Missed the first part, click here

Key Question 2: Are the Controls Intuitive?

No matter how great a new functionality is, if the user can not figure out how to use it (or that it exists), the value is obviously diminished. Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic have done a nice job utilizing AJAX to improve the interaction between customers and their website. Their “QuickLook” functionality, which shows a larger picture and more product information without taking the user away from a product listng page, saves time and frustration when trying to compare items from within the same category or promotion. This interface does, however, offer a few challenges. Instead of surfacing the QuickLook functionality to the viewable level, the user must hover over an image before the option appears. If a user is not aware of this feature, they may not look for it or expect to find it.

Even if the user is aware of QuickLook, its inconsistent usage can cause confusion. I watched a user encounter some difficulty when surfing this shop by outfit page on Old Navy’s site, which features apparel ensembles that don’t feature the QuickLook. To designers of this page, the difference between this page and the listing pages probably seems quite obvious, but it was not to the user I watched; she became visibly frustrated when the QuickLook icon would not appear on the ensembles. In the end, although QuickLook provides a resounding Yes answer to the first of our questions, further evaluation shows that there is opportunity to improve the user’s understanding of the controls.

Key Question 3: Does it Conflict with Established Standards?

Although we occasionally do need to modify standards to improve them, for the most part failing to meet user expectations will result in increased frustration. Another popular AJAX feature that has generated some buzz is the Lightbox — a script that creates a new layer of content on top of an existing page, in essence mimicing the popup window experience without an additional browser window. This is a visually stunning transition and seems to load much more quickly than if a new page or window was created, so it certainly improves the experience of looking at an enlarged image or detailed content. However, because the entire screen display changes (showing an image on a darkened background), and because the normal user will not necessarily understand the technology behind the page, users often attempt to utilize the “back” button to return to the previous page. Since only a new layer has been created, however, the “back” button does not work as expected. (Even understanding the technology, I myself have fallen prey to the misuse of the “back” button.) This isn’t to say that Lightbox isn’t an excellent idea; designers who do choose to utilize it, however, must take extra steps to ensure that the expected behavior is abundantly clear.

Taking the Lightbox example a step further, it is quite tempting to use AJAX to display entirely new “pages” without actually reloading the page, but this can have disasterous results. The Zago Design site (found on johnniemanzari.com), for example, does just that, reloading the main content without ever changing the location in the browser. If a user attempts to use the back button, however, it doesn’t seem to do anything! Apparently each click creates an entry in the browser history, but using the button simply reloads the same page. This is a great example of an idea that seems like cutting edge design, but instead takes away the common interaction that every user expects to work on a web page, and thus ultimately creates a poor experience.

Summary

No matter how exciting and cool it may seem, “Web 2.0″ technology (AJAX, Flash, etc.) should not be implemented solely for the sake of doing something new and different — it must always add tangibly to the user experience, and must be effortless to learn and use. As UI designers, Usability Practitioners, etc., it is our responsibility to educate the rest of the community on these principles. It may be easy for us to distinguish applications that provide true benefit from those that are pure fluff, but to truly be successful, we must pass along this knowledge to the Marketing and Business players, so the final decisions are always made with the user’s total experience in mind.

Read Mike’s previous post

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.