There are 100s of books aimed at people who design web sites. Books that tell you how to write HTML. Books that show you how to design 3D buttons. Books on programming in Perl, Java, etc.
This book takes a completely different approach: it assumes that the people who use web sites just want an easy life. This requires simplicity - not complexity. So, this book on web site development hardly mentions technology. Instead, it focuses on the customers of the technology: it explains how to design e-commerce sites that ordinary people can use (not just yourself, your boss or client!).
The book has now been on the market for three years, but never received the same attention as for instance the usability books from Jakob Nielsen or Steve Krug.
But if you would like a more structured approach then this book is a good pick. His approach is to design a clear roadmap for the web site design or re-design process with lots and lots of forms and checklists that we can put into use Monday morning.
CUSTOMER-CENTRED DESIGN PROCESS
David Travis is a British usability expert with a background from designing Industry Standards. He has designed a customer-centred design process that has four steps. I will outline these steps below:
Step 1: ANALYZE THE OPPORTUNITY
- Identify the stakeholders (who are they? what are their motivations? prioritise the list!)
- Write the site mandate (why it exists? which objectives?)
- Segment the market (e.g. by using Moore's technology adoption lifecyle)
Step 2: BUILD THE CONTEXT OF USE
- Build customer profiles (demographics, web site behavior, needs, and then you design personas)
- Build environment profiles (physical, socio-cultural, and technical)
- Build task profiles (prioritise task portfolio: value to customers vs. ease of implementation)
Step 3: CREATE THE USER EXPERIENCE (an iterative process)
- Develop key performance indicators for the site
- Develop information architecture (the high-level, conceptual model)
- Lay out the screens (the detailed design)
- Evaluate usability (using experts and representative customers)
Step 4: TRACK REAL-WORLD USAGE AND CONTINUOUSLY IMPROVE THE SITE.
The job is done - isn't it? To paraphrase Chuchill: this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. This is the end of the beginning. You will need to change and update the web site as your customers change, if you want a successful web site. These key measures will keep your finger on the pulse of your site: Conversion rate, usage rate by registered customers, fulfilment performance and customer retention. Note that the two last ones are "beyond-the-interface" metrics.
So regularly you need to go back to step 2 or even step 1 again and improve wherever you can. As Einstein said: "The questions remain the same, but the answers differ" as we evolve.
Each of these bullets is devoted a chapter with tools and techniques, so the process is well documented. The author has refined his customer-centred design process through a lot of work with customers, such as HP, Motorola, Financial Times, and Thomas Cook).
Based on his experience, the author suggests three components of a web site's usability.
SCREEN DESIGN:
Although, most web site professionals nowadays accept usability as key to success, then many have a very narrow view of it. According to the author, many think it's only about screen design: choosing the correct fonts, colours, and icons. But in reality, usability is a process. It is not something that can be stapled on at the end of development. It's like putting lipstick on a bulldog ... Optimising screen design is perhaps only 15% of a web site's usability performance.
CONSISTENCY:
Screen design is just one of 3 important components. Consistency is the second key feature and it may account for about 25% of a web site's usability, says David Travis. We can all point to annoying inconsistencies in (or between) much of the software we use. The same goes for web sites.
TASK FOCUS:
The third component of usability, the remaining 60 %, is accounted for by task focus. You know a web site has task focus when you get a feeling that the person who designed the site knew exactly what you wanted to do. The site works the way you expect. There is no need to go searching through menus or dialogue boxes. The main things you want to do are there in front of you - easy to find and simple to carry out. It's intuitive, just like the best computer games, where very quickly the "interface" disappears and you are instead absorbed by the universe of the game - the task.
Of the three components of usability, task focus is the most complicated. Rules for good visual screen design are plentiful. Consistency is a matter of discipline and testing against relevant guides. But achieving task focus is much more complicated - it requires a process, and it is what this book attempts to do (cf. the four step process above).
If you are a structured person, you will love this book. Most usability books consist of many valuable guidelines and hints but are often rather unstructured in their process. This book offers a roadmap to success with the step-by-step approach.
If you are interested in e-commerce usability, then I also recommend you take a look at these books (less structured, but with a lot of useful guidelines):
- Jakob Nielsen: Prioritizing Web Usability (2006)
- Eisenberg: Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results (2005)
- Steve Krug: Don't make me think - A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (2005)
PS. The book contains about 200 pages.
Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business
