Focusing on users at the very beginning of a project sets a solid user-centred foundation for a project. It can be difficult to remain focused on users when technical reasons, business aims, project objectives all combine to kick off a new project. To help you remain focused on users here’s five core questions we use when we first get involved in a project.
The questions we’ve used here are for a website redesign project, however, they are just as relevant for any digital product or service, whether it is being re-designed or developed from scratch.

1. What’s the story of how the project has got to this point?

Start with the big picture. What has generated action on the project? Is it technology-driven? Is the website under performing? Have business targets or a shift in strategy triggered a change? Or has the website grown organically and become stale? Understanding why the project team are motivated to start the project is critical to seeing where you can help, and understanding where users fit into the overall picture.

2. Who are the different types of users? What are their goals in using the website?

It’s surprising how many times we get a vague answer to these two questions. If you sense hesitancy, confusion, or fabrication in their answers this will clearly point to the need for you to start the project with user research to understand who is using the site and why. Once this research is complete, your next task should be to design user profiles to help everyone remain focused on users (See our previous article: How to do quick and effective user profiling).

3. What other sites (or other sources) will people to use to achieve these goals? Why will they use this website instead of alternatives?

It’s critical to understand the wider context in which the site exists. Are there a variety of other websites, apps and offline resources already available to users? If there are several alternative methods, your initial research must set out to understand what sources they use, why they choose those sources, and what user needs exist that are currently un-met. An in-depth understanding of what the site needs to do to migrate users from what they use at the moment to your site is the key to the success of a project.

4. What are the aims of the project?

By this point, you should already have a good understanding about why the project is important. However, it is still important to ask this question. Sometimes there can be additional aims that have not yet been discussed. You can also use this question as a guide when setting out the tasks you plan to undertake. It can be useful to set out the UX tasks and deliverables you will complete in order to help the project team achieve each aim.

5. In the future when all your concerns and challenges have been overcome, how will you know it is successful?

Finally, you must understand how they will track and measure success. Some projects have complex aims but very basic success criteria. Sometimes, the project team are focused on the wrong metrics and this is a good opportunity for you to highlight some more user-centric metrics they could use to measure success. It’s also a great opportunity for you to set out some before stats to use as a benchmark to measure against at a later date.

Having a set of questions you always include in kick-off meetings can be a really useful way to ensure you have a good understanding of the project aims, who the users are, and also what UX activities you are likely to start with. In your next kick-off meeting you’ll now be prepared to ask the right questions and really make a difference to user experience. When you’re done, come back and tell us about how you got on.

If you’d like to talk to us about how we can help you integrate UX into all your projects to generate more online revenue, please get in touch.

About Damian Rees

Damian has worked as a usability and user experience consultant for over 13 years. He has worked in senior roles within companies like the BBC and National Air Traffic Services where he has researched and designed for users in a variety of different contexts including web applications, voice recognition, and air traffic control interfaces. Follow Damian on twitter @damianrees

We have a fairly simple theory here at Experience Solutions; if a design doesn’t work, it’s usually because the designer’s motivation and passion was lacking. We use the term ‘designer’ fairly loosely here. It may be an individual designer working on a website, a small team of architects working on a building, or a whole project team working on a completely new product or service for a company.

Whatever the definition the role of designer is critical to the success of the project. The difference between a passionate, highly motivated design team can be enormous compared to a jaded, restless, and unmotivated team. To help identify what type of designers you’re working with we’ve identified 3 types of designer motivation;

Motivation 1 – Maintaining security – If a designer is motivated because of job security alone you are likely to have problems. He or she will work competently for fear of losing their job, that next promotion or their next big pay cheque. This is a common motivation for design work, and more often than not, designers will create solutions because they are told to and paid to, and not because they want to.

Motivation 2 – Social acceptance & recognition – Some designers are motivated more by social acceptance. If they design something which is funky, cool or cutting edge, they’ll gain the respect of their peers. They may win awards or get a nice feature in an industry magazine. Sadly, the way design school works tends to encourage this behaviour. The constant sought after approval from tutors and peers through peer reviews and critiques means that student designers become accustomed to designing for designers. It’s the way the industry works too, it’s full of self-appreciative back slapping with awards, magazines and websites where other people gush about the latest and greatest.

Motivation 3 – Passion to stimulate change – Then there are those who design because of their passion for change. They see something wrong with the world and they believe it should be better. They dream of a better website, product or service, one that really works for the people using it, one that really solves the problem. These people really believe in what they do and their solutions come from the heart.

Passion is the key to successful design

It’s clear who you would want to design your project. So, how can you find someone who’s a passionate designer?

Spotting someone among the designer crowd should be fairly easy. When you’re looking through designer’s portfolios and discussing the job with them it’s a good idea to look at how they present previous jobs. Do they outline the problem they were solving, or do they just focus on the design they came up with? Do they talk about why they worked on the project, or do they prefer to quickly move on to the next job in their portfolio? Ask them about their biggest challenges and achievements and if you get the feeling that it’s all about awards, or a lack of real passion for what they were doing, you’ll know. Passion is hard to fake and you’ll know when you see it. It’s in the eyes, the tone of voice, and in the little details offered to you that you didn’t ask for.

But, what if you’re not in a position to select a new designer? Or you’ve found a designer who was passionate on different kinds of projects to this one. Well, the honest truth is that you might not be able to get them passionate about something that doesn’t flick their switch. Some people just won’t get excited by the project and they won’t be able to get fully behind it. Let’s face it, designing some services are much more exciting than others. They may well still be professional, but you might not get the added boost of passion that will make the difference behind an OK project and a great one. However, there are some things you can do to stimulate the passion in your designers:

1) Clearly define the problem

It sounds obvious, but you may not have set out clearly the purpose for the project. If you have to, write out a clear mission statement and clearly explain the reason why the problem exists. It can be really useful to get people to engage using a powerful story. For a really good read on how to use stories to influence this book ‘The Story Factor’ is excellent

2) Show them the bigger picture

Broaden the scope and show them how this project is connected to the wider picture. What else is reliant on this project working? What is reliant on that? Where do their efforts fit into it all? Although the project may not inspire them, the bigger picture might connect with them more.

3) Show them why it matters

Use real people wherever you can to show them why the problem exists. Get the end users of the system to demonstrate the issues or to talk to them in person about what they need and why it doesn’t work for them now. Help them see the people who will benefit and the real end result of their efforts.

4) Inspire them

Show them great examples of other solutions already in existence. Talk about why these work, give them details of how the solution works and what impact it has had. If you can’t find any directly relevant that’s ok, you can choose some from a different industry. The key here is to show your passion for good design to stimulate theirs too.

5) Talk about the future

Talk to them about what will happen when the project is a success. Vividly describe what a successful project looks like and talk to them about where they might get involved later down the line. If this project doesn’t excite them, but working on the bigger issue does, then they should be able to connect and see past the short term.

Don’t wait for them to ‘get passionate’, help them find it

Designers who really believe in the problem they are trying to solve are motivated to make a positive difference. It’s clear that your project needs as many of these people as you can get. Designers who are focused on security or peer recognition are driven to produce work which will not fully deliver for the people who need to use the solution. There are some clear ways to spot designers who are truly passionate, but there are also ways to stimulate the passion in those that don’t yet have it. Primarily, they need to fully understand the problem before they’ll properly engage in the solution. So don’t rely on others to find their own passion, help them understand the bigger picture to stimulate their passion.

About Damian Rees

Damian has worked as a usability and user experience consultant for over 13 years. He has worked in senior roles within companies like the BBC and National Air Traffic Services where he has researched and designed for users in a variety of different contexts including web applications, voice recognition, and air traffic control interfaces. Follow Damian on twitter @damianrees

If you live in the UK, you’ll be hard pressed to avoid The Olympics at the moment. One of the main talking points, certainly for Londoners is the traffic nightmare expected to jam the roads, underground, buses and trains. In anticipation, the powers that be have set up a website which is advertised to help people avoid traffic chaos: www.getaheadofthegames.com.

Unfortunately, we feel the website doesn’t live up to the hype and we’re surprised the user experience was so poor. Instead of moaning about it, we thought we’d use it as an example to help you avoid similar user experience issues cropping up on your website.

1. Your homepage should focus on building credibility and leading users to the main reason for their visit

Your homepage should deliver a clear, coherent message about who you are and what you offer. Any confusion or mixed messages lead to high bounce rates as users click the back button to return to the search results.

The first impressions of the getaheadofthegames.com website are that it looks like some kind of affiliate website. The use of clipart and the cheap looking logo don’t foster immediate credibility. In addition, the huge map of the UK and live twitter feed capture attention but offer very little value to the first time user who is most likely looking to plan a journey in a specific area. Although the dropdown is placed high up on the homepage to allow users to filter by their location, this could be missed by users as the pink headings, blue buttons and large green and pink map dominate attention.

The ‘plan your journey’ which we anticipate to be the biggest user requirement for the site is given much less priority in the design by being placed in the bottom right corner. Even less prioritised are the official logos behind the site, which are placed at the bottom of the page.

Its so important to establish credibility quickly. If we were working with getaheadofthegames.com we would recommend that they reorganise the layout of their homepage to de-prioritise the map and twitter feed, and instead boost the journey planner and spectator user journeys.

2. Check that any advertising and call to action buttons deliver what users expect

When setting expectations in advertising or even in the labelling on a call to action button, be sure to deliver on that expectation. If you offer a ‘book now’ button make sure users can actually start booking straight away after clicking that button.

We would expect most people coming to the getaheadofthegames.com website to be focused on solving a travel related problem. They are likely to be either looking for the best way to travel to the Olympics as a spectator, or as far away as possible so they can travel freely to their destination. Although the site offers links to ‘plan a journey’ and ‘are you a spectator’ clicking on those links takes users to a page full of text and links to other websites.

If you set an expectation in an advert or other marketing material which promises to solve a problem for your customer, make sure you can easily deliver the solution. The getaheadofthegames.com website offers help but then passes the buck and links off to several different sources. This is likely to frustrate and overwhelm users looking for a simple answer to their travel problem. We would recommend that the getaheadofthegames.com website worked more closely with other content providers to embed journey planning tools into the site rather than linking off to a variety of different locations.

3. Don’t blow your budget on ‘cool functionality’ which doesn’t offer a great deal to users

Although you and your team may be excited by some funky new gadget, widget or tool, be very clear with yourselves on the reasons why you are including it in your site. If the honest answer is that you think its cool and you want to learn more about it, you probably shouldn’t do it. Focus on whether it will really solve a problem that users need solving. When we conduct user experience research, we often speak to clients confused why their site isn’t delivering on their business objectives. When we delve a little deeper, we find that users don’t use the features they spent most of their budget and attention on developing because they don’t see the value.

Sadly, getaheadofthegames.com have clearly spent a lot of resources in developing a nicely designed, very visual, interactive travel disruption tool. Sure, it looks good and works seamlessly, but do users really need it? If you’re trying to get from Waterloo station to Russell Square, do you really need this tool to tell you that stations on the District Line from Wimbledon to Earls Court are likely to be much busier than normal? Showing the whole underground map with a date slider at the top looks interesting, but the amount of information displayed is overkill for the average user.  Is this a case of designing a cool tool, but not thinking about how much it actually solves the problem users face?

Perhaps we’re being a little harsh but we believe that simply focusing on core user needs will lead to innovative features and functionality which are exciting and really useful. If we had been involved in the getaheadofthegames.com project we would have made sure we fully understood user requirements at the outset to ensure all features and functionality were clearly mapped to priority user needs.

How to take action on your website

1) Take a look at your website right now. Ask yourself, does your homepage demonstrate how credible you are? This is particularly important for the lesser known brands. Do you make a case for why users should stay on your site? Now take a critical look at whether you’re offering a simple next step for users to start their journey. If there are more than 3 things shouting for their attention you probably want to remove the less important ones.

2) The next thing on your to do list is to take a look at whether your promises in adverts are actually realistic. Take a look at your print adverts, your banner ads, paid search ads, email marketing, and any other marketing material. Are you setting realistic expectations for users? Does your site really deliver? Now take a look at the journey from the ad through to your website. Is the journey simple? Does each step make sense? Do call to action buttons deliver on expectations? Can you remove unnecessary distractions?

3) The final thing you can do is less immediate. Next time you’re in a strategy meeting discussing planned changes for your site. Look out for any suggestions of cool content or functionality and ask if users really need it. If in doubt, ask for some budget to do some user research to clarify whether users really need it.

Running a website that really helps users is tough, and websites like getaheadofthegames.com are a good example of what to avoid.

About Damian Rees

Damian has worked as a usability and user experience consultant for over 13 years. He has worked in senior roles within companies like the BBC and National Air Traffic Services where he has researched and designed for users in a variety of different contexts including web applications, voice recognition, and air traffic control interfaces. Follow Damian on twitter @damianrees

As a keen photographer I love looking at images. I have a variety of sources to feed my need for regular photography inspiration: Flickr, 500px, twitter, blogs and so on. One of my favourite sources of inspiration is seeing the amazing photojournalism shots that show what’s been happening around the world.

As with all experiences on the web, some websites make life easy for users and some make reaching their goal a little more difficult. Often we find that this will depend on how much they have prioritised their business goals in comparison to their user goals.

Last year we looked in depth at The Telegraphs Picture of the Week and felt disappointed with the experience. Although they had some great quality photography, enjoying it was frustrating. They focused more on satisfying their own business needs and not going far enough to satisfy their user’s needs.

Advertising took attention away from the main image

It’s easy to understand why they had the advertising, I don’t like it, but I live with it. But as a user I don’t want it to distract me from why I’m on the page. The moving images in the ads meant I struggled to pay attention to the image and the description that goes with it. If you display ads on your site, use static ads over animated ones.

Navigating to the next image was not easy

The next button was small and poorly positioned (see top right of the screenshot above), meaning the main image and the ads draw attention away from it. Even though I’d used the site many times, I still struggled to notice that there was more than one photo available, and it took me a while to see where I could see the rest. The next button should have been obvious and intuitive.

In addition, clicking the next button meant the whole page refreshed. This was great for the product manager to track their stats and see how they were performing. It was also great for the sales team who were selling the ad space. But it was not so great for the users who didn’t want to have to wait for each page to load and new ads to refresh to distract them even more.

Seeing the images in all their glory was not possible

Finally, there was no way to see the images in full screen to make the most of the beauty on display.

For me as a user, the Telegraph came up short in terms of user experience and in the current climate newspapers must deliver a strong business proposition alongside an excellent user experience. They can’t afford to get this wrong

In our review last year, we contrasted the Telegraph experience with two sites that seemed to have got the experience right:  Time.com and MSNBC.

On Time.com there’s a nice clear option to view the image full screen and the page is designed to ensure the main focus is on the image with little to distract users from it. In addition, on rollover there’s an obvious next button to move to the next image. (It should be pointed out that there were rollover next buttons on the Telegraph site but these were small and easily missed). It’s easy to appreciate the photography on Time and moving from one image to another is simple and seamless.

The MSNBC site has a lovely large main image again with little visual clutter to detract from it. The next buttons would be better placed below the image, but nevertheless they are still relatively easy to notice and their function is clear

Clicking Next on both Time and MSNBC refreshes the image quickly and doesn’t load a new page. It should also be noted that whilst MSNBC does have an advert on the page it is below the image, it is not animated and doesn’t distract from the experience.

The Redesigned Telegraph experience

We were interested to see that a lot of our recommendations that we made last year were taken on board and the results are pleasing. The site is now focused more on satisfying user’s needs rather than just their own business goals.

Advertising has been deprioritised to the bottom of the page

Although it’s still on the website, the large advertising space has been moved to the bottom of the page and is less distracting. Yes, it still uses moving images but moving it below the page break means that it no longer competes for users’ attention when viewing images.

Navigating to the next image is now much easier

The next button has increased prominence on the page and its placement to the right of the image is more intuitive. To further help users navigate, thumbnails are visible on rollover for previous photos allowing users to hover their mouse over the thumbnails to find interesting images without having to click and view each image.

We were also happy to see that when clicking the next button, only the image changes and not the whole page. This provides a seamless transition for the user without having to wait for the pages to reload. Also, the marketing teams can still track visitor stats and the adverts still change when viewing each image which increasing the amount of adverts that can be shown on the page.

In Summary

Hopefully, The Telegraph has learnt a useful lesson:  By focusing too heavily on their business goals, they created a negative impact on their user experience. The obvious irony here is that by focusing too much on their business goals meant ultimately they were not being realised hence the need for a redesign. Neglecting user goals in favour of business goals will never work and leaves it open for competitors to steal away your users until you are forced to redesign your website to redress the balance.

About Damian Rees

Damian has worked as a usability and user experience consultant for over 13 years. He has worked in senior roles within companies like the BBC and National Air Traffic Services where he has researched and designed for users in a variety of different contexts including web applications, voice recognition, and air traffic control interfaces. Follow Damian on twitter @damianrees

Right now there are hundreds of thousands of people cursing themselves for forgetting their password. 20 years ago we never had this problem. It’s a modern day frustration which is one of the down sides of the Internet.

Many of us use several passwords on the web

If you want to do anything meaningful on a website in 2012, chances are you’ll have to create an account. In doing so you’ll have to create a username and password. As creatures of habit we like to use the same ones we’ve used on other sites, but in their wisdom many developers are unhappy with this idea of conformity and instead like to impose different rules to the rest. Some websites will only allow passwords with more than 6 characters, some more than 8, some force you to enter a numeric character, and others like to enforce the use of commas, apostrophe’s, and full stops in the password. My biggest bugbear is with sites that force you to use a password you’ve never used before.

All these password rules for different websites mean we have a whole string of different passwords for different websites. When we need to access a site we haven’t used for a while it can be an extremely painful process. Often by the time I gain access I’ve forgotten why I went there in the first place, but this could just be an age thing.

Of course online security is important, but us humans only have a limited capacity to remember all these passwords. I know quite a few people who’ve taken the unfortunately ironic step to write down all their passwords on a pad next to their computer.

Google has a simple idea to help us remember

Anyway, I digress. Rather than rant about remembering passwords I wanted to highlight a really nice idea I saw on Google today. In one of my more security conscious moments I decided to change passwords to a more secure one for some of the sites I rely on for business services. So earlier today I tried to access Google with my usual password and Google had remembered that it was an old password and reminded me I’d changed it. I thought this was such a nice simple solution that all sites should do the same.

What do you think? Have you any other nice examples of password recovery on the web?

About Damian Rees

Damian has worked as a usability and user experience consultant for over 13 years. He has worked in senior roles within companies like the BBC and National Air Traffic Services where he has researched and designed for users in a variety of different contexts including web applications, voice recognition, and air traffic control interfaces. Follow Damian on twitter @damianrees