In a December 2009 post (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/anybody-usability.html), useit.com claims that with little knowledge on the subject of usability and after only 3 days of testing, you can typically at least double your conversion rate or other key business metrics.

On the other hand, it also says:

“Many people without a grounding in behavioural user-research principles use bogus methodology and thus get misleading findings. Poor methodology is especially common for eye-tracking studies, and thus most published studies in this area are wrong”.

So, what’s it going to be?

Does this mean today’s sites are all magnificent, offering an optimal user experience and with incredible conversion rates? A quick reality check is all we need to know that’s far from the truth…

My team recently worked on a project for a pure Internet player. Their senior staff, which came from various web disciplines, including usability, changed some elements on a landing page and saw their conversion rates fall with more than 30% in less than a week.

So let’s keep our feet on the ground… Not only are their more and more digital screens, user behaviour – present company included – also changes at a staggering pace.

We need ever more sophisticated techniques to build result-driven interfaces.

There is something to be said for this analogy made by Mr Nielsen, even though I do find it cool. Here’s what he says:

“Usability is like cooking: everybody needs the results, anybody can do it reasonably well with a bit of training, and yet it takes a master to produce a gourmet outcome.”

I think a chef has more than just some basic knowledge about cooking. I also believe one needs more than just a set of guidelines to obtain the same result as a chef.

A chef is no less than a professional of taste who knows all there is to know about a product. It is this in-depth knowledge that enables him to time after time create incredible dishes without needing a recipe.

Usability will always be the type of cuisine anyone can use if he applies regularly updates rules. But it will never be the solution to constantly create efficient screens.

Neuromarketing can be compared to the cuisine based on the fundamentals of taste (what customers want and expect, an in-depth knowledge of products,…). It combines all these fundamentals to obtain a high-quality result, whatever the dish to be made.

Have a nice week

I am very surprised to see how many people use Jakob Nielsen’s return on investment numbers to justify the contribution of usability or ergonomics to their clients. 

Clients don’t want to know Jakob Nielsen has done a nice survey. They want to choose with whom to work in function of the results the experts of the different companies have booked. 

Today, apart from the mention of this Jakob Nielsen survey, I know but few companies who have succeeded in presenting results of former missions. 

Being an expert in behavioural sciences automatically means you need to measure results to evolve and to make clients understand how an in-depth knowledge of behavioural sciences plays a strategic role in the war of the interfaces of today. 

Our profession must evolve, become more mature, using proven methods, specific tools, an impressive fundamental knowledge of the perceptivo-cognitive system. 

Each time I see there is one more reader of these posts, I can see how things are indeed making progress. 

Have a nice week. 

Many consultants conclude that Usability is an instable profession because it lacks fundamental knowhow and methodology. A conclusion reached based on so-called bottom line analyses. 

Bruce Temkin (Forrester) for instance describes the lack of solid processes and definitions as follows:

“One of the key problems with customer experience is that it’s not an “official” discipline like engineering and accounting. So it lacks a lot of rigor around processes and definitions.” Bruce Temkin – 2008

Jakob Nielsen’s post talks about the lack of knowledge in behavioural sciences and methodology:

“Many people without a grounding in behavioural user-research principles use bogus methodology and thus get misleading findings.”  – Jakob Nielsen (2007)

Here’s his opinion on user tests, done all too often by people who don’t have the necessary background to perform valuable tests:

“Poor methodology is especially common for eyetracking studies, and thus most published studies in this area are wrong.” – Jakob Nielsen (2007)

A lot of people are passionate about user experience and have turned their passion into their jobs.

They try to do their utmost to get their work done, every single day.

I use the term ‘try’ because most of the time these people haven’t taken the time to get familiar with the basics of human behaviour.

Moreover, they don’t work using a scientific method or the appropriate tools to analyze human behaviour. 

Usability can be good and can be bad. But how can you tell the difference if you don’t have the necessary knowledge of the perceptive cognitive system or don’t work with the appropriate tools? 

It reminds me of the Apple advertisement for the launch of the first Macintosh.

In this commercial, people are paralyzed by the standard words they have to listen to.

All technical books promise their readers they will be able to build better interfaces. Personally, I would prefer to make you a better expert.

It will require a lot of work. But rest assured: you will have a lot of fun on the way. And in the end, you will book concrete results for the company for which you’re doing the work. 

I wish you all the best and see you again next week!