Rather than us preaching about this subject, we decided to ask our client C&O Powder Coatings a few questions and get them to explain why user-centered design is so important for their new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that we are developing.

Questions we asked that feature on this video are:

• what are your efficiency and productivity issues?
• what are their customer service demands?
• what are your expectations?
• what does user-centered design mean to you?

Comments and feedback greatly received…

I would recommend having a read as the usability issues that I talk about are what we have all experienced during our working lives, and there is extensive research provided which proves that the majority of business systems and software solutions in the market don’t value usability anywhere near as highly as we would always advocate.

The article includes my:

• evaluation of the enterprise level software market
• industry analysis on the lack of importance placed on usability in software
• advice on how businesses can attempt to improve the usability of their existing systems
• advice on how User-Centered Design should be embraced for businesses looking at bringing in new internal software systems
• summary of why usable internal business systems shouldn’t be a pipedream

Further reading

• User-Centered Design for Lean Manufacturing Business System Improvements
• User-Centered Design and Agile Development
• User-Centered Design Process Overview
• PRWD Press Release – Bringing User-Centered Design Into A Manufacturing Business

Luke’s talk was a great overview of the state of usability, touching on a wide variety of topics. In particular, he highlighted the tension between functionality and aesthetics from a number of different angles, pointing out that a functional but drab interface might score well for usability, but lack any emotional weight. Likewise, whilst it’s certainly possible to allow artistic impulses to run wild, the lack of usability input into interfaces can result in designs which look great but fail to deliver for users.

He explained how his own role at ThoughtWorks – a global company employing over 1100 people – has become ever more central as the importance of usability has moved up the agenda and gained acceptance amongst software developers, managers and clients alike. Often it’s hard to make a case for usability simply by talking or writing about it – customers can be dubious about what sounds like a costly exercise in something they don’t understand – but it’s often easy to get people on board once they begin to see the results. The modern approach of making extensive use of visual prototypes rather than written software specifications allows for much higher-quality feedback from the customer early in the development process, leading to better project execution in the long run.

Luke concluded by saying that he felt that there is a considerable benefit to combining modern usability techniques with ‘agile’ software development, a process which involves rapid prototyping and a willingness to change course to satisfy customer feedback. This is something that I’ve written about before, and it was great to encounter someone from such a successful company extolling the virtues of that approach. Events like last night’s are a great way to spread best practice amongst the software development and usability community and many of the attendees came away enthused by what they had heard.

The Usability Professionals Association, an international industry group, provides a definition of user-centered design which includes the following development cycle, codified in the ISO standard 13407:

1. Specify the context of use
   Identify the people who will use the product, what they will use it for, and under what conditions they will use it.
2. Specify requirements
   Identify any business requirements or user goals that must be met for the product to be successful.
3. Create design solutions
   This part of the process may be done in stages, building from a rough concept to a complete design.
4. Evaluate designs
   The most important part of this process is that evaluation – ideally through usability testing with actual users – is as integral as quality testing is to good software development.

This process still leaves a substantial part of the development process open to discussion. In particular, it doesn’t make any specific reference to the technical implementation of a project. Since that’s my responsibility, that’s where my interest lies! However, there are many development methods which are a good fit for UCD, and this includes the ‘Agile’ development methodologies.

Agile software development comprises a group of related approaches to software development which attempt to overcome many of the problems faced by traditional software development processes. The fundamental tenets of Agile Development are set out in the Agile Manifesto, and the approach is summarised as follows:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

In short, Agile development is based on the notion that software development processes can be unpredictable and that the bigger they are, the less predictable they become. Agile offers us some important insights into how to manage that process on a dynamic basis, rather than try to eliminate all uncertainty with a huge and detailed up-front plan. As a result, Agile development can cut costs and cut delivery time by placing the emphasis on delivery and quality, working with customers on a good faith basis rather than by setting down overly strict requirements at the start which may bind both parties in ways that neither wants. And this is a very good fit for user-centered design, because it leaves open the possibility of incorporating user feedback as the project gets underway.

One of the 12 principles of Agile Development is this: Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage. User input and user testing are perfect examples of that kind of late change. Imagine that you’re setting up a major new e-commerce store; your company needs to boost sales but can’t extend the marketing budget. User testing reveals that the new system does improve slightly on your old one, but with a few more improvements – perhaps to increase the user’s trust in your system, or to improve the system for recommending related products – you could gain a few more percentage points on your sales. At that point, you need a software development process that can react and incorporate those new insights into the site development.

Agile development puts an emphasis on delivery of working prototypes early in the development cycle, giving customers and users a much better idea of what will be delivered at the end. And because these prototypes are delivered early, it’s much easier to incorporate feedback into the finished product. Having worked in software development for some time, I’ve seen plenty of frustration from clients who want to make changes at the last minute, causing even more frustration amongst the software developers who see weeks or months of work being re-written to accomodate them. Projects go over time and over budget when that happens, and Agile development excels at preventing these problems.

It is by combining the two approaches outlined above that we deliver our projects at PRWD. As a developer I’ve found the Agile mindset to fit much better with the problems that I have to solve and with the need to react to a variety of inputs, from clients and system users alike. Being that responsive to user requirements does require a change in mindset from that of a traditional software developer: it’s no longer safe to assume that I always know best about how something should work, and I have to be more flexible to cope with the requirements of the users. But this is all worthwhile as it reduces the pressure associated with delivering a piece of software – if the users and the clients have been involved in the development, you know that they will be happy with the end result.

Please note, some of the terminology used may not be too familiar to some readers, but rather than describing each service I wanted to keep this post more to the point. Feel free to call us for further information on a particular service or terminology used.

The 4 Phases of User Centered Design

• Analysis
• Design
• Implementation
• Deployment

You will notice that there isn’t an order assigned to the 4 phases, as UCD is a process of continual improvement. For the development of completely new business systems, applications and e-commerce platforms, the process would start with the analysis phase and work through the remaining 3 phases, but during the deployment phase on-going evaluation of the system and the users does mean that the process can then be continued, back in to the analysis phase (but to a lesser extent).

The Analysis Phase

Definition

This phase ensures all business and user requirements are taken into consideration, prior to the start of the design phase

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• stakeholder analysis
• competitor benchmarking
• persona development
• defining user scenarios
• conducting field studies
• defining usability goals

The Design Phase

Definition

This phase provides a comprehensive approach to the design of the system, ensuring the design meets all user and business requirements

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• navigation models
• screen flow samples
• information architecture
• card sorting
• paper prototyping
• wireframing
• interaction design
• user testing

The Implementation Phase

Definition

This phase takes the user tested system and interaction designs and implements them into working systems ready to go live

PRWD Services

• object orientated design
• user interface integration
• server implementation
• heuristic evaluations
• user testing
• documentation

The Deployment Phase

Definition

This phase involves continuous evaluation of the new system, monitoring the performance against usability objectives

PRWD Services

• user/customer surveys
• field studies
• performance analysis
• improvement scoping
• continuous analysis

And finally, a UCD definition as seen on our UCDcommerce site

In broad terms, user-centered design (UCD) is a design philosophy and a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of the end user of an interface or document are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process.

Further Reading

Below are a range of links which will provide additional information on User Centered Design

• User Centered Design and Web Development Article
• What is User Centered Design – from the Usability Professionals Association
• Adapting Usability Investigations for Agile User Centered Design
• The Role of User Centered Design and Usability in a Project

Variations in UCD methodology- what are yours?

There will always be slight variation’s in the process with other usability and software development agencies, and I’ll be interested to hear comments on these differences.

On saying this, one thing is for sure – when following User Centered Design principles, users need to be an integral part of the complete design and development process.

This follows our recent posts on what symbolises customer conversion, an inside look at brand concepting, and strapline brainstorming for UCDcommerce.

UCDcommerce Website Features

If you’ve not already taken a look at the UCDcommerce site, below is a summary of what we have decided to launch with:

An introduction to the platform, explaining how UCDcommerce allows us to deliver User Centered Designed e-commerce solutions

A page dedicated to why your business will benefit from using UCDcommerce, including the statement that “your business recognise the importance of user experience for increasing brand credibility, conversion and retention”

A page showing prospective e-commerce customers exactly who is behind the platform, the amount of credibility and blue chip experience we have, and our expert usability services

Additional areas we have included are:

• A definition of User Centered Design (UCD) for people who aren’t familiar with this method of designing user experiences
• Dynamic links into our most recent articles, on the subjects of UCDcommerce, retailing and best practice

Onwards and upwards

Alongside the development of our Content Management System and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, the continual evolvement of UCDcommerce will now begin in earnest, as we attract the right type of serious online retailers to our business.

The DMAIC framework is an essential guide in conducting process improvement projects, and DMAIC is used by Six Sigma Black Belts. It is an acronym for Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control.

What soon become clear when we conducted the pre-analysis of our clients business is that the combination of the UCD process and the DMAIC framework will provide us with an exceptional process improvement model which will deliver ROI on a complete range of Key Performance Indicators that will be affected during this project, from both our clients internal processes to their customers relationship with our client and their account management.

Below I have visualised how the UCD process and DMAIC framework will be used simultaneously by PRWD for this and many more clients.

I’d be interested to hear of any other software development and usability companies who are using UCD and DMAIC together during projects to deliver lean manufacturing processes for your clients.

Dynamic Categories and Shop by Situation

To reference the introductory article on user centered navigation and findability, “No two web users will exhibit exactly the same browsing behaviour when navigating an e-commerce site”.

Similarly, different visitors will have different reasons for visiting the site, and therefore their ‘situations’ can be very different.

Dynamic categories centered around user driven situations and customer groups provide a unique way for our client to group products across their whole catalogue which suit the wants and needs of particular customers.

Using Persona’s to Target Groups of Customers

During the initial analysis phase of the User Centered Design process with Contact Packaging, it became clear that there were specific situations which their existing (and potential) customers are in. From here we were able to develop a series of persona’s to reflect the customers in these different groups, enhancing the effectiveness of the User Centered Design process that was underway.

With this customer analysis and persona’s we developed a method for Contact Packaging, using the PRWD tag engine, to create dynamic categories which specifically target groups of potential customers.

Objectives for Providing Dynamic Categories to Target Customer Groups

• There should be no limit to the number of customer groups that can be created
• Customer groups can be created and put live within 1 minute
• Customer groups should drive conversions from Search Engine Marketing campaigns
• Customer groups should be visible throughout the store, encouraging usage
• Customer groups should enhance the effectiveness of the tag engine, including the tag cloud available under the search facility
• Customers fitting any of the ‘situations’ should be encouraged by how they are being recommended a range of products which may suit what they are looking for, which in turn provides a more personal and intelligent shopping experience

The key to the dynamic categories and shop by situation interactive tool is that it isn’t intend to suit all visitors, and even for visitors which fall into one of the situations, it isn’t expected that they will be interested in buying all of the product suggestions.

Instead, the shop by situation is intended to compliment the wide range of other navigation methods available, whilst providing a more intelligent and personalised way for visitors to browse products from a wide range of categories which may well match their buying wants and needs.

The 1st Step on the Ladder for Shop by Situation

The 1st iteration of our Shop by Situation functionality certainly meets all the objectives set out above, but from our business perspective this is simply the 1st step on the ladder for this type of functionality. As we strive to enhance user engagement and provide even more personalised product suggestions, the flexibility we intend providing our clients will provide even more intelligent ways to target customer groups and increase relevancy for these customers browsing the store.

Comments please…!

Have you seen this type of navigation method used? How effective do you feel this method of grouping products could be for different types of products? I’ll look forward to hearing any views and comments on this post!

Online Search

Search is used by a large proportion of web surfers, whether its from the Google homepage, an integrated search toolbar at the top of their web browser, or within a particular site, to name just a few examples.

Best Practice Tips for Search Implementation

As a quick summary of best practice when implementing search within a site, here are my top 6 tips:

• the search facility should be consistently placed on each page within the site
• the search facility should be highly visible and not part of a cluttered user interface
• the search facility should be located as near to the top of the site as possible, close to the brand logo
• the search facility should look like a search facility, therefore its styling should be minimal at most
• the search facility should be an intelligent, accurate and integrated piece of functionality, part of a wide range of findability methods provided
• the search facility should provide intelligent content or product suggestions as a user is typing out their search term

PRWD Search Providing Intelligent Product Suggestions

For modern, standard compliant web browsers, the PRWD E-commerce platform features our dynamic HybridSearch feature which, based upon user input into the search box, delivers dynamic product selections based on an algorithm developed by the Sam Clark.

The product predictions this provides are based on both wildcard and fulltext searching, and in line with the previous article on the intelligent tagging engine, HybridSearch also looks at all the tags associated with each product.

Benefits of Suggestive, or Predictive, Search

• Suggestive search provides links in realtime to actual product or information pages which exist within your website, minimising the amount of ‘no results found’ search result pages
• Suggestive search provides suggestions for products and content that actually exist within your website which the user may not have realised existed, therefore expanding the appeal that your sites content has for that person
• Suggestive search provides customer engagement and intelligent feedback, increasing the perception of the visitor that your site is helping its visitors to find what they are looking for as quickly as possible, speeding up their shopping journey
• Suggestive search can not only provide basic information for each result, it can also be implemented to display user centered information such as % savings, date of content, relevancy to your search term and other valuable information, providing increased amounts of sub-conscious triggers in which certain types of visitor behaviour will respond to
• Suggestive search adds a valuable navigational method to a sites findability methods, increasing the chances of a visitor quickly locating the product or content that best suits their wants and needs

With all this intelligence you can almost guarantee that if Contact Packaging sell the types of products you are searching for, the predictive search results will provide you with all the suitable products in the store.

In addition to each product suggestion containing a small image, the product title and the price range, an additional piece of product information shown is any saving that is available on any SKU for each particular product. This was a key addition to the product suggestion display as this provides the price conscious/sale hungry visitor with essential information to encourage a positive buying decision, which in turns is one of the ways in which persuasion architecture is used.

Persuasion Architecture Explored

For more of my views on persuasion architecture my user experience of House of Fraser talks about this area of user experience in some detail.

Continually Evolving PRWD HybridSearch Feature

As with the bespoke tag engine, the search feature will be continually enhanced to add greater power, relevancy, speed and sorting of content/product suggestions, and the search feature is something which will be implemented on a wide range of sites, both content driven, transactional and other business systems, such as account management facilities.

Following this post going live I will shortly follow up by talking in depth about the Dynamic Categories and Shop by Situation available at Contact Packaging.

Your comments please…!

I’m very interested to hear about your thoughts on the effectiveness of predictive search features, especially when users quickly type in their search string and hit return, without their being sufficient split second pause for the dynamic suggestions to be delivered.

Apart from the Google search toolbar, which sites do you feel are executing intelligent suggestive search most appropriately?

Navigating with Tags

Tagging content to allow users to navigate through a site isn’t a radically new technique, but in particular for e-commerce sites there aren’t currently many examples of where this style of user centered navigation is provided.

For v1.0 of the PRWD E-commerce Platform it was essential that we developed a tagging engine which would provide both our client and shoppers on their site with an intelligent way in which to group, browse and filter products which share similar characteristics.

To give a few examples…

1) Customer Needs To Protect Their Goods

They may be looking for materials which will protect the goods which they will be transporting from their warehouse to their customers business

Traditional E-commerce Navigation

Products which will potentially match these requirements could be located in 3 or 4 different categories, which using traditional navigation methods of browsing categories and sub-categories would make locating them fairly difficult and require a number clicks.

Intelligent PRWD Tag Engine Solution

Using the tag engine, Contact Packaging can specify which of their products, across any categories, fit into this customer requirement and assign the tag ‘surface protection’ to each of them

Resulting Customer Findability

By clicking on the ‘surface protection’ tag, customers will automatically be presented with all the products across the store which fit this description, providing immediate solutions to whichever type of protective materials they are looking for, whether its bubble wrap, polyethylene foam, hand stretch film or profile foam.

Take a look at the tag results for surface protection within Contact Packaging

2) Customer Needs a Variety of Tools

A warehouse manager may be looking for a variety of tools to be used within various parts of the warehouse, such as strapping tools, tape dispensers and tensioners

Traditional E-commerce Navigation

The customer may try and search for tools and hope that any tools across the site have been indexed with the word tool, and usually this would mean that the word tool would need to feature in the actual title of the product

Intelligent PRWD Tag Engine Solution

Using the tag engine, Contact Packaging can specify which of their products, across any categories, fit into this customer requirement and assign the tag ‘tools’ to each of them, irrespective of whether the product actual states that it is a tool in either its title or description

Resulting Customer Findability

By clicking on the ‘tool’ tag, customers again will automatically be presented with all the products across the store which fit this description, providing immediate solutions to whichever type of tools they are looking for

Take a look at the tag results for tools within Contact Packaging

3) Customer Needs Similar Products

A customer may have browsed to a product page from any of the navigational methods available, and then realised that the product they are looking at isn’t quite what they need

Traditional E-commerce Navigation

The customer can hope that there is an intelligent ‘related products’ feature on the product page which will show them other products more which better suit their needs, or they may perform a new search or try browsing a different category

Intelligent PRWD Tag Engine Solution

Tags which have been added to a particular product are provided on each product page, so along with the related and cross sell products functionality, customers can see what tags have been assigned to that product

Resulting Customer Findability

The customer can click on the tag which best fits with their requirement and then automatically be presented with all other products throughout the store which share this characteristic. It is then expected that the customer can quickly scan the products are decide which of them better fits their requirements.

Continually Evolving PRWD E-commerce Tag Engine

The above examples are specific to the Contact Packaging e-commerce store, but the same tag engine concept works across any size and complexity of e-commerce store (and content driven or business system platform), and in fact this method of navigation is even more useful when there are larger sets of products or content.

As the PRWD E-commerce Platform continually evolves following the launch of v1.0, the intelligence, flexibility and scope of our tag engine will be greatly enhanced to provide an even more powerful and robust way to group, filter and browse products and content.

User generated tags, although not deemed applicable for Contact Packaging, will also be introduced which will add a new dimension to how visitors can personally tag products and browse products based on user-generated tags.

Tags and Multi-Faceted Navigation

Although multi-faceted navigation hasn’t been included in the Contact Packaging e-commerce site, for much larger e-commerce sites we would regard this as a fundamental user centered navigation method. There are very exciting and powerful ways in which out tag engine interacts with and compliments a multi-faceted navigation system and this is something that I will be talking about more in the article on PRWD’s multi-faceted navigation system.

Your comments please…!

I’m very interested to hear about your thoughts on the effectiveness of tag clouds and tags in general as a way of navigating through a sites content by related attributes and meta data. How do you implement tags to assist users in navigating your site content? What % of users interact with tag clouds and related tags? How do tags work alongside your multi-faceted navigation system?