Business Objectives vs. User Experience

By Paul Boag  • February 4th, 2011
Here’s a question for you: would you agree that creating a great user experience should be the primary aim of any Web designer? I know what your answer is… and youʼre wrong! Okay, I admit that not all of you would have answered yes, but most probably did. Somehow, the majority of Web designers have come to believe that creating a great user experience is an end in itself. I think we are deceiving ourselves and doing a disservice to our clients at the same time. The truth is that business objectives should trump users’ needs every time. Generating a return on investment is more important for a website than keeping users happy. Sounds horrendous, doesn’t it? Before you flame me in the comments, hear me out.

The Harsh Reality

Letʼs begin with the harsh truth. If an organization does not believe that it will generate some form of a return on an investment (financial or otherwise), then it should not have a website. In other words, if the website doesn’t pay its way, then we have not done our jobs properly. Despite what we might think, our primary aim is to fulfill the business objectives set out by our clients. Remember that creating a great user experience is a means to this end. We do not create great user experiences just to make users happy. We do so because we want them to look favorably on the website and take certain actions that will generate the returns that our clients want. [Article]

Measuring Usability ROI For Government Websites

Jeff Sauro • September 4, 2013

On most commercial websites, success is counted through increased traffic, increased conversion rates and increased revenue.  If you can associate design changes to one of these key metrics, you can understand the return on investment for UX efforts.   Even if you can’t associate changes directly to conversions or revenue, metrics like the Net Promoter Score can be used as a proxy for revenue.  You can then estimate a return on investment by taking the realized gains divided by the cost of the research.  But when the purpose of your website is not to increase traffic or convert browsers to buyers, measuring the return on investment needs different metrics. State, local and other government websites are usually in the business of providing information or allowing “users” (usually taxpayers or residents) to accomplish transactions or providing some service online.  Supporting these online services requires developers, IT infrastructure, content curators, and scores of people ready to answer the phone at help desks, in person or via email. Before the web, many transactions were handled in person, by mail or over the phone.  For example, if you wanted to incorporate a business with your state, you’d needed to obtain the necessary paperwork, fill out the forms, and then mail them or deliver them in person.  The forms would then go down the line of clerks who would key that information into the system.  This process was expensive, slow and prone to errors.  Now, many of these municipal services are online. You can even renew your driver’s license online now, circumventing the need for the much maligned DMV (something I did this year). Getting functionality online was a major step for government sites. Now that the functionality exists, the problem is not utility, but usability. If users cannot find or cannot use a feature online, does it really matter that it exists? [Article]

5 Mistakes You Should Avoid When A/B Testing Your Designs

Smriti Chawla • Aug 26, 2013

A/B testing can help improve your web designs. Even a small tweak such as changing the location of your call-to-action button can increase sales by 35.6%. Performing A/B tests will let you verify that your design changes lead to better results.

As a web designer who strives to create high-performing websites, you probably already know about A/B testing. But in case this is the first time you have heard of A/B testing (which is also called split testing sometimes), read this introductory guide first: An Introduction to Website Split Testing.

Though A/B testing seems like a no-brainer — especially with the huge array of user-friendly tools out there like Optimizely, Google Analytics Content Experiments, and Visual Website Optimizer (the company I work for) — there are a few common mistakes that will lead you towards unreliable results. These A/B testing mistakes could spell disaster for a website because they have the potential to lower a site’s conversion rates. Making the A/B testing mistakes I’ll be talking about below would, at the very least, mean you’re not going to get the best data you can get for making informed design decisions. [Article]

How to Increase Content Findability on Your Web Page

by anthony •   04 September 13 

Have you ever been to a website and couldn’t find what you were looking for on the page? Most websites today overwhelm users with content irrelevant to what they’re looking for. Users end up getting lost and distracted, spending extra time looking for the content they wanted. This happens because too many websites promote content discovery without considering content findability. It’s good for users to discover new content, but not at the sacrifice of being able to find the content they want.

Web Pages are Like Grocery Stores

Browsing a web page is like walking into a grocery store and looking at all the products. You might see some products with hot deals at the front of store, but soon after that you’re off to the aisles looking for what you came to the store to get. Users that visit websites do the same thing. In order for the store customer to find what they’re looking for quickly, they need to know which aisle to go to. They do this by scanning the aisle signs. However, not all stores with aisle signs have high findability.

Aisle signs with low findability

Aisle signs with low findability generally look the same. Even though each aisle is properly labeled, the signs are not distinct, which makes it hard customers to scan and find what they’re looking for. The lack of distinction forces users have to read each aisle sign. This uses up the customer’s time and energy and makes finding a specific product harder.

Aisle signs with high findability

Aisle signs with high findability are individually distinct. Customers can scan the aisle signs and quickly find the product they’re looking for. What makes the signs visually distinct and easy to scan are the color coding, pictographic icons, large label font and a general single word label representing all the products on that aisle. [Article]