SimplePowers

Last Friday, I spoke to the Zurich crowd for World Usability Day, an event sponsored by the Usability Professionals Association. In the talk, I asked the audience to stand up and take responsibility for creating a more usable world. For too long, usability professionals have been sitting behind computer screens, using their considerable skills to improve websites and little else.

I believe that usability pros can do much more - in fact, I believe that they can fix almost anything using the standard user-centered design process usability pros are so familiar with. Of course, moving from websites to creating more usable buildings, phones, airplanes, bank account statements or anything else for that matter, is a big step. But I think the usability community - or most of them - is up for it.

A few things have to happen, though.

First, usability pros need to learn a new vocabulary. In addition to making things usable, they also need to start talking about making things useful. After all, the most usable thing in the world is a waste of time if it isn’t adding value to someone. They also need to start talking about enjoyable. Useful, usable things are never going to light the world on fire if they don’t get people excited. This is the language of customer experience and it’s what usability needs to be speaking.

Second, usability pros need to get more support for their work wherever they are working. Doing this isn’t going to be easy, but it’s necessary.

• Get out of IT. Nobody in marketing, no architect, no designer and no strategist is going to take you seriously if you’re sitting in IT and critiquing their work. And IT sure isn’t going to like it if you’re sitting around talking about “what a poor customer experience the new marketing brochure is.” Usability pros need to get somewhere more neutral, where they can apply their skills objectively and independently across all channels. Marketing might be the place.
• Get into the numbers. There is profit in easy, useful and enjoyable businesses. Usability pros need to show this, show it often and show it loud.
• Get executive empathy. Usability pros can spend days or weeks doing research and writing reports on what needs to improve….often with little to show for it. But instead of doing the research on their own, Usability pros need to insist that executives and project managers come down and particpate in the user research with them. That means watching users, debriefing after ever single test and developing recommendations together. In fact, I recommend refusing to do any project if the project team does not agree to watch at least 50% of the tests.

It will take some time before the usability community can rise to the position that their skills and passion deserve. But every journey starts with a few small steps…

Last weekend I went for a drink with a friend in a place we both know very well. When the waitress came, we already knew what we wanted to order. I went for a Campari and my friend asked to have a glass of Chardonnay. The waitress took the order and disappeared. After few minutes she came back with my Campari, an empty wine glass and a bottle of wine that was not Chardonnay. She put the Campari in front of me and, talking to my friend, apologized that the Chardonnay was finished. She than said:

“I have something else for you.  If you like Chardonnay, you will love this one. It’s a young, fresh, Italian wine we’ve just introduced. It’s really very fine….personally, I love it. You can try it and, if it doesn’t taste good to you, no problem at all. I’ll bring it back and you can order something else”.

My friend let her fill the glass and tried the wine, liked it and we continued our conversation.

At least two things relevant in developing easy and enjoyable business happened here:

• The girl was able to transform a potential negative experience into something positive (which was good for the customer)

• She acheived to sell an equivalent product (which was good for the business)

But is this really special? Normally, something completely different happens. Usually the waitress comes back and says something like: “We don’t’ have the Chardonnay anymore, would you like anything else?” And you end up by choosing something else, or nothing at all, which would be the worst thing for the business to happen. But it’s you who has to deal with the scarcity of the product and it’s you who has to look for a valuable alternative. And you end up dealing with something unexpected that requires additional time and resources.

In this situation, the waitress took responsibility for this. She picked an alternative and made a proposal. We, as customers, only needed to decide if this was fine for us or not. We spent a minimum amount of effort in dealing with the issue. In addition, we got the impression that someone was taking care of us, which is important considering that we’re expected to pay money for the service they’re providing us.

Transforming bad experiences into good ones pays off. You mitigate and reduce customer drop off, keep the business going on - even better - increase loyalty by generating a long lasting good impression. It makes both the customer and the firm happy.

The ingredients for this simple but effective recipe are two: client empathy and a little bit of attention. No additional costs, no additional resources, no complex processes needed. Nothing at all. Simple powers, indeed.

The other day, I received a credit card offer in the mail. The offer was fantastic: 0% for balance transfers and a 0% interest rate on new purchases for six months. A low fixed rate after that. Even had bonus air miles. Excellent! I pulled the application form out of the brochure and grabbed a pen.

Then whoa. The application form was several pages long. Name, address, past address, the address before that, my credit cards, balances, other debt, workplace address, e-mail, phone number, income this year, income last year, age, etc. I put it on the desk, in the pile of those things I have to “get to someday.” Never got back to it.

The credit card company obviously spent time and money ensuring that its offer was perfect: eye-catching graphics and a catchy message on the outside of the envelope, a brochure that said all the right things and an outstanding product. But nobody, it seems, stopped to think about what I would actually have to go through to fill out the form and get the card. It was too hard and too much hassle to be worth the effort.

There is a word for this: usability.

The Art, Science and Impact of Usability
According to ISO 9241, usability is “The effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which specified users achieve specified goals.” In this case, the goal was getting a credit card. Usability specialists, most of whom work in the software industry, take this stuff seriously. There are established methodologies, well-known gurus and even an extensive vocabulary for the practice, full of words and phrases like “affordance” and “human factors.” In the end, it’s about making it easy for people to do business with you.

Usability is about human behavior. It recognizes that humans are lazy, get emotional, are not interested in putting a lot of effort into, say, getting a credit card and generally prefer things that are easy to do vs. those that are hard to do.

The main goal for usability specialists is to make things easy for customers (”users” in usability-speak). They do this by constantly testing the customer’s experience with a business. They spend a good bit of time observing people trying to get things done with a business. They find out what customers want and how they want to get it. They design, test, redesign, retest and redesign until things are right. For example, when assessing websites, usability professionals find out what users actually want to do on the site, measure how fast they learn to use the site, where they make mistakes, how much effort it takes to accomplish tasks and whether they enjoy the experience (yes, that matters).

The purpose: make the website as easy to use as possible so visitors have a positive experience, easily accomplish their tasks and leave as satisfied customers. The end goal: improve the experience (the usability) so the business can make more money.

Beyond Websites and Software
To date, the practice of usability has been focused on websites and software. But how many more groceries could a store sell by making it easier for people to find what they’re looking for? How much more business could a bank do by making its mortgage application process simpler?

It’s time to take the usability mindset offline. Every customer contact channel (e.g., buildings, call centers, mailings) and every process that a customer must go through can benefit from applying usability techniques in the design and testing process.

Let’s create more usable businesses. Here are some steps you can take to make that happen:

• Test things for yourself. It’s amazing how few businesses actually know what it’s like to be one of their own customers. Experience first-hand what it’s like to purchase your product or open an account with your business. You’ll be shocked at the hoops you have to jump through to complete a transaction.
• Test your competitors. You may find that it’s a lot easier to open an account with your competitor than it is with you. It might be the reason why they are getting more business than you.
• Watch people use the business. Watch them walk around your store. Watch them talk to your salespeople. Watch them use your products. Simply taking this perspective will give you new and powerful insight into what needs to be done in order to make your business more usable.
• Talk to a usability professional. You probably have one lurking around in your IT department. Find out what they do and how they do it. Apply what you learn to the rest of your business channels.

Try moving usability thinking into our buildings, call centers, forms and products. It’s common sense: If your business is easier to use than your competitor’s, people will be more likely to do business with you. A usable business is a more competitive business.

You’ve done the market research. You know who your customers are. You’ve done the marketing. They know who you are. You’ve built a great product. And people want to buy it. There’s nothing standing between your customers and your product now. Except, that is, your customer experience.

No matter what, people still have to enter your buildings, use your website, call your employees, read your materials, comply with your policies and follow your processes. And how easy each of these things is — how usable your business is — has a direct impact on your bottom line.

Why does it matter if your website is a little difficult to log into? Or your ordering instructions are a little unclear? Because your customers aren’t robots. They won’t plow mindlessly through all obstacles, going through hell and high water just to get to your product. They will get fed up, confused and, in the worst cases, downright angry. They will stop, saying “it just wasn’t worth the hassle.”

Companies that provide a great customer experience, let’s call them Usable Businesses, understand this. They know that a great customer experience means easy-to-use for the customer. They know that if they make doing business with them more straightforward, their forms more intuitive and their service more proactive, they will get more, and more loyal, customers — especially when those customers find it “a hassle” to do business with the competition.

Focus on Interactions, Not Channels
Usable Businesses know it’s important that their channels are easy to use. They spend a lot of time improving Web navigation, testing signage in buildings and ensuring that the information in brochures is clear and easy to understand. But, above all, they place more emphasis on interactions rather than these interfaces. They work hard to make sure that the interactions between themselves and customers are simple, fast and, most important, without hassle.

Of course, some interactions are more important than others. If you’re trying to make your business a Usable Business, then start with interactions that are important to both you (because they get you revenue) and your customers (because they get them what they want — your product). Usually, there are five business-customer interactions which are key:

Getting information. Before someone chooses to buy from you, she’ll probably want some information to help her make a decision. This is where a Usable Business sets the bar with customers. This is where it can, with one interaction, let customers know that this is the easiest business to deal with. To do this best, you have to know how your customers would like to receive the information — not necessarily how you would like to deliver it. For example, I know one business that didn’t want to provide walk-in customers with product brochures because it felt it was better to sit down in a one-hour meeting to explain all the product nuances. The competitor across the street provided clear, simple-to-understand brochures with the phone number of a knowledgeable employee who could answer any questions if necessary. No prizes for guessing who got more business from busy, in-a-hurry professionals trying to get some product information during their lunch break.

Buying. When customers want to give you their money, make it easy to do so. Usable Businesses focus relentlessly on improving the buying process, ensuring that there are no unnecessary steps, no confusing instructions and no intimidating sales clerks. This is especially true for those products that people only buy once or infrequently, such as mortgages, wedding rings and vacation cruises. For these kinds of purchases, where customers have to learn a new process, businesses must be extra careful about explaining how to do it. People like to feel smart and in control, and if your purchase process makes them feel ignorant or frustrated, they’ll get anxious and leave.

Using. The easier it is to use your product, the more people will use it. Common sense, right? Not common practice. One business I know just launched a brand new security system for clients to access their accounts online. The system, which includes a 20-step tutorial for first-time users, has surely made their security team proud — it is undoubtedly secure. It is also so difficult to use (requirements for log-in at the website include a special calculator, a smart card, a user name, a password, a PIN and a second randomly generated access code) that you can easily imagine a dramatic drop in customers accessing their accounts online, and a lot more calls to the helpline. You can also bet that there will soon be a drop in customers. It’s pretty difficult to build a loyal customer base among people who find your product a hassle to use.

Getting Service. Once someone has your product, you really do want them to be happy with it, don’t you? If the customer has a problem, getting help can’t be difficult. Usable Businesses make it easy to get service. That may require empowering all your employees to provide customer service if necessary, regardless of their role, or ensuring that there is an easy way for customers to reach you if they have a problem. And, if customers can get service from you easily, it’s quite likely that they will…

…Buying Again. The repeat purchase is the holy grail of any business and the first sign of a loyal customer. Usable Businesses make it easy to buy again and again, providing contact information at all customer touchpoints, such as monthly statements and Web pages, and reducing the amount of effort it takes to make additional purchases by having key customer data available when a customer places an order. When people buy more than once, all the key metrics, such as cost of acquisition, cost of service and customer profitability, improve.

Begin with Understanding
Your first step in becoming a Usable Business is gaining an understanding of what your processes feel like to a customer. Talk to some usability or customer experience professionals — there are likely some in your IT department — about how to apply usability techniques, such as user observation, expert analysis and prototype testing, to analyse and improve things. Involve other customer stakeholders, such as the people in marketing, in your Usable Business goal. Once you do so, you’ll be well on your way to creating a more Usable (and successful) Business.
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* This article was first published in Darwin Magazine, now part of CIO.

Daniel and Mario, over at the EDO Lounge, invited me to speak at the World Usability Day event in Zurich on Nov 8th. It should be good fun - I’ll have a mixture of some old and new material, focusing on how user experience pros need to expand beyond their traditional area of software and take on the task of creating more usable businesses. I really do believe that UX practioners can add a lot more value to a business - it’s just down the the UX community having the courage to do it and the business community the vision to realise it.

The other day, I was at a conference and doing my best to listen to the presenter. A woman in front of me was typing furiously on her laptop. She had her head down, face in her screen and didn’t once look up at the presenter. The tap-tap-tap of the keys was distracting and I could see by the agitated fiddling of the others around her that they, too, were a little frustrated. Eventually, it all got too much and I tapped her on the shoulder, asking her if she could stop typing. She looked at me with a wide, shocked expression that gave way to anger. “I’m taking notes for my boss. I’ve been doing this for two days and nobody has said anything so far! I’m not stopping.”

Now, let’s stop this right here. She wasn’t taking notes, but chatting with someone on Yahoo messenger and checking her email. Although she was sitting in the conference, she was not in the conference. Of course, she wasn’t alone. There were others in the conference doing the same thing. And this wasn’t unique to that conference. In the past week alone, I’ve been in two meetings where members of the audience (nearly 25% in one group) had their laptops open and were busily doing something other than participating in the meeting. We even see this in our Experience Labs, where observers are supposed to be watching a client use a website, but rather are watching their own laptop screen. What are they doing? By and large, they’re checking email or reading documents for some other meeting they have to attend. There may be a few who are really are taking notes, but I’ve yet to see it.

There are two ways to look at this trend:

• First, you can, I suppose, be impressed by the masterful multi-tasking of these folks: the ability to be in a meeting, read emails, passively listen to the speaker, respond to emails, make comments in the meeting from time to time (which they expect the others to pay full attention to) and read more emails.
• Or, you can think this is rude. It’s distracting to the presenter and the audience, not to mention disrespectful. It is saying to the meeting organiser, the speaker and the audience: “I have more important people to communicate with and more important things to do than be in this meeting.” It’s also inefficient - if people aren’t fully focused on the meeting, then things take longer. This creates a bad meeting experience which wastes time for everyone.

I’d like to humbly suggest a rather obvious statement about meetings: If you’re in a meeting, you should be in the meeting - not in your inbox. (This means no laptops, no emails, no Crackberries). If you can’t do this, it means one of the following:

• Whatever else you’re doing really is more important than the meeting. If so, you shouldn’t be in the meeting.
• The meeting is too long or too boring for you. If that’s true, then give some feedback to the organiser.
• You are so busy that it is impossible for you to handle all your work and must multi-task like this. If that’s true, talk to your boss.

The benefit? If everyone pays attention, it means we have the right people in the room, the meeting will be more focused, the discussion will be more concise and we can all get out of there faster…and back to our inbox.

Mark Hurst’s GEL conference continues to blow people away. It’s an incredibly thought-provoking mix of artists, thinkers, activists, musicians, with a few business people and customer experience folks thrown in. I had the pleasure of being the first speaker at the first EuroGEL in Copenhagen last year. It was an emotional experience - such a great, passionate audience and a subject I care about deeply: creating accessible customer experiences.

To join the CX Team, candidates have to go through a pretty tough series of rounds. The hardest is probably the second, when we ask them to do a live Experience Lab while we observe their technique. For the lab, we always ask them to take a look at the Nespresso website. Great coffee, crap site. The vertical navigation is one of the more unique of many bad design choices that stand out. And, while the coffee machine selector is mind-numbingly frustrating to use, the fact that you can’t buy a coffee machine and coffee in the same order is simply incredible. Dear Nespresso: fix your customer experience and sell a lot more coffee.

Radiohead’s new album is out. My friend over at Creative Good, Pete Maher, cried over its brilliance. And, while Radiohead can make a million noises come together as music, they struggle to apply that talent to their website. Jakob Lodwick, of Vimeo, tried to download the album from the site and…struggled. Of course, the lessons on positive customer experience are obvious - more intriguing is the use of video to dramatize the problem. Martin Hardee used to do this kind of thing when he was at Sun, to show developers how to make good (or avoid bad) websites and I was mightly impressed. Seeing Lodwick’s video has got me in action - we’ll be trying to incorporate this kind of thing soon.

In setting up this site, we were looking for photos and landed at the gettyimages site. We had a nudge around and, having found a photo we liked, selected it for purchase. Below is the screen we were presented with.

Great. That’s the photo. That’s the price. That’s the size. Perfect. I’d like to buy that, please. Now, where is the check out….?