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September 6, 1999

New Mantra: Usability

Software that doesn't work well--and intuitively--will no longer fly in today's customer-driven marketplace. With the right tools and enough questions, it's possible to design apps that will keep people coming back.

By Andrew Binstock

Illustration by Dennis Harms

Related links:

sidebar: Design Lucid Software With The User In Mind

sidebar: Put Flawed Software To The Test

PDF file: Point-Of-Sale Interface Mock-Up
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ll sorts of models and tools exist to help IT shops develop excellent software, but during the past year--thanks to the incursion of the Web into all aspects of business--a new, singular principle has emerged as the defining standard for software quality: usability.

Can your customers use your software intuitively? Or, perhaps an even better question: Is your software a barrier to sales or some other part of your business? These are concerns that run far deeper than interface design. Consider where E-business is heading: As the Web replaces order clerks, for example, the same applications previously used only by clerks will also be used by customers logging on through your Web site. While you could train your clerks, you'll have no opportunity to train customers to use your application--so its design had better be intuitive.

Moreover, customers at your site are discretionary buyers and will abandon the order process any time they run into difficulty with your software interface. No salesperson will be there to talk them into staying to complete the transaction; they'll simply click off and go elsewhere. Jupiter Communications, an industry analyst group, estimates that 27% of all Web transactions are abandoned at the payment screen. "The vast majority of these customers will stay with your competitor," says Allan McNaughton, engineering manager at search engine AltaVista, "if they prefer the process they find there."

The bottom line is that usability needs to be your No. 1 development priority. Of course, this ranking assumes you have already handled traditional software-quality issues. Bugs in your Web software, such as missing pages, hanging programs, or general run-of-the-mill errors, are the kiss of death. Usability assumes properly working programs. Generate one HTTP 404 error ("Page not found") while a customer is at your site, and that customer will likely go elsewhere. The Web has raised the stakes on software quality, and IT departments must respond.

Two factors central to building usability into applications are interaction design and usability testing. Design is a front-end concern, while testing is at the back end. Both practices seek to ensure that the user's experience with the software is consistent with expectations; that the use of the software is intuitive; and that there's no needless obstacle to the successful completion of the transaction.

Interaction design obliges you to do some requirements planning, and it answers this question: What does the customer expect to do at your site? To be successful, you must thoroughly know the answer. Fall for glib or facile replies ("Buy stuff") and you'll miss the point of usability entirely. Few retail sites are visited primarily for the specific purpose of buying a known item.

"The shopping experience retail customers want consists of two activities: browsing the merchandise and selecting specific items, then paying for the items," says Alan Cooper, founder of Cooper Interaction Design, a Palo Alto, Calif., design firm. "Both activities must be designed for. The browsing must be easy and comfortable, and the payment should require very little difficulty and pose the minimum of obstacles."

To enhance the customer's experience, Cooper recommends that the second time the customer visits a site, he should be recognized, so that he feels he is returning. This aspect can consist of greeting the customer or keeping payment information from the previous visit available to facilitate payment.

One site that performs these activities well is Amazon.com. The online bookseller offers notably easy browsing, and the experience is enhanced by reading the reviews of other purchasers. Also, each title that's requested comes with suggested related titles that might be of interest, and the search engine doesn't ask whether you're searching for a title, an author, or a topic--it figures out what you want and gets you where you want to go. A spokesman for Amazon.com says the development of the site "is the result of very substantial input from our customers. We are constantly seeking and applying data we get about how our customers use the site."

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