Paul Rouke - Usability Professional

User-centered design is a big part of what we believe in at PRWD. At its most simple, UCD is all about ensuring that the needs of the user are placed at the heart of the development process, from the very first designs to the very last details of implementation and support. A UCD process involves significant stages of testing in which real system users are able to give their thoughts and opinions on a system’s design and use and ensures that, when deployed, the new system will fit neatly into the intended environment. For customer-facing websites such as e-commerce sites, this is all about ensuring that the customer’s experience of the site is enjoyable, making it easy for the user to locate and purchase those items that may be of interest. Whilst this all sounds quite obvious, it’s amazing how much difference can be made to a site’s conversion rate by testing it against users in the real world!

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.

I have recently provided comments on one of Bryan Eisenberg‘s articles over at Grokdotcom focused on optimising your lead generation pages.

This great article has prompted me to look at producing an article on our blog around the same subject, providing some insight into our methods of optimising our clients lead generation websites and pages.

Until this article is produced head over to Bryan’s article which I’m sure you will find provides some valuable insights and tips for your business.

You don’t need to be a Wall Street trader to work out we’re going through a bit of an economic sticky patch. Businesses and consumers alike are finding it hard in the current climate. So how can you make your online business work as hard as it can in these times of woe?

Firstly, turn down the panic button; online spending is on the increase (sales in the first quarter of 2008 are up 50% on last year, NMA 15.05.08), so there’s currently a good opportunity to earn your keep, but you’re going to have to work extra hard for your share, as competition online is hotting up.

Here’s my 3 primers on how to do it

1. . Position your business for long term growth and opportunity. Many businesses go the wrong way by not taking advantage of opportunities they would have otherwise snapped up. Don’t forget things can only get better! You’ll need to be ready to swoop in and pick up all the business your competitors won’t be prepared for after this period by pushing forward with your business growth instead of shying away.
2. Invest but wisely. There’s no point simply having an e-commerce website unless it is efficiently converting your traffic. Ensuring the usability of the site is at its best so that consumers have a problem-free shopping journey is a must. But spending your pennies to make improvements can seem like a hard call in times like these. That why here at PRWD we drive cost savings by using the open source web frameworks built with PHP. Investing in web improvements using such technology will save you money whilst providing substantial return on your investment, if a User Centered Design approach is used.
3. Take advantage of marketing you business online for free by using social networking and blogs to stimulate interest in the online world. According to research by Hitwise (Hopkins, 2006), social networking site MySpace is responsible for more Traffic flow into the HMV.co.uk music portal than both the Yahoo and MSN UK search engines.

Thinking back I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have an email account. Nor can I remember a time when I couldn’t get in touch with people from all over the world in a matter of seconds by simply opening up messenger or Facebook. I buy most of my electronic goods, books, and travel online and would never even dream about purchasing a product without reading reviews and checking out a few sites to gauge the sort of price I should be paying, whether I purchase online or not. Not mentioning the 30 plus sites I will check daily from news RSS feeds to bus timetables, cinema times, or downloading vouchers for the restaurant I’m going to that evening.

The extent to which this generation has grown alongside the internet means that not only are the consumers of today extremely internet savy but have very high expectations.

Many sites do not live up to consumers expectations

OK we’ve moved on a long way from the first generation of flat websites, but still some fundamental elements are being ignored by some of the major e-tailers:

• Getting the brand story from in-store experience to an online experience
• Technical issues such as slow loading page speeds or faulty links causing major dis-satisfaction and reduced conversation rates
• Poor navigation and lengthy purchasing process; consumers today will simply not tolerate this and leave your site and shop elsewhere
• Poor product images – there’s really no excuse
• Lack of innovation with available programs, applications and online communities such as 360 views, virtual tours, YouTube, Video Jug and social networking sites.

Finally and worst of all, I can still find some retailers who for reasons unknown to me have a complete lack of online presence. This can severely damage a brand and customer satisfaction.

With the fight for the consumers pound harder then ever and online spending on the increase (sales in the first quarter of 2008 are up 50% on last year, NMA 15.05.08) what better time than to address the usability and design of your website? Check out our website and range of usability services for more info

It’s only a taster of what in store, but comes not a moment too soon.

The PRWD website is getting a much needed makeover and will, over the next couple of months, grow in terms of rich media content to include interactive pages, video and bags of personality. It will not only act as a great platform for selling the business and what we do here at PRWD but will also act as a great source of information on current industry topics and research. The site will be a ‘place to stop by’ on the web with its regularly updated content, keeping both our customers and blog subscribers up-to-date and informed.

Paul Rouke, founder of PRWD, admitted that the revamp was long overdue but as the business quickly rocketed into its new market place with some very big clients on the books, the website took the back burner.

“With Katie coming into the business as our marketing and brand development executive, she has wasted no time in highlighting the areas (and there are certainly quite a few of them!) where the business needs to significantly improve from a branding and marketing perspective. Not only does the business site need some much needed personality, it was completely lacking in informing visitors of our expertise and credibility in the Usability and Web Development industry, as well as not shouting about some of our exceptional blue chip client wins.

With our new blog design and now the now business homepage both live, visitors can at last begin to fully appreciate the work we are doing and the expert people that are behind PRWD.”

Light at the end of the tunnel

Having taken on several new members of staff over the past couple of months we are now able to begin addressing the website so that it does PRWD justice.

I think you’ll all agree the new homepage for the website make a huge difference. We hope you enjoy it.

Our new homepage…

And what we used to have…

The website’s preview will be launched later today, with the major rebuild underway and likely to go live later this summer. We’ll keep you posted.