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Susan Harkus User-centred architecture |
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Home Business knows! Designing useful websites Writing to engage your users Fixing user experience problems Validating your web strategies Supporting business change through emails & intranets Writing for translation Papers, articles & research Experience & client work Service descriptions & contact details |
Fixing user experience problems
Website users complaining that they Application users complaining that some function doesn't do 'what it should'? Staff ignoring intranet information and services because they get faster and better support another way? Emails that stimulate minimal clicks? User experience problems stop engagementAwareness of user experience problems is never an issue. Nor is the understanding of their impact on e-business, technology takeup or staff performance. Problems turn users off.
Fixes that aren't fixes
The conventional approach to fixing user experience problems has an inherent flaw because analysis focuses on the problem point. It really doesn't matter how seriously analysts interview, survey or test with users, or how thoroughly the business analyses customer feedback. The magnifying glass approach fails to anticipate the whole task context that bubbles the problem to the surface. People become frustrated with online solutions not because the solution has an inherent problem but because, as they engage with the online information, service or function, they can't achieve what they want to do comfortably and with a feeling of being in control. Just read the unfortunate tale of the three tax agents! Problems must be analysed within the full user task contextWhen the technical communication profession was establishing itself as a distinct profession in the 1980's, 'task-oriented' was the watchword. Unfortunately, over time, the term task-oriented was increasingly interpreted as 'function-oriented'1.. The real user task of publishing the meeting minutes was ignored and replaced by functional tasks such as 'opening a new document', 'saving a document' or 'formatting a paragraph'. While critical attention has to be paid to correctly implementing application functions, the successful integration of those functions depends on how successfully the integrated 'package' matches the user's understanding of what they want to do. Which is where I come in...I work with clients to analyse information, transaction or application problems from the perspective of the whole user task. Often the solutions are simpler and faster to implement than expected but more importantly, they ARE solutions. Talk to meIf you want a practical, fast-track way of finding solutions to user experience problems, talk to me. Call me on 0439 734 231 or email me.
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