Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

When designing a site, obviously a major consideration, at each stage should be your target audience. This isn’t a new idea, it’s the same for any kind of media be it audio, video web or print. Only with the web, however is user interaction something that must be thought through carefully with regards to your target audience. Different people use the web in different ways. I’m not just talking about people with disabilities or people of different genders. Being tech savvy or non-tech savvy can have a massive impact on the way in which users will interact with the site and this, of course, will have knock on effects in terms of repeat visits and those all important money-making conversions. The fact that users may not, and probably will not, know as much about using the internet as you do is something that I think gets overlooked too often.

Having worked in technical support for over 6 years I have gotten to see first hand how people perceive and use the Internet. You’ll get people who understand it, who know what a browser is and what a web site is and maybe, some rudimentary understanding of the way the web works… if you’re lucky, and others who just don’t get it. If you’re reading this then I guess you fall into the first category. Congratulations! You’re easy to make websites for. Your needs are clear and you can accomplish calls to action quickly because you know what you’re doing. It can be safely assumed that you meet the minimum computer/web literacy levels required to make full use of the sites you visit. No such assumption can be made for the latter group.

Designers and developers need to think long and hard about how their site/app will be handled by the kind of people who say things like “Have you got the Internet on your computer?” because you can never know how much they really understand. They’ll probably only know just enough to muddle along, to turn on their computer “Open up the Internet” and go to popular sites like eBay, YouTube and facebook (If they haven’t thrown a massive hissy fit and left upon seeing the new layout). These people’s surfing habits are based on routine. Anything they’re not expecting can be instantly met with confusion and even hostility, neither of which are good for business. The following measures can potentially save you a lot of hassle and make you a lot more money.

1. Make the user feel secure and at ease. – Internet users these days are paranoid about security because the media and IE bombard them with security warnings and scare tactics. Unfortunately these users don’t understand enough to know what’s trustworthy and what isn’t. Be as brief and concise as you can in your copy and use nice calming colours like light blues and greens to make the user feel at ease. Do not, however, try to incorporate whale song or any sounds, for that matter. They’ll just piss people off.
2. Make it easy for them to find out their password. – People forget passwords, as sure as death and taxes. Make sure you provide them a very obvious means of getting hold of their password should this happen. If the user has to think about how to get their password back, chances are they won’t bother. They’ll leave and never come back.
3. Don’t surprise them. – As I mentioned above, people’s browsing habits are based on routine. If your site has an unorthodox navigation or even scrolls sideways instead of up and down, bang! You just lost a chunk of potential users. I’m not saying don’t push the boundaries, just know when not to. If your site will be used by the general (non-tech) public, stick to the time honoured easily recognisable layouts and navigation.  This means sticking to a width that doesn’t exceed about 980px for those 1024×768 resolution users. Case in point: Look how many people got pissed off with the new Facebook layout… Come on, you know one of them!
4. Hold their hand if they want it. – If a user doesn’t understand what to do next they might just leave the site, there’s no real way around that. You can give yourself a fighting chance, however, by providing clear, obvious links to some help. If a form they filled in doesn’t validate, make sure it’s clear why this is the case and offer a bit of assistance in the form of a “What’s this?” link to some help text. Careful though, make sure this isn’t visible all the time as it may be seen as patronising to more web-literate users. Something like ClueTip can provide this functionality and also look awesome!
5. Make sure they see the call to action immediately. – This one kind of goes without saying but it’s amazing how many sites there are out there that are trying to sell something but don’t make it clear right off the bat what they’re actually selling, or how to buy it. Make your call to action stand right out and shout “This is what we’re offering and this is how you get it!” As a rule I like to make sure that no scrolling is required for the call to action to be visible. Check out Silverback to see this done very well indeed.
6. Provide a version that works in IE6 *takes cover*. – There is still a large user-base for that god-awful browser and as much as it pains me to say it I think we still do need to provide at least limited support for it. It tends to be the non-techies and corporate network PCs that are still using IE6 which, puts them smack bang in the middle of the user group I’m talking about here. Remember: This version can be lo-fi. There’s no problem with it looking less pretty, it just has to work the same. Massive banners that say “YOU’RE USING AN OLD BROWSER. UPGRADE NOW” help no one and may just put people off because it’s starting their experience on a negative.

All of these things will contribute to users, not only completing a call to action, but to them wanting to come back and do it all over again. Happy users = Happy client = Happy bank manager = Happy you.

One area where these guidelines will really pay off is when you are constructing a corporate intranet. People’s jobs may require them to use the site so getting fed up and leaving isn’t an option for them. More to the point, if they complain to their superiors that the site sucks you’re a lot more likely to get it in the neck, not something you want to have to deal with.

Of course this is only the start. You can follow all these guidelines to the best of your ability and still come a cropper. For this reason it is crucial to invest some time in usability testing. You can do this in a way that costs nothing (observing friends and family using the site) or in a way that costs a fortune (hiring a usability testing company such as ClearLeft) but, no matter what, do it and make sure your client knows you’re doing it.

Have you designed a site where you’ve come up against an unusual usability hurdle? have you built a site for users with an extremely low level of computer literacy? I’d love to hear your side of this so be sure to drop a comment.

Dan