Usability principles: clear, convenient, comfortable. Briefly about the main thing. Communication with the user. Principles of web resource usability

IN modern world Understanding the basics of usability is a must. Most website visitors do not take the actions that resource owners expect from them. People don’t order goods, don’t register, don’t subscribe to updates, etc. What is the reason for this user behavior?
The reason is simple - the resource turns out to be inconvenient for the user. For example, in order to “order” a product, you have to go through several pages, and the registration button is completely impossible to find. This makes the resource uncompetitive.
How to reduce the number of refusals to use the site? If a project needs a thorough approach, you can contact the studio and specialists. Usability labs offer not only various options testing and interface design. And if your budget is limited, you can try to learn the basics of usability yourself.

To develop an interface yourself, you need to consider a few simple rules:

Rule of 7.
It is known that the abilities human brain not limitless. A person is capable of holding no more than 5-9 entities in short-term memory. Therefore, you should not place more than 7 items in the navigation.
From this point of view, the site tutu.ru certainly deserves good reviews, since the main functionality was placed in the site header, limited to 4 menu items and a drop-down list.
While the Russian Railways website is an excellent example of what not to do. The amount of scattered information makes your eyes dazzling, you just want to close it and never enter again.
2 second rule.
The less a user waits for a response from a program, website or application, the greater the likelihood that he will not give up using this product. 2 seconds is the optimal time interval for the program’s response, and this is what you should strive for. So you should think a hundred times before installing a heavy flash screensaver on your site, as they did on mtv.ru.
3 click rule.
Nobody likes to surf pages looking for necessary information and functionality. The visitor should be able to get from the main page to any other page of the site by making no more than 3 clicks. This also contributes to more successful indexing of the site by search robots.
Fitts rule
A model of human movement published by Paul Fitts in 1954 determines the time required for fast travel to the target area as a function of distance to target and target size.
Metaphorically, the rule can be explained as follows: it is easier to point to a lighter than to a match. But pointing to a cliff or a huge airship is equally easy. If an interface object, such as a link, is already large enough, there is no point in making it even larger.
Inverted pyramid
Usability guru Jakob Nielsen himself adheres to this principle. The article should begin with a summary statement, followed by key points, and end with the least important information for readers. This is optimal for the web, where the user wants to get information as quickly as possible.

But even an interface designed according to all the rules is worth testing. Focus groups are the most affordable way for testing on your own.

Testing consists of four stages:

Focus group selection. Testers must match your target audience. You shouldn't ask grandma to test an application to find driver updates.
Drawing up a test plan– a list of tasks for which your product is designed. This is the list that testers will follow. If you are running an online store, the list should include such tasks as searching for a product, obtaining information about a product, the path from receiving information about a product to ordering it, and removing a product from the cart.
Testers complete a list of tasks and fix errors. Anything can be considered an error: a captcha that is too complex, a lack of a message from the server that “an item has been added to the cart,” the inability to change the number of items in the cart or cancel an action, etc.
After identifying and correcting errors, the testing cycle must be completed again. The cycle must be repeated until the results meet the necessary requirements.

Interface quality assessment should be carried out at each stage of the project. Don't leave usability testing until the very last moment. Serious errors simply cannot be corrected due to the fact that the project is in its final stages. And then - either redo it again, or get a low usability score.
As a rule, 5 testers are enough to identify major bugs.

Example on topic

Finally, let's look at typical mistakes using the example of the site of the famous performer Vlad Topalov. Suppose we want to arrange a performance with his management and want to find their contacts on the website. And this is where the quest begins!
The first thing we see on the site is a black splash screen with an “enter” link and a proposal to update the flash player.

The “enter” button sounds like a call to get to the main page of the site. But instead of the main page we find ourselves on a “blank slate”.

Here the image of a red ribbon catches our eye, and we, of course, think that this is a link, and maybe even to a menu. But no - this is just a symbol of the fight against AIDS, which is intended to indicate the singer’s social position and nothing more. And then the hand reaches to the left top corner. And there’s not a menu at all, but a button full screen mode. A few seconds of confusion, and the search is over, the coveted menu is at the bottom, in the center of the screen. Click... and see the PLAYER! We have been deceived again.

While the clip is broadcast in the player, we continue to search for the menu. Now it is at the top, in the very center. In the drop-down list, we finally see the coveted word “Contacts”. But even here, not everything is so simple. These contacts cannot be copied. You'll have to rewrite it manually!

Now about the numbers. The waiting time for a response may vary depending on the connection speed, but in any case it will be more than 2 seconds. And the path to the management contact page took 7 clicks. And it could take just one.
Vlad Topalov, of course, can afford such “creative” solutions. But it is obvious that such decisions are simply disastrous for business.

We offer you a translation of an article about basic rules and the principles on which usability is built, published on the SmashingMagazine blog (with our additions and comments to boot).

When it comes to creating a web project, every developer who respects himself and his clients acts from the position of synergy of his own vision and the opinions of customers into a single high-quality product. The most difficult thing about this is correcting wrong ideas and unsuccessful proposals coming from outside. To make this possible, you must clearly communicate your own point of view, supported by both fundamental usability principles and recommendations based on your own experience.

That is why this article discusses the most basic rules, principles and recommendations regarding usability.

2 second rule

One of the most basic rules of usability. The user will not wait more than two seconds for a response from the system. The value “2” itself was chosen arbitrarily, however, in the process of monitoring the loading speed of the site’s pages, it was able to defend itself.

IN general case, how less speed loading pages, the better. This applies to projects of any complexity. After all, there is always the opportunity to compete for an extra split second. Who knows, maybe they will help your visitor see your offer.

Rule 7±2

This rule was put forward by George Miller, who conducted research on the human brain, namely on its ability to perceive and process incoming information. So, as a result, results were obtained that indicate that short-term memory is capable of holding from 5 to 9 entities.

Integrating the results obtained into the field of website building, we can talk about the maximum values for the number of elements in the navigation menu. At the same time, many webmasters argue that there should be no more than 7 such elements. In turn, there is an alternative point of view, which suggests that such a statement is not true for all projects (large portals and online stores). If we talk about, say, an ordinary site, then the rule can be considered quite workable.

3 click rule

Many people know about this rule. It is perhaps the most widespread. Its essence is that the user, having reached the main page of the site in search of information, must make no more than 3 clicks and get to the desired content.

In human terms, navigation should be simple and uncomplicated, so that the user shortest time I was able to find what I was looking for.

This rule is not official, but conditional. For most sites it makes sense.

For some resources, the understandability of the system is ensured by, for example, 10 transitions. The main thing is that the user is comfortable and clearly understands in which direction he should move.

Pareto rule or 80/20 principle

The point is that 20% of user actions result in 80% of the total effect . This rule comes from the business sector, where “20% of customers account for 80% of the company’s sales.” At the same time, in the field of usability and ecommerce this rule no less relevant. You should identify these 20% of your audience and increase attention to their needs, creating for them the most comfortable conditions for working with the site.

6 rules from the perspective of website and application design development

Ben Shneiderman conducted research aimed at studying human-computer interactions. As a result, on their basis, the fundamental principles of design development were formulated:

The logical location and presence of each element;
Users are divided into ordinary and advanced. For the second group, it is necessary to create opportunities for more fast work: special abilities(for example, implementation RSS feeds), hotkeys, abbreviations, etc.
A website or application visitor should be confident that all interactions between him and your product are under his full control;
Try not to overload users' short-term memory;
Through your product, you enter into a kind of dialogue with your visitor. This dialogue must be complete;
Provide easily accessible and informative feedback.

Inverted pyramid

Inverted pyramid- a style of writing that brings the main idea to the forefront and can be read at the very beginning of the article. Essentially, the article will begin with a conclusion, and this, in turn, will be followed by the main key points. Least important information should be presented at the bottom of the article.

The emergence of this style of presentation is explained by the fact that in the dynamic world of the Internet, users want to find answers in the shortest possible time. Moreover, if the visitor is immediately interested in the content of the article, he is more likely to finish reading it.

Subjective satisfaction

Evaluating the actions of users, it can be noted that they, as a rule, choose not the most optimal path, but the most acceptable one. Those. in search of a solution, they may be satisfied with the quickest and far from the best answer.

The average user will look for a solution that will satisfy his primary needs for information on a specific request, and will not look for alternative solutions, which could potentially cover related issues and provide him with information for a longer period of time.

In custody

Thus, based on the information presented above, you can form a basic idea regarding the principles, recommendations and basic both public and unspoken rules of usability.

It is important to understand that the user does not want to think. Doesn’t want to think about how to perform this or that action on the site. Therefore, focus on ease of implementation and intuitive things that will be kind of pointers on the visitor’s path to the goal.

If you have any additions to what is presented, recommendations or comments, we will be grateful if you share them with us in the comments.

November 14, 2011 at 07:02 pm

Usability principles: clear, convenient, comfortable. Briefly about the main thing

Digital Professionals Hub Blog

In today's world, understanding the basics of usability is a necessity. Most website visitors do not take the actions that resource owners expect from them. People don’t order goods, don’t register, don’t subscribe to updates, etc. What is the reason for this user behavior?
The reason is simple - the resource turns out to be inconvenient for the user. For example, in order to “order” a product, you have to go through several pages, and the registration button is completely impossible to find. This makes the resource uncompetitive.
How to reduce the number of refusals to use the site? If a project needs a thorough approach, you can contact the studio and specialists. Usability labs offer not only various testing options and interface design. And if your budget is limited, you can try to learn the basics of usability yourself.

To develop an interface yourself, you need to consider a few simple rules:

Rule of 7.
It is known that the abilities of the human brain are not limitless. A person is capable of holding no more than 5-9 entities in short-term memory. Therefore, you should not place more than 7 items in the navigation.
From this point of view, the site tutu.ru certainly deserves good reviews, since the main functionality was placed in the header of the site, limited to 4 menu items and a drop-down list.
While the Russian Railways website is an excellent example of what not to do. The amount of scattered information makes your eyes dazzling, you just want to close it and never enter again.
2 second rule.
The less a user waits for a response from a program, website or application, the greater the likelihood that he will not give up using this product. 2 seconds is the optimal time interval for the program’s response, and this is what you should strive for. So you should think a hundred times before installing a heavy flash screensaver on your site, as they did on mtv.ru.
3 click rule.
Nobody likes to surf pages looking for the necessary information and functionality. The visitor should be able to get from the main page to any other page of the site by making no more than 3 clicks. This also contributes to more successful indexing of the site by search robots.
Fitts rule
Published by Paul Fitts in 1954, a model of human movement quantifies the time required to quickly move to a target area as a function of distance to target and target size.
Metaphorically, the rule can be explained as follows: it is easier to point to a lighter than to a match. But pointing to a cliff or a huge airship is equally easy. If an interface object, such as a link, is already large enough, there is no point in making it even larger.
Inverted pyramid
Usability guru Jakob Nielsen himself adheres to this principle. The article should begin with a summary, followed by key points, and end with the least important information for readers. This is optimal for the web, where the user wants to get information as quickly as possible.

But even an interface designed according to all the rules is worth testing. Focus groups are the most accessible way to test on your own.

Testing consists of four stages:

Focus group selection. Testers must match your target audience. You shouldn't ask grandma to test an application to find driver updates.
Drawing up a test plan– a list of tasks for which your product is designed. This is the list that testers will follow. If you are running an online store, the list should include such tasks as searching for a product, obtaining information about a product, the path from receiving information about a product to ordering it, and removing a product from the cart.
Testers complete a list of tasks and fix errors. Anything can be considered an error: a captcha that is too complex, a lack of a message from the server that “an item has been added to the cart,” the inability to change the number of items in the cart or cancel an action, etc.
After identifying and correcting errors, the testing cycle must be completed again. The cycle must be repeated until the results meet the necessary requirements.

Example on topic

Finally, let’s look at typical mistakes using the example of the website of the famous performer Vlad Topalov. Suppose we want to arrange a performance with his management and want to find their contacts on the website. And this is where the quest begins!
The first thing we see on the site is a black splash screen with an “enter” link and a proposal to update the flash player.

The “enter” button sounds like a call to get to the main page of the site. But instead of the main page we find ourselves on a “blank slate”.

Here the image of a red ribbon catches our eye, and we, of course, think that this is a link, and maybe even to a menu. But no - this is just a symbol of the fight against AIDS, which is intended to indicate the singer’s social position and nothing more. And then the hand reaches to the upper left corner. And there is not a menu at all, but a full-screen mode button. A few seconds of confusion, and the search is over, the coveted menu is at the bottom, in the center of the screen. Click... and see the PLAYER! We have been deceived again.

Jakob Nielsen

Usability is a qualitative attribute that determines how easy a user interface is to use. The word "usability" also refers to a set of techniques used to improve an interface during the design process.

Usability has five quantitative components:

* Learnability: How easily can users complete basic tasks when encountering an unfamiliar interface for the first time?

* Efficiency: Once users are familiar with the design, how quickly can they complete the same task?

* Memorability: After a user returns to the interface after a certain period of time, how easy will it be for him to regain his skills in using this interface?

* Errors: How many errors does the user make, how serious are these errors, how easily can the user correct these errors?

* Satisfaction: how pleasant is the user to use this interface?

In addition to usability, there are many other important qualitative signs design. One of the key ones is utility, which describes the functionality of the design and answers the question: is the interface what the user needs? Usability and usefulness are equally important: what good is a program, even if it's easy to use, if it doesn't do what you need? A program that hypothetically does what you need, but you cannot work with it because of its complex interface, is also bad. To study the usefulness of a program, you can use the same methods that you use to study the quality of its usability.

On the Web, usability is a necessary condition survival. If a website is difficult to use, visitors will simply leave it. If home page The site does not clearly and clearly state what the company does, and what tasks the site allows to perform, visitors leave. If the site is confusing, visitors will leave. If the information on the site is difficult to understand and does not respond to key issues visitors, they leave. There are no such visitors who carefully study " reference guide on working with the site” or spend their time mastering its interface. IN Web is complete There are plenty of other sites out there, so leaving a site is the first instinct visitors have when they encounter a problem.

The first rule of e-commerce is: if visitors cannot find a product, they will not be able to buy it.

Today's experience shows that approximately 10% of the project budget should be spent on usability. On average, this will help to more than double the quality of a website, and a little less than double the quality of an Intranet site. For software and other products, the degree of quality improvement tends to be a little lower, but still significant.

When developing products for internal use Consider that improving usability by 2 times means reducing the time for training users by half, will allow you to double the sales volume, the number of registered users and orders, and in general, increase by 2 times the result that you expect to receive from the project.

There are many methods for studying usability, but the most basic and most useful is user testing of your design.

It consists of three elements:

Select users that are most typical for your project/product, for example, visitors to commercial sites or employees of your company who often use the Internet (in the latter case, those who do not work in your department should be selected);
- Ask them to perform the most common tasks;
- Keep track of what users do, where they succeed, and where difficulties arise with the interface. Be quiet and listen to what they have to say.

The most important thing is to test with each user. Let each of them independently solve the problems that arise before him.

If you help them or draw attention to some specific element on the screen, you will ruin the test results.

To identify the most serious usability problems, it is enough to involve 5 users in testing. Instead of spending money on a large, expensive study, it is best to conduct several small tests and make changes to the design after each of them, so you can immediately correct the identified errors. This incremental design method works best to improve the quality of the final product. The more versions and ideas you roll out on users, the better.
Usability plays a role at every stage of the project. Assessing the quality of the interface at each stage is just one reason why I recommend conducting multiple, quick and cheap tests. This is what it looks like:

Before starting to develop a new design, test the old design to identify good moments, which should be left or strengthened, and bad points that cause difficulties for users.

If you are not working on an intranet project, research the designs of your competitors to get cheap data on possible options interfaces that have the same functions as yours.

Test in real conditions to evaluate how users interact with the interface in their workplace environment.

Create paper prototypes of one or more design options and test them with users. The less time you spend implementing an idea, the better, since you will still have to change the design based on test results.

Hone in on the ideas that perform best across multiple tests. Gradually move from a sketchy design on paper to a more detailed and detailed one on the computer. Conduct tests at every stage of change.

Check the design for compliance with generally accepted usability rules.

Once you've decided on your final design and implemented it, test it again. There are always minor errors at the implementation stage.

Don't leave testing your design with users until the very last moment. If you do this, most critical errors that will be found during the test will no longer be correctable. Many of these errors will be structural in nature, and you will have to redo everything all over again to fix them.

The only way to get quality user interface- start testing from the very beginning of the project development and continue to conduct tests at each stage.

Order an audit of your website from Webcom Performance, our staff will conduct a detailed analysis of all website parameters and provide you with detailed report with recommendations for correcting errors on the site, improving the structure and functionality.

Good day, dear readers. I think all of you have heard the word usability. Many people even know what it is, but some only think they know.

It so happened that in my practice I had to come across very closely not just the concept of usability, but to analyze the site, express my opinion and give recommendations for improvement. Moreover, I analyzed it not from the point of view of web design, but from the point of view of the effectiveness of the site as a business tool.

The most difficult thing for me in this situation was not identifying problematic issues on the site, but the explanations themselves why it was considered problematic.

Naturally, I’m not going to pretend to have deep knowledge of website usability and I’m not going to compete with specialized resources on this topic. The few publications that I will devote to usability will be mostly for organizing my knowledge, consolidating the topic and cheat sheets for the future.

I also note that I consider this topic not so much from the point of view of a web developer and web design, but from the point of view of an Internet marketer.

That is why in the previous article I shared, which explains the view on usability described below.

I'd like to start by saying that most of the information about usability on various web design blogs is just the tip of the iceberg. This is due to several reasons, and one of them is that usability is not some kind of ease of use of a site that any web designer can come up with, it is a separate large-scale direction in development software, which employs real professionals - usability engineers.

A little history of usability

Of all the definitions that I came across on the Internet, in fact, none of them was a definition. those. It cannot be said that usability is the science of..., or usability is a set of measures....

Of all the variety of definitions, for now I decided to focus on the definition international standard ISO 9241-11, according to which:

Usability is a degree with which the product can be used certain users in a certain context of use to achieve certain goals with due efficiency, productivity and satisfaction.

But I decided to look for other definitions, which is why I delved into the origins and found out that usability is part of microergonomics, which in turn is one of the sections of ergonomics. Finally, I came across a word that I understood, which also had a scientific basis and terminology.

In a past life, I was supposed to become an artist-designer and in the process of studying I gained knowledge about what ergonomics is - a science that studies the interaction of a person with surrounding objects (maybe the definition is not the most scientific, but it conveys the essence).

Have you ever wondered why the steps in your entrance are exactly the same height as they are? Doorways are never at the same size as a single bed. All sizes of objects are a consequence of the science of ergonomics, even though they appeared several thousand years before it itself.

Any modern development, firstly, it is always designed taking into account the size of the average person, and secondly, it undergoes thorough testing for ease of use.

With the development of technology in ergonomics, a direction has emerged - microergonomics, one of the areas in which is the design of interfaces. This is where the word usability arose.

As I said above, it was not for nothing that I published a previous article about Internet marketing, in which I shared my vision of this topic. And discussing the topic of usability from the point of view of Internet marketing, I came to the conclusion that to a greater extent usability is an analogue of our word “quality”, i.e. phrases: site usability And site quality are essentially equivalent.

I have already touched on the topic that for any business. The better quality your instrument is, the best results you can achieve.

Those. a quality tool is one that performs its function: for an online store this will be sales; for a website design studio - direct customers; for a blog - subscribers.

Accordingly, the user constantly interacts with the site, and the easier and simpler the interaction is, the higher quality your tool - the site - is, which means the better the usability of your site.

The most important thing is why I devoted so much time to my thoughts and searches, so that you learn for yourself that usability is not just " convenient menu on the site", but a measure of the quality of the entire site in terms of human use.

The result of interaction is the satisfaction of the needs and requirements of the Internet user (), which ultimately brings profit to companies that develop their business through the Internet.
Once again...

You can't say "the site has good usability" about a site until you get real evidence that the site brings value to the user. Accordingly, depending on the site, the benefit is - obtaining information, making a purchase, etc., i.e. everything that leads to the satisfaction of the needs and requirements of the Internet user.

It would seem that all the conclusions have been drawn, and now everything should be more clear, but that was not the case. After all, all people are different, and everyone has their own measure of quality. For some users one thing will be convenient, for others another. But the usability of the site, like the quality of the site, cannot be measured; all this is relative values. All that remains is to understand, regarding what? The answer is relative to what was or is originally.

And this is the second reason why many people have the most superficial knowledge about usability. As I already said, usability is a huge layer of research, statistical and analytical information in software development, including web development.

To answer everything possible questions Research, surveys, testing and data analysis are carried out. To do this, entire groups of researchers and developers work on the issue of usability, and thousands of users participate in testing. But, unfortunately, only large companies. But, naturally, this does not free every site owner to think about the usability of their resource and conduct their own mini-research and testing. To do this, we need to know the basics of usability and be able to use tools with which we can test the resource.

Usability Basics

Usability is built on five basic principles; on the Internet you will find them called factors or components of usability. In my opinion, the word “principles” more accurately conveys their essence.

The first principle is learning. This, of course, applies more to complex interfaces; it is very relevant for CMS administrative panels, accounts in various exchanges, and statistics systems.

For example, they often complain about the interface Google Analytics, that it is difficult to understand or, as the tweeter is complicated for many. This is a clear example of the first principle of usability, when a user experiences difficulties when registering on a site for the first time.

Although, in my opinion, the example is not the most successful, because... According to my personal observation, the difficulty lies not so much in usability, but in the not very successful Russification of foreign resources, and partly in mentality. For comparison, the Yandex Metrica interface, in my opinion, is much more convenient, and you immediately understand on the fly where and what is located, and you start using the system without any problems.

And then it starts to work The second principle of usability is efficiency.. I, as a user, can say with confidence that I effectively use Yandex Metrica, having once learned how to work with it. This means that the developers did a good job with the second usability principle. Also, once you understand the tweeter, you realize that it is very simple and you begin to use it effectively. What I can’t say at all about Google Analytics, when I seem to have studied everything, understood everything, but at the same time I’m sure that I’m not using even half of its capabilities.

And every time I start working with it, I make sure to click a couple of times in the wrong place or spend a long time going through the entire menu to find the report I need. This situation depends entirely on the implementation The third principle of usability is memorability.. For example, in the example given, I have trouble remembering where each report is located. I find some reports quickly and without problems, but I spend time searching for others. Is this my problem or the developers' problem? There’s really no definitive answer, and I’ll explore that question in a future post.

The fourth principle of usability is errors.. Here, I think, errors such as useless extra clicks are also taken into account, i.e. the user himself makes mistakes due to poor learning and memorization, and server errors, for example, the same is a server error and its absence can affect the user’s loyalty to the resource.

Last, The fifth principle of usability is satisfaction. Moreover, it is worth noting that I can be satisfied or not, as process use and result. And if, for example, for me the process using Google Analytics is complex, so I am completely satisfied with the result of interaction with this analytics system, and, depending on the tasks set, I can be satisfied to a much greater extent than from using Yandex Metrica.

Does Google Analytics cope with its task when learning, efficiency and memorability are not so good, but the user is satisfied? I think he's coping.

Thus, having understood all the fundamental principles of usability, I return to the fact that site usability and site quality are synonyms that determine the degree (measure) of user satisfaction with the site and, as a result, the performance of the site’s functions. And as you and I already know, the performance of the site’s functions promises the site owner an increase in profits.

By the way, it is very clear from the principles that initially usability was not used for web resources and all the problems that the user faces when working with the program interface are visible. On the other hand, I brought illustrative examples the fact that modern web resources have very complex interfaces and it is very important that developers do not forget about the basic principles of usability.

Considering the above, so that our understanding of usability for websites is more complete and understandable, in the next article I will tell you what rules apply when developing a high-quality website. These rules will be more focused on websites and expand upon the principles of usability themselves.

Stay in touch and good luck moving forward.