Does President Obama Know Where His User Experience (UX) Team Is?

Five Lessons in User Experience All Brands Can Learn From.

CBS News reported that the White House recently hired Jeffrey Zients to head up a team to “fix” Healthcare.gov. They also stated they were reaching out to experts and companies in Silicon Valley, trying to tap their expertise for the rescue of the site. 

Ok. Everyone knows that Healthcare.gov site has problems. The largest ones being functionality that that doesn’t work and accurate data collection and storage. This piece focuses on one other aspect, User Experience. Simple tweaks that can make the experience a bit easier for the user to navigate the site.

When a website launches, issues are inevitable but there are many lessons that brands can learn from the government’s (aka your tax dollars’) misfortune.

Let’s put all politics aside for a moment and take a look at some simple UX tactics that could have been applied to minimize risk. I’ve read a lot about the issues but the best knowledge is always first hand and I had to do a test drive myself.

What did I find, you ask?

Oh, many issues but most can all be consolidated into the following five points:

1.     You Need A Captain

2.     Estimate Initial Usage But Be Prepared for 10x the Volume of Users

3.     Streamline Content – Don’t Distract The User With Irrelevant Content

4.     Don’t Scare Them with Commitment Language Off the Bat

5.     Test Early and Rapidly

1.     You Need A Captain

October 2011. That’s when the government began subcontracting out development work for the website. Guess how many organizations this project was subcontracted to? 47. Yes 47.

So with 47 different subcontractors, how could the government know at any given point who was working on the site and who was responsible for the most critical piece that would deem this successful – ie a successful user experience?

It’s a given, when you are building a large site, that you will have multiple departments, people and potentially companies working on it.  That’s why it’s essential to have a UX captain that is all along ensuring the testing and usability of the site. If you don’t, you will fail. No blurred lines there. Your UX captain can serve as the connective tissue from concept through development and launch. Use them, that’s what they are there for.

2.     Estimate Initial Usage But Be Prepared for 10x the Volume of Users

The U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park stated the government had expected to draw 50,000-60,000 simultaneous users at any given time and they were prepared for that.  What happened? On average over 250,000 users have been trying to log in since it launched on October 1^st. 250,000!!!! Remember if you are building a site where you have stated your goal is “7 million users”, then scalability and capacity is critical. If they can’t get in, you potentially just lost a number of users.

3.     Streamline Content for the User – Don’t Distract Them With Irrelevant Content

I have to say one of my biggest pet peeves is when I’m in an experience and I get presented information that is completely irrelevant to me at that point in the process. Don’t do it, just don’t do it. Keep the experience clean and guide the user down a path, don’t distract them.

Here’s a prime example on the site. I get to the homepage, I decide I want more information on Individuals and Families. Here are the series of pages I am now taken through until I can finally take an action that I wanted to take initially.

Great – I’m interested in individual and family – so I click on that in the tabs

Ok I guess I’ll apply online so I click on that.

Hmm… ok I guess I’ll click on the big green button to get started.

Ok – I guess I’ll pick the one starting in January.

Hmm.. Wait what? Why am I seeing Small Business and Brokers here…

I thought I already told you I was an Individual. There doesn’t seem to be a big call to action – I guess I’ll click the individual tab again?

FINALLY A GET STARTED BUTTON THAT WILL LAUNCH A FORM

TO BEGIN FILLING OUT.

So five clicks before I can even begin to fill out a form. Five clicks and that’s because I was able to figure it out and not lose hope along the way. The average user will not get past those first two clicks. “Healthcare.gov”, why are you making me click so many times? Why can’t you just take me to this page immediately?

4.     Don’t Scare Them with Commitment Language Off the Bat

These words are on the homepage and the largest calls to action.  My guess is users want a little more information before committing to an application. Something as simple as Learn More and Apply may ease the experience for the user coming here for the first time and keep them moving through the process.

5.     Test Early and Rapidly

I can’t mention this enough. Even if you only have sketches, testing makes a difference. The smallest tweaks and enhancements can make or break your site. You don’t have to test a gazillion people either. You will begin to see trends after 5-7 users. Do it. Do it often. You won’t be sorry.

“Sources tell CBS News the underlying software was riddled with junk computer code, which means, one expert said, "No way it was properly tested before it went live.”

I rest my case.

In summary, launching a site at this scale is no simple feat. There are bound to be hiccups along the way. However simple UX guardrails can be applied to minimize risk at launch. Now go find your UX team ASAP! Or call me if you don't have one! :)

Check out my coverage in Ad Age.

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Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

Gesture Recognition - What What?

Learn About Gesture Recognition and See How Cadillac is Already Using It!

First the definition…

In gesture recognition technology, a camera reads the movements of the human body and communicates the data to a computer that uses the gestures as input to control devices or applications. For example, a person clapping his hands together in front of a camera can produce the sound of cymbals being crashed together when the gesture is fed through a computer.

We all know it's in the works and has been for a while. It has already manifested itself in the gaming industry and we are seeing it now via google glass. It's just a matter of time before we are faced with yet one more variable to consider when designing a product.

Touch technology, thanks to Apple, took the world by storm with a high adoption rate and a rare sharp intuitive learning curve. Everyone just got it, including two year olds within a matter of seconds. Touch technology is also scaleable as It works within a confined set of guidelines with very clear inputs – the touch of your finger.

Gesture recognition however is a bit more complicated. Why? Here are a few reasons:

1. We are all different physically. We all do things slightly differently, whether it is blinking or moving a finger in the air from the left to the right. The screen has to adjust specially to person. Similar to voice recognition.
2. There are certain things that you would rather do quietly. As I'm searching the internet for something, rather than making my eyes move quickly down the page to scroll or waving my hand rapidly, I may prefer to do it slightly with my finger and not draw attention to myself.
3. Human Ergonomics. Sitting at a desk and looking at a lap top suddenly makes my mouse pad cursor unnecessary. Why do I need my cursor if I can just gesture or tap on something that will give me my result. To that same extent – navigation may drastically change if gesturing becomes the norm because  the natural movement of gesturing while at a desktop would be with your elbow somewhat glued to the desk, so the range of motion suddenly turns into an arc. Therefore does it make sense for navigation to be more at an arc value vs. the standard horizontal top of the page value? This is just one of the variables to consider.
4. It seems easier but is it really? While in some situations, gesture recognition seems to really be the way to go (gaming, oversized digital displays (think Tom Cruise and the Minority Report) or music perhaps) but in other situations are we just overcomplicating an experience?  

So what's the net net here? We still have a ways to go when it comes to gesture recognition. Think long and hard about the audiences you are working with and the product you are designing. 

I have no doubt it will slowly begin to creep its way into our lives but as designers of products, let's always be sure to ask the very important question of "will this enhance or detract from the experience." In that question, I believe you will find the correct answer on how to proceed in adding the additional requirement in.

In the case of Cadillac, they figured out just where they can use it in their cars. It's called CUE (Cadillac User Experience). How you ask? Very simply by the screen sensing the users presence of their finger coming closer to the screen and narrowing results or expanding. The screen is predominantly tactile and voice operated but I love that they were able to figure out a way to incorporate gesturing to enhance the user experience. 

Check out the latest CNET review of 2013 Cadillac ATS that includes the CUE technology. Surprisingly, the voice and proximity gesture recognition worked very well for the reviewer (which are usually the trickier ones) but the tactile piece was a bit slow in response time. I'm sure they are working on it!

I expect to see more of this integration in the future from Cadillac. Way to go!

Side note: Cadillac introduced CUE back in 2011 and has been enhancing ever since…

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Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

iPhone Quick Tip of the Day

I hear this a lot lately - my iPhone battery sucks or my phone is chugging. Chances are you have a gazillion applications running that you didn't realize.

Here's the fix:
1. Hit the menu (round button) twice
2. All the icons you see highlighted at the bottom are running. Yes all of them. Touch one of the icons until it starts shaking and hit the (-) key to close the apps
3. Hit the menu key(round key) again to return to your screen

Don't worry you are not deleting the app - you are simply closing it. It's ok.

Still not sure? Watch this video on how to close down apps.

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Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

Listening to Your Customers Can Cost You

What do you mean a company can get in trouble by listening to their customers?  That doesn't make sense!!


Actually it depends on the question that was asked. So when does it make sense to ask your customers & when does it make sense to watch them?


Phil Terry & Mark Hurst recently wrote about Walmart & I thought I would join in on this discussion because it’s quite relevant in our marketing world of constant testing & surveying customers to see what they like & dislike. 


It’s great these days, we never seem to really go to market with a hunch – we test the hell out of everything before we put it in front of the mass media.  This way we know whether or not something jives with the general public or may fall flat. 


But what are we testing? Who are we testing it with? Do they truly represent the mass population? And lastly, is what they are telling us truly what they want? I thought this cartoon conveyed this the best:

The answer is a tough one. I would venture to say perhaps some early testing just to gage direction would be nice but I would also say that more importantly, many times it’s how you position the concept to the user & how you ask the question in the survey.

So let’s take a look at what Walmart did back in 2009. In a world where everyone loves the simplicity behind the Apple branding, many brands are trying to follow suit and simplify their brand & product. Walmart takes notice and decides that perhaps their customers need a more simplified shopping experience in their stores that is less cluttered & easier to navigate. Makes sense right? Maybe.... Err... Maybe not....

They do what most smart brands do... Survey their customers first to make sure this is what they are looking for & they ask the question “would you like Walmart aisles to be less cluttered?” 


They say YES. 


Great, customers have made it clear that this is what they want. Of course they do. Who wouldn’t?

So Walmart  moves forward, they clean house, cut down the amount of brands they carry.... Sales start dropping, people start complaining.... But what happened? Isn't this what they wanted? Our customers lied!!

No. 


See, the question that was asked was very leading. As Mark points out, Walmart made a common mistake. They asked a question they already felt they had the answer to. The question they should have asked was: What do you like about Walmart? What might improve your shopping experience?

They focused on what the customer said vs. what they actually did. 


Walmart customers thrive on low prices. What drives low prices? Variety & brand competition. When they cut down on the variety, the price fluctuation disappeared. So when you lose the variety, you lose competitive pricing & Walmart customers are suddenly no longer happy campers.

So bottom line – remember that while it is important to hear what your customers are looking for, there is a fine balance between surveying customers & watching what they are actually doing. And if you should ask them a question – make sure you are asking the right question or it could cost you millions. Literally.