren’t authentic, this reflects on you as a business. Where possible, use real photos that do a great job of appealing to your audience and reflecting your purpose for the imagery.
6. Make use of video
If you want to get your message across and have it remembered, video has the advantage (over just reading text) of communicating social and emotional information, not just facts. If the video shows your company, products, testimonials… it can give your business instant credibility and authenticity. The human brain is drawn to moving imagery, sounds, emotion which is why video can be a powerful tool for increasing audience engagement.
7. Cats
The Keep It Usable cats! Bowie and Ramos.
Cats are one of the most searched terms on the internet right now. We’re not really suggesting you use cats (unless your target audience enjoy them) but it can be a clever technique to make use of trends, what’s fashionable and popular right now. You need to use content that engages with your end users. You’ve heard of the Harlem Shake? You’ve seen all the youtube memes? If your business appeals to that audience then why not jump onboard and produce your own version!
8. Use stories
From as far back as history takes us, humans have used stories to pass on knowledge. Why did they do this? We remember stories. When stories are told, the recipient recreates the feelings inside themselves. We can’t help it. Inside all of our brains we have mirror neurons and these literally mirror what we’re seeing or hearing. This is why when we watch a sad film, we feel sad too, the brain lives it it for the first time, as if it’s our own experience. Because stories use so many of our senses, we are also able to remember them easily.
9. Use real people
This is me. You’ll make instant judgements within milliseconds of looking at this photo. A picture really does speak a thousand words.
Do you know what fascinates people? People. Do you know who people trust the most? People like them. Use content and imagery that is yours. This could be testimonials from your customers or photographs of real people (not models or stock imagery) using your product. Show images of you, your employees, your workplace, etc too. The more real your company feels, the more honest and trustworthy it will appear to be. In the photo above you’ll see me pointing at our vast collection of UX related books. What instant judgements did you make? Have another look and see if you were right.
You’d be right if you thought that I… love reading, I love learning, I prefer physical books as opposed to digital. You will also have made assumptions about me as a person and my lifestyle. There’s a lot you will gather from a photo or image that is subconscious and conscious. An image really does speak a thousand words.
10. Clear call-to-action
FileShare HQ have a clear call-to-action. They know what they want users to do.
Give the user a place to go next. Too often, we see website pages and software that doesn’t clearly guide the user to the next step you wish them to take. For every page, decide what you want the user to do next and make sure there is a clear path to take them there. If you want them to call you then show your telephone number and tell them to call you. If you want them to buy from you then ensure your call-to-action is a nice visual button that stands out on the page.
February’s Keep It Usable guest interview is with our friend Brandon Satanek. Brandon is the UX Manager of Whirlpool Corporation, a company we’re huge fans of (especially their beautiful KitchenAid products).
Welcome to Keep It Usable Brandon!
Foremost, let me say that I appreciate the opportunity to tell you more about our work at Whirlpool Corporation!
What is your role at Whirlpool?
I am the manager of the User Experience Design team at our global headquarters in Michigan. This team works in the Global Consumer Design department where we collaborate with other creative professionals such as industrial and graphic designers, model makers, and color experts. My team focuses on products sold in the North American region.
What kinds of products do you work on?
We work on the original form of “apps” – appliances! We have the pleasure of creating products that make the everyday lives of people a little bit easier. It may be a refrigerator that helps you organize food for an upcoming party or a cherished stand mixer that makes stirring chocolate into your cookie dough less strenuous. And, we also help with those other “apps” too!
Perhaps one of the most dynamic aspects of Whirlpool Corporation is the great diversity of product experiences. We are more than a single appliance company – we are a company of many different brands beyond Whirlpool. In the United States we also have KitchenAid, Maytag, Jenn-Air, Amana and others. In the rest of the world, you will find brands like Bauknecht, Brastemp and Consul. Each of these brands is targeted at a specific customer persona. Helping ensure each of those customers has a unique experience tailored to their needs makes our job all the more interesting.For example, the user interface on products may vary from a simple knob to an intelligent LCD color touchscreen. Within the product interface, design opportunities abound. One day, people on my team may be working on the classic human factors problem of mapping knob controls to cooktop/hob burners. Another day, we may be creating an interactive onscreen wizard to help people remove a wine stain from their favorite silk shirt.
What is the role of UX within Whirlpool?
We have the responsibility to ensure our products are useful, usable, and desirable
Our corporate mission is: “Everyone, Passionately Creating Loyal Customers for Life.” We believe our UX role fits perfectly with that goal.
We have the responsibility to ensure our products are useful, usable, and desirable. In some cases, this means taking a leadership role in the product development process. Designers on my team are often called on to drive user interface efforts. They will collaborate with engineers to select the appropriate technology and then develop the basic interaction design. We deliver specifications or other requirements which provide detailed information regarding the behavior of the product.
In other cases, we may act in an internal consulting role. For example, a project team may ask us questions about the ergonomics of a particular solution. Could a consumer reach that last sock in the dryer? When the rack is pulled out, is the force needed acceptable? We can help provide actionable data to guide the design process.
Could you share a brief overview of your process?
Our team is very much integrated with Whirlpool Corporation’s official development process which begins with in-depth consumer insights and ends with delivering a finished product to them. At a high level, most UX practitioners would recognize our work as a typical user-centered design process. We just happen to align it to the phases-and-gates process the company follows.
However, some UX practitioners working in software or web design may not be familiar with the requirements of developing for manufacturing. We don’t have the luxury of posting updates to the server after release to address any field issues. Instead, we must make sure we get it right the first time – it’s a great responsibility. Therefore, we spend considerable time in the early development phases to design, test, and iterate our product concepts. By the time tooling and manufacturing has started, we are well onto the next project.
UX practitioners working in software or web design may not be familiar with the requirements of developing for manufacturing.
How does user research fit in?
Concept – During the development process, participants try out early prototypes which enable us to iterate quickly through design ideas.
Contextual inquiry – We go into people’s homes and observe how they are using the products to look for future innovation areas. We value continual learning about new behaviors and trends.
Benchmarking – Either very early or very late in the development process, we may benchmark our products against a prior generation or the competition.
Ergonomic evaluations – To validate that consumers will be able to reach certain parts or will have the strength necessary to operate components.
Sensorial evaluations – We want components to be more than just usable, they should also deliver a pleasurable and quality tactile feel during operation.
How important is international research?
At a user-level, the types of food stored, cooked, and eaten varies and we must make sure our products fit the lives of the people who use them
International research is very important, but rarely goes by that name. I’m reminded of the joke: “What do they call Chinese food in China? {pause for effect} Food!” You might say I have a hard time calling it international research when the people performing it are local to that particular region.
Whirlpool is a global corporation and we are very fortunate to have design offices all over the world. I have colleagues in Italy, Mexico, Brazil, China and India. Each of these offices tends to be responsible for the projects in that region. Of course, we collaborate and there is overall cross-pollination of best practices.
The importance of this work is underscored by the different consumer needs found worldwide. At a macro-level, there are some products, like dishwashers and clothes dryers, that are not available in certain regions. At a user-level, the types of food stored, cooked, and eaten varies and we must make sure our products fit the lives of the people who use them. Even simple things like ensuring the settings on our clothes washers match the information on the garment tags must be taken into account.
Do you have a story of a UX success or failure that stands out as a good lesson for others to learn from?
After seeing people adopt rather uncomfortable postures, an idea was developed to create a platform to raise the products to a more convenient height…it shows how contextual user research can lead to user-centered innovations that directly impact the bottom line.
One classic story involves the invention of the pedestal accessory which can optionally sit under our front-load washing machines. A group of researchers were visiting homes and observed how some participants were struggling to reach clothes inside competitive products. After seeing people adopt rather uncomfortable postures, an idea was developed to create a platform to raise the products to a more convenient height. The team took that idea and developed it further by creating a product that not only raises the height but also includes a drawer to store detergent or other laundry supplies. It’s a great case study because it shows how contextual user research can lead to user-centered innovations that directly impact the bottom line and create a new product category in the industry.
That’s a great example of how user research can instigate new product ideas! How much emphasis do you place on age related UX and accessibility?
With an aging population, it is very important that our products meet the needs of a diverse set of consumers. Instead of focusing on any particular disability, our goal is to promote Universal Design principles in our products. We want to maintain the usability and aesthetics for the vast majority of the population, regardless of ability.
A number of years ago, Whirlpool Corporation was awarded a Helen Keller Achievement award for our efforts to help those individuals with vision or hearing impairments. This was, in large part, due to work on a set of laundry products and their use of lighting and sound. For example, as the user pressed a button to cycle through temperature options, they could see a light move from setting to setting, and they could hear a different audio tone (corresponding to a music note) for each setting. In this way, feedback was presented along multiple sensory channels and provided broad usability without requiring special accommodation.
What are your favourite UX websites and blogs?
As UX continues to grow as a profession, so do the number of corresponding websites/blogs. It is very difficult to pick any favorite as I believe good ideas can come from anywhere. Therefore, I have been turning more-and-more to aggregators that collect the best articles all in one place. On the web, I visit Alltop to find a thorough listing of recent posts. On mobile devices, I use the Flipboard app and subscribe to the “Design” channel for inspiration from many different disciplines.
And for shameless plugs, I believe Lisa is doing a fantastic job on this KeepItUsable blog! In my spare time (not affiliated with Whirlpool Corporation), I have recently started EXPERIENCEdzine to highlight how UX ideas can come from entertaining experiences like Disney parks.
Why do you think companies should include UX in their process?
I fundamentally believe it is the right thing to do
First, let me start with the cynical answer. Napoleon said, “There are two levers to set a man in motion, fear and self- interest.” If you’re not investing in UX, your competitor will be. Improving UX directly impacts the bottom line. Whether it is through increased sales, decreased tech support costs, or improved loyalty – simplicity sells.
Second, let me answer it from the heart. I fundamentally believe it is the right thing to do. There are enough terrible things in the world, why add your product or service to that list? We need a bit more delight and a little less drudgery in our lives and UX can help make that happen.
What advice would you give to companies who don’t yet have a user-centred approach?
The most common advice I hear is to start small and build gradually from demonstrated product successes. In fact, this is advice I wholeheartedly endorse based on personal experience.
After graduation, I started work for a company that did not yet have a UX team. I was the first person hired with any formal training in the subject. And, I was hired as a temporary contractor – no doubt, they were a little uncertain about the value of the profession. It was a safe risk to take. I was thankful for the opportunity and thankful to be paired with a talented visual designer. Our team redesigned a few smaller software projects and the results were well-received. Soon, our focus expanded and so did the team size.
If there are people reading this who are in that same situation, I would certainly encourage them to take that same small risk. No doubt, there are many professionals and agencies out there very willing to help out in the journey. I’m sure they’ll find, like I have, that the journey will be filled with some of the kindest and best people out there.
There are many professionals and agencies out there very willing to help out in the journey…the journey will be filled with some of the kindest and best people out there.
Now you know, like Brandon, that UX is crucial to improve your bottom line, so what should you do now?
Keep It Usable help many different kinds of companies to understand their users. We conduct research with real people and design interfaces using an evidence-based approach; every element has reasoning. Our ergonomist can also work with your hardware team to ensure a seamless user experience.
Get in touch now for no-obligation, friendly help and advice from the award-winning ux agency you can trust.
If you’re not investing in UX, your competitor will be!
Would you like to feature on the Keep It Usable blog? Let us know who you are and why people would find your story interesting to read about.
Here at Keep It Usable, we’ve been studying and applying persuasion and psychology within our designs for many years, but recently it’s gained much more awareness and businesses are beginning to wake up to the huge impact it can have on sales.
Traditionally, marketers, web managers, business owners were mainly reliant on marketing strategies and visual design to capture attention and convert customers. However, where this failed was in understanding the customer and end user. It’s the same if your company focusses too much on A/B and multivariate testing – you’re making changes blindly and just hoping for the best if you haven’t conducted enough user research to start with.
Changing a button colour or text may give you a conversion increase but if you haven’t had any dialogue with your users you have no idea if you’re giving them what they expect, need and want. It’s these things that have the biggest impact. Not only will it inform your design now, but everyone in the company will have a greater understanding of the user and what they want, which can lead to better future ideas.
What is persuasive design?
Persuasive design is based on understanding the end user and using psychological design techniques to increase those persuasive factors that encourage and nudge a user to take action. There are many persuasive factors, including and not limited to, trust, credibility, authenticity, reciprocity, scarcity, motivators to act (free, sex and food being the most common). The skill is in identifying and knowing which will appeal to your audience and which to present at the right time to motivate the desired action. It’s not a case of simply adding everything to your home page and sitting back whilst the clicks roll in, unfortunately it takes skill, timing, an experienced designer, user research, and an understanding of the users psychological buying process to create the perfect momentum to drive the desired behaviour.
Amazon: Masters of persuasive design
We see persuasive design elements used a lot within Amazon’s website. Here are a few examples that are easy to spot.
Imagery
Ever wondered why people prefer images to reading text? It’s a scientific fact. Our brains respond more quickly to images, they take less time to process which causes us to like them more. So, wherever possible you should display images of your product or service. People like to see visuals of what they’re buying, it helps them to understand and feel confident of their purchase. If it’s done right, imagery can also greatly increase trust in your company and give you credibility, however, be careful because when done badly it can lose you a lot of business. We don’t recommend using stock photos – users know they are fake and that feeling transfers to your business.
People like to imagine how things will look and feel in real life. This is why showcasing multiple imagery of the same product and videos are now commonplace. Fashion and clothing websites benefit dramatically from showcasing videos – people want to see how the garment will look on their body and the movement of the fabric tells them a lot about how it might feel to wear.
The power of FREE
Free is one of the biggest persuaders, which is why it is used in every type of industry. Have you seen the big campaign by Graze at the moment? They’re offering one free box to every new customer as well as offering existing customers a free box for every friend that joins (clever hey?). It did take Amazon a while to offer free delivery on all items (remember when you had to spend £5?) and the fact that they’ve kept the delivery free says a lot – it’s working! Paying for delivery adds extra cost to the user, as well as concerns about the cost of sending the item back should it not be suitable. We call these concerns ‘barriers’ and each barrier to purchase adds up to one huge barrier that results in you losing a potential customer. This is why user research and usability testing is so important – it enables us to identify all psychological barriers to purchase so we can not only remove them, but add in elements that address these concerns at the crucial point.
You won’t identify psychological barriers like having to pay for delivery (and understand why this is such a problem) by A/B testing alone. You can only gain rich information by talking to your users, getting inside their mind, understanding their daily lives, how your product or website fits in, how it can help them, what’s stopping them using it, what concerns and worries do they have, etc, etc. It’s REALLY important!
Social proof: Reviews
What do you think Amazon is? A product retailer? Surprisingly, they’re primarily a review site. Most people who visit Amazon go there to check out the reviews, even if they intend to purchase the product elsewhere. In user studies, when given tasks, users will often visit Amazon before continuing with their task on the intended site. Reviews are the key reason for this and Amazon know it! That’s why you have to scroll right down the page past all the things they want to cross-sell to you before you can get to what they know you’re there for: the reviews. Their hope is to distract you with similar purchases, free delivery, what other people have bought and all the other lovely things they hope will catch your eye.
Customer reviews are very powerful. They give what you’re trying to sell credibility and increase trust. The more the buyer is like them, the more their concerns mirror their own, the more trust and reassurance the user will feel. Most people don’t want to be the first to try something, they want to know someone’s taken the risk before them. People fear making the wrong choice so your aim is to remove or at least lessen that fear, thereby removing another barrier to purchase. A good review placed at the optimal stage in the user journey can be the psychological edge the user needs to feel the pull towards purchasing.
Encouraging cross-sells and exploration
What if users decide not to buy what’s on the page? Amazon try to direct the user to other products they may want to purchase. There are two ways in which they do this but their aim is the same: keep the user within Amazon and increase the likelihood they will see something they want to purchase. Amazon showcase ‘Customers who bought this item also bought’ and ‘What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?’ They’re pretty much the same and as people don’t really read text what matters is that they see something that captures their interest and keeps them engaged until they eventually purchase.
This isn’t just a clever use of social proof, it works because it’s likely that if you like the product you’re looking at, you’ll also like what most other people looked at or bought. The fact is that although we like to think we’re all individual, we’re more predictable and alike than we want to believe.
Further information and advice
We hope you enjoyed this article that only touches briefly on how you can use persuasion within design.
If you’d like any help or if you’d simply like to know more about how persuasive design and user research could help your business, get in touch with us right now and ask for Lisa.
Samsung, the worlds leading manufacturer of smart TVs, is also leading the way on user experience.
They have simplified the user interface of the internet on their smart TVs in an effort to make them easier to use and more user friendly. Clearly, their overall aim by doing this is to gain more market share and sell more products. Big brands know the way to do this is by creating simple, easy to use, usable products that offer a great user experience.
Functionality that allows two programmes to be watched full-screen at the same time is also impressive. To do this, users wear special glasses with built-in headphones so they only see and hear their selected programme. No more arguments about what to watch on TV!
Users now swipe through five panels which take them between shows being broadcast at that time; on-demand programmes and movies; photos and other content sourced from connectable devices; social networks and Skype; and finally smart TV apps.
The system also uses a facility called S Recommendation to suggest content based on the owner’s past viewing habits which can take account of the way their choices change at different times of the day.
A new T-commerce service will also allow users to identify the clothes stars are wearing and order their own copy of the outfit on selected programmes.
Samsung also showcased smart devices for the kitchen, including a fridge-freezer with a compartment that can be switched between fridge or frozen states, and an oven that can cook two meals at different temperatures.
How’s this year been? Good? Bad? Well however you’re feeling, we’ve got something guaranteed to put a smile on your face and keep your brain engaged over christmas – our favourite UX books! Our aim is to make sure you go back to work buzzing with ideas and inspiration to beat your competition! UX is one of the best ways you can attract customers whilst lowering your marketing spend (you can’t beat the power and free cost of word-of-mouth recommendations). It’s also incredibly interesting to learn about – it’s like dipping inside the user’s mind and seeing things clearly for the first time.
Photo: Lisa showcasing our vast collection of books at Keepitusable. We like learning!
So, to avoid getting brain fuzz over christmas and instead get a head full of inspiring ideas and solutions, we’re sharing with you our favourite UX books.
There’s still time to order these books on Amazon for christmas.
Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
Best book for: People who are fairly new to UX and would like a greater understanding.
Written in an engaging, light-hearted style, that is interesting and succinct, we highly recommend Steve Krug’s ‘Don’t Make Me Think’. It’s a thin book, with helpful illustrations that highlight Krug’s main points.
Each volume is a concise and fresh take on an important field in web design. Jeremy Keith’s HTML5 for Web Designers explores what the web’s new lingua franca means for working designer/developers. Dan Cederholm’s CSS3 for Web Designers shows how you can design for the experience layer today. Erin Kissane’s The Elements of Content Strategyexplains where content strategy came from, and how you can do it well. Ethan Marcotte’s Responsive Web Design demonstrates CSS techniques and design principles for crafting fluid, responsive websites. Aarron Walter’s Designing for Emotion will teach you how to you make your users fall in love with your site, while Luke Wroblewski’s Mobile Firstwill make you a master of mobile, and improve your desktop designs, too. Last but not least, Mike Monteiro’s Design Is a Job will help you do your job better, while Karen McGrane’s Content Strategy for Mobile will teach you everything you need to get your content onto mobile devices (and more).
Special offer 30% off the whole collection means the prices are now:
100 Things Every Designer Needs To Know About People by Susan Weinschenk
Best book for: Beginners to intermediates who want to understand more of the psychology and reasoning behind design effects on the user.
Gain quick tips to improve your user interface design based on psychology and understanding how people can be influenced by design.Another slim book but packed full of tips to increase engagement of interfaces based on psychology and previous research findings. Written by psychologist Dr Susan Weinschenk, this is one of Lisa’s favourite books. Great for understanding the subtleties of design that can impact the end user.
We like books that have a lot of succinct, useful content and this is one. A great book full of all the principles you need to know to design for people. It’s a great reference tool that every designer should have on their bookshelf to dip in and out of. It covers all kinds of design principles – from those used in digital interface design to physical product design.
ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever by Jason Fried
Best book for: Business owners and creatives
Although, not strictly a UX book, we love this book so much we had to recommend it to you!
Written by the creators of Basecamp, 37 Signals. This book will change the way you think about business and how you do business. They question the status quo, do things differently and they’ve been an incredible success. Our copy is full of post-its! Buy this book!
This christmas, British households are expected to spend £835. The majority of this will go on gifts, cards, food, drink and decorations, according to a YouGuv survey. Despite the recession, people are only said to be cutting back by £30 this year so there’s still a great opportunity for retailers to profit.
How retailers should approach christmas online…
Most retailers receive a large amount of traffic during christmas. Sunday is the biggest day for online spend, whereas Saturday becomes the biggest day for in-store shopping.
A lot of consumers are now turning to online for their christmas shopping. Less stress, no queues and the ability to save money compared to the high street is very appealing for people. This means you should really focus your efforts on online marketing, traffic driving and conversion optimisation during the first part of christmas.
…and offline
Of course, there comes a point where deliveries won’t arrive in time for christmas, so you then need to focus on driving footfall back to the retail stores. Services such as click and collect, discounts, sales and mobile campaigns can really help. How about in-store events too?
Who would have thought that dogs could be taught to drive cars or that double the amount of users would click a button just through a simple design tweak.
Behaviour is fascinating. Not only can we research, analyse and understand behaviour, it is possible to then actively and deliberately change it. It isn’t easy or quick but if you get it right the results can be incredible. But human behaviour has deep, complex motivations and meanings which is why it’s vitally important to have at least one person involved in your project who has a solid background in psychology.
A good starting point for understanding behaviour is the work of BJ Fogg. His behaviour model states that three elements must converge at the same moment for a behavior to occur: Motivation, Ability, and Trigger. When a behaviour does not occur, it means that at least one of these key elements is missing.
Dogs driving cars
Take a look at the following video, yes they really are dogs driving cars!
In the video of cars being driven by dogs we can clearly see all three elements that cause the desired behaviour. The dog’s motivation is to get a treat and please it’s trainer. It has the ability to press the buttons. And the trigger is the command given by the trainer. If any of these elements were missing the trigger would fail.
BJ Fogg’s behaviour model
Motivation + Ability + Trigger = Success or Failure
Making people click buttons
Enticing users to click buttons is a lot more difficult but it follows the same principles of people having the motivation to click to the next step, the ability and the trigger. The only certain way to know which is not being fulfilled is to conduct user research and if you have the budget include eye tracking as eye movements are directly linked to the brain and can tell the researcher more detailed information about what’s really going on inside the user’s head. It allows the analyst to know precisely where the user is looking (what grabs their attention and interest that should/shouldn’t be), for how long and in what order. Don’t confuse this kind of research with basic usability testing. This kind of behavioural insight research needs highly qualified specialist researchers who understand and can successfully analyse and interpret human behaviour with interfaces. Contact professionals.
The researcher will identify what is stopping the desired behaviour from occurring. For example, if you have very high traffic on a page but not many people converting, the researcher would investigate the underlying causes. It could be that a vital piece of information required by the user in their decision making process to buy from you is missing or that the process of purchasing from you doesn’t meet their expectations based on similar experiences with competitors.
Psychological buying process
The best ux designers understand psychology. We use research findings to identify and add psychological triggers and persuasive elements that are needed to convert people into buyers. UX design should never be confused with traditional design. It is only by understanding the user completely that we create designs that work. Once we understand and then meet the user’s psychological needs and desires, we can turn them into a buyer (see above diagram).
Speak to our specialist expert
Are there pages of your website or software that should be getting more clicks?
Would your product benefit from user research, behavioural analysis and insight?
If you’d like to chat to an expert in behavioural research and persuasive design, ask for Lisa via our contact form. She has many years experience helping brands, conducting research and analysing behaviour. Lisa is qualified up to MSc level and is highly respected within usability / user experience.
This month, we’re focussing on the importance of Content Strategy. This coincides nicely with the launch of a new book titled ‘Content Everywhere’ by Sara Wacheter-Boettcher who is also the editor of A List Apart. We interviewed Sara to talk to you about her new book and explain exactly what content strategy is, how it fits into the User Experience (UX) process and why it’s important for you to have a content strategy.
February’s Keep It Usable guest interview is with our friend Brandon Satanek. Brandon is the UX Manager of 
Perhaps one of the most dynamic aspects of Whirlpool Corporation is the great diversity of product experiences. We are more than a single appliance company – we are a company of many different brands beyond Whirlpool. In the United States we also have KitchenAid, Maytag, Jenn-Air, Amana and others. In the rest of the world, you will find brands like Bauknecht, Brastemp and Consul. Each of these brands is targeted at a specific customer persona. Helping ensure each of those customers has a unique experience tailored to their needs makes our job all the more interesting.For example, the user interface on products may vary from a simple knob to an intelligent LCD color touchscreen. Within the product interface, design opportunities abound. One day, people on my team may be working on the classic human factors problem of mapping knob controls to cooktop/hob burners. Another day, we may be creating an interactive onscreen wizard to help people remove a wine stain from their favorite silk shirt.
