User experience blog

Furniture giants missing basic website usability

By Jon White on 15 June 2009

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Having moved house recently, I spent a lot of time online researching properties and I also began to look for sofas online, and was surprised by what I found. Given that I was just browsing and not really sure what I was looking for, I tried the websites of a couple of major UK furniture retailers (who shall remain nameless) and picked the most generic category to begin browsing.

furniture3It was then that I found that, although there were often 60+ products for me to view, there was no sort function on the product results – I couldn’t view the products in order of price, colour or anything else, I was stuck with the random order that I was given. It was then that I decided that it wasn’t worth spending the time going through all the results and left the websites.

Amazon is a great example of a much more user friendly approach to selling sofas. The website not only offers a sort function but also a faceted browsing function (see image) which allows you to filter out results that aren’t your desired brands or in your price range (among other things).

A sort function really is basic usability for an ecommerce website and without it, retailers will probably find that a lot of users drop-off because they don’t want to spend the time looking through all the results to find suitable products.

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The importance of Human Computer Interaction to UX

By Elisa del Galdo on 10 June 2009

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I have often been involved in conversations on the differences between those user experience practitioners who are trained and educated in the more traditional areas of industrial engineering, ergonomics, cognitive psychology, or human factors and those who have come to the profession via a degree in Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Those who have the more traditional degrees are eligible to work on things like air traffic control systems and the design of nuclear power plants, but a great many of these people, like myself, have chosen to work in the IT industry on more commercial applications.

As a result, the debate often focuses on the skill-sets possessed by practitioners who have taken the different routes, and the key questions asked are:

  • How important is it for a practitioner to have a deep understanding of the visual, intellectual, motor, and memory capabilities of the users when they are designing commercial systems?
  • How important is it to have the knowledge of implementing empirical research techniques for evaluations when they are rarely used?

The answer to these questions obviously depends on the situation, but the growing demand for usability work in recent years has meant that individuals with very little training in this area are also conducting evaluations and creating designs. In addition, the cost and time pressure of today’s IT industry means that empirical research is not always viable or even understandable by our clients, so simpler and quicker techniques need to be employed in order to get data to inform design.

Therefore, is it necessary, when employing these ‘discount’ techniques for evaluation and creating user interface designs, to have a deeper understanding of cognition and empirical techniques? There is also the question of whether the use of user interface design standards and guidelines, and the knowledge gained in a couple days of training is enough to get effective results. In this fast growing industry, HCI is becoming increasingly important along with how to provide quality services in a fast moving and economically strapped environment.

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Bing vs. Google: A user experience perspective

By Mru Kodali on 5 June 2009

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Microsoft’s taking on Google on its home turf with its new search engine Bing. And Acer’s launching laptops with Android, Google’s operating system, which has traditionally been Microsoft’s territory. How does the new kid on the search block fare in terms of user experience?

bing_smallBing uses powerful imagery that’s eye catching although whether that’s a good or bad thing for search remains to be seen. Google’s always gone down the minimalist route when it comes to visual design. Interestingly, Bing’s background images seem to change almost daily, so a bit more frequently than the Google holiday logos.

Bing’s search button doesn’t have a visible text label associated with it. It relies on a magnifying glass icon to do the job. In fact, there isn’t a single mention of the word search on the entire page! I’d say spelling it out never hurt anyone.

google-even-moreBing’s ‘More’ search options button takes the user to a page that bizarrely shows just 1 additional item. They’d do well to include this extra ‘xRank’ option on the actual search page itself - 1 more link isn’t going to overwhelm users. Google handles additional search options well, with a ‘More’ drop down that lets the user see exactly what else there is, right there on the page. It’s only past ‘Even more’ that Google takes users to a different page entirely.

bing-result-previewThe feather in Bing’s cap is its preview feature on the search results page. This is a nifty little feature as it saves users to-ing and fro-ing between the search results page and the websites. Till now, the only way to explore the results in a bit more detail was to leave the search engine and go to the actual pages. An area that this preview’s great for is online comparison shopping. Imagine quickly being able to see the differences right there on the page and making a decision. The downside is that its design’s quite subtle with a vertical bar that’s easily missed if one doesn’t hover to the right of the results. It’s more likely to be an accidental discovery than an intuitive one. So while it’s ingenious, its visibility can certainly be improved upon.

All in all, the differences between Bing and Google seem minor with the exception of Bing’s preview. But this may be all that’s needed to attract users away from Google. The final verdict will of course be the people’s, so let’s wait and see how Bing fares in the popularity stakes. Meanwhile, have you tried Bing? How did you find it? Tell us about your experiences.

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What’s your favourite Firebug feature?

By Paul McCarthy on 2 June 2009

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I think it’s probably fair to say that we (CSS developers) owe the people who created Firebug a big wet kiss. But there are still people muddling on without this wonderful Firefox toolbar.

The more time I’ve spent with Firebug, the more I’ve come to rely on it and the more I discover it can do. So it’s got me thinking, maybe there’s stuff it does that I just haven’t discovered yet.

So I’d like you to take a moment to tell me your firebug top tip, that really saves you time. It doesn’t matter how small or obvious. To get the ball rolling here are two features I love:

net-panelThe net panel - amongst other things it ensures you aren’t referencing any missing files plus checking things aren’t taking too long to load. Great for making sure you haven’t referenced any old files and that everything is neat and tidy.

box-modelThe lovely layout panel - more obvious but so useful. Just inspect an item and it’s margin, border, padding are shown as a box model diagram! Brilliant.

Let us know what your favourite Firebug feature is?

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3 comments on What’s your favourite Firebug feature?

Google Street View: Privacy concerns vs. the benefits

By Mru Kodali on 26 May 2009

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Google’s been refused permission to even roam the streets to collect images for its Street View service in Greece due to privacy concerns. In Japan, it’s been forced to re-collect data as the original pictures pried into people’s backyards. And in Germany, Hamburg officials are seeking guarantees that raw image data will be deleted once identifiable information’s been blurred out. The UK launch a couple of months ago seems plain sailing in comparison.

streetviewSome of us are using Google Street View to make our lives easier by:

  • Checking out an area when flat hunting before deciding to go for an in-person viewing
  • Verifying the location of client offices, a restaurant or shop so you know which way to go once there
  • Making sure you know what the building looks like so you recognise it when in the vicinity

It’s not inconceivable that this technology may soon become indispensable just as sat nav. has for in-car navigation. Are privacy concerns akin to growing pains that we go through before accepting new technology that’s different? RFID tags faced privacy objections but are commonplace in many stores now. Even the Internet faced privacy concerns but privacy activitists themselves have now adopted this technology to spread their message.

I wonder if it’s just a matter of time before Greek citizens demand the conveniences afforded by Street View. How much of our privacy are we willing to compromise in exchange for the benefits of new technology? Or is our view and definition of privacy changing in this fast-paced age of technological development that we’re not really succumbing our rights?

It’d be interesting to see if the reaction’s different in other cultures if the launch should ever expand to cover more of the planet.

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