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07/25/2001 Archived Entry: "25-July-2001 -- The Usability of Usability"

The Usability of Usability (WebWord) -- "As far as I can see, the things that were done right in making web sites more usable didn't happen in the usability community. It's interesting to note that the most usable sites in our studies, such as Dell, eBay, Amazon, and Edmunds have no real usability efforts to speak of. eBay has a relatively new team that is only a handful of folks, Dell also has a small team compared to the size and impact of their site. The others: practically no usability team. Now contrast that with the organizations which have the largest usability groups, such as Microsoft and IBM. From a usability perspective, their sites don't do nearly as well. There are substantial usability problems that permeate both companies sites seemingly without resolution, even though the teams work very hard." (Comments: This is a really amazing interview with Jared Spool. It is long but it is worth your time to read. If you don't have time to read it all, print it out. Be sure to post your comments below!)

Replies: 4 comments

Once again, Jared rattles our assumptions with the results of his research. He began rattling mine with his first book, _Web Site Usability: A Designer's Guide_ and continues to do so in this interview. Many thanks, Jared. I believe it's time for another cage-rattling book!

Posted by Dick Miller @ 07/27/2001 10:16 AM EST

An extremely informative and thought provoking interview. Though there is no question that increasing sales is the goal of a corporation, what happens to "user centered design" when you lead users to impulse buying?
What do customers who are lead to impulse buying think about the store/site?
Can this backfire?
Does anybody say "I always spend too much money at store A, I'll just go to store B instead?"

Posted by Berna @ 07/27/2001 01:47 PM EST

The problem is, so called Usability teams at (ibm and ms) are too conservative. Things appear more simpler, which means less options and more clicks for access.

More appropriate options will make visitors more lucky, there for it's the better design.

There's a trick behind making sites feel more amateurish, eBay and Amazon do this, they are not afraid and the sites yell "confidence". Sort of like giving you a few cards to choose from, rather then picking one from a stack. It's easier to point.

Great article!

Posted by Mark Monciardini @ 07/29/2001 04:23 PM EST

Some interesting claims, notably:
"when we actually compared the usability of sites to their download times, we didn't see any correlations. None, zero, zip. If this "fact" was true, we should've seen something."

If Mr. Spool is going to make a bold assertion like this, which contradicts so much previous research, I would like to see certain things: like a detailed explanation of the test procedure that delivered these results, and indeed a detailed record of the results themselves.

Personally I find the above statement absurd. I would love to know exactly what research led to this conclusion. This kind of wild allegation does nothing for the credibility of the usability profession.

Posted by Tom Farrell @ 08/02/2001 10:30 AM EST

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