The final speaker of the day is Shailesh Manga, from Optimal Usability Limited

Opening Comments
Shailesh recognizes that he’s the only thing standing between us and drinks.

Usability covers everything in real life. Many things are done very badly.

Agenda:
– Introduction
– Is usability a good idea?
– Common usability problems
– Summary and Questions

Key theme: To beat into you what you’ve already heard.

Introduction
Usability, per Jakob Nielsen, “Usability is the measure of the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with a product or system – whether a web site, software application, mobile technology, or any user-operated device.”
Another definition, “usability really just means making sure that something works well”

There is a rich toolkit available for usability studies: field studies, surveys/questionnaires, use cases, participatory design, focus groups, information architecture, card sorting, paper prototyping, expert reviews, and user testing, among others.

Where does usability fit into the process?
– In the analysis phase, it’s all about understanding the user’s need.
– In the design phase, get into information design, heuristic reviews, design critiques

Is Usability a Good Idea?
Yes, because:
(a) reduced costs
(b) increased user productivity
(c) decreased user goals
(d) decreased training costs
(e) reduced development costs
(f) decreased user support costs
(g) increased job satisfaction

Eg, some tasks:
– Finding information about an employee … a difference between a best-case intranet ($53) compared to a worst-case intranet ($491).
– … Over a year, for a range of tasks, the total different can be up to a $5000 differential.

Users annoyed with the technical products are not slow to turn to computer rage. See Computer Rage for more.

Trends with the Intranet:
– More intranets are becoming template-based
– No standards across Intranets … although standards within each Intranet
– Shift toward richer content, eg, video, collaborative elements, personalization. People expecting more out of the Intranet.
– Almost all intranets see increased use when usability is improved

Common Usability Problems
Question to the audience: “what are the common usability problems?”
– System jargon driven by the developers
– Inconsistency over time as Intranet page diverge.
– Information overload
– Low level of technical capability on the behalf of many staff. Eg, through poor training.

What about poor search? Some best practice guidelines:
– Ensure there is a search box on every page; search is one of the most important functions on every intranet
– Default search to all of the Intranet
– Index help information in search
– Ensure results are easy to scan

Consistency is important. A common and consistent mental model is really important.
– Put a search box on every page
– Put a logo on the top left
– Link the logo to the home page
– Use standard labels
– Use consistent navigation
– Establish internal standards

Information architecture and navigation: key principles:
– Help the user know where they are. Eg, highlight the user’s current location in the navigation bars
– Help the user know where they’ve been, eg, change the color of visited links
– Help the user know where they can do, eg, ensure that there is a logical and natural organizational of information with clear structure and systematic, clear and meaningful labels.
– For navigation, label things using tasks rather than catchy terms/branding
– For navigation, provide concise descriptive names
– For navigation, beware of quick links, eg, what’s the purpose of quick links in a given intranet? Is it to pave over bad design?
– For navigation, it should reflect common activities and groupings
– For navigation, offer HTML information and don’t be lazy with PDFs

Task-driven content: knowing your users, and what they want to do. It’s important in all design activities, not just intranets.
– Intranets should vary because users and their tasks can be very different. There may be similarities between organizations in the same industries, but there will be differences across industries.
– Understand who your users are and what they are trying to do, eg, have afternoon tea with them and talk
– Establish a task hierarchy and ensure clutter does not impede primary tasks
– Provide goal-driven content … provide the most important information first, use simple language, chunk information into manageable sizes for reading on screen.

Summary and Questions
– Usability is about designing for people first.
– Good intranet usability saves serious time and money
– Ensure the fundamentals are right
– Feedback from users as the intranet evolves is critical
– Guidelines exist, but it has to fit with your situation — continually get users involved

Usability isn’t rocket science. It’s common sense. Get out and get to know your users.

Other
Shailesh gave out two copies of Don’t Make Me Think as prizes for good questions / funny stories. He highly recommends the book.