Improving e-commerce revenues through improved usability and user experience
September 2010
Chris Rourke, Managing Director, User Vision
™
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Who is User Vision?
Leading Usability & Accessibility Consultancy
Usability Services for Web sites and Software
Consultancy
Audits / Evaluations
Usability Testing
Training
Based in the UK but new UAE office
Clients include: BBC, Tesco, Lloyds Bank, Emirates Airline, Jumeirah, IKEA, Nokia, O2, public sector organisations and many more
The people over there on Stand 17 opposite Google!
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User Experience & Usability looks at
Effectiveness – Can they reach their goals?
Efficiency – How fast? Number of errors?
Satisfaction – Was it a good/bad experience?
Benefits are
Better conversion rates
Reduced phone-based support
Improved sense of trust,custumer retention
Return visits, recommendations
Better use of marketing budget
Improved brand representation
Persuasion: “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink”
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User Experience & Usability
the Usable Road the UX Road
the Customer Service Road
Proactive
Reactive
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eCommerce – Survival of the Easiest
E-Commerce is concerned aboutConversion rates
Percentage of site visits that result in a purchase (or whatever you wanted the visitor to do at your site)
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Why Conversion Rates Fall
Customer Acquisition
First Impression Search for info or service
Act upon info or service
Slow page load
Poor look and feel
Confusing jargon, topic organisation
Inflexible search
Poor search results
Privacy & security concerns
Unreadable content
Clumsy site navigation
% o
f si
te v
isito
rs
100%
0%
Forms errors
Accessibility problems
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Online Ecommerce Success - Striking a balance
Websites need to strike a balance between what the site wants people to do and what people really want to do
Users want to
Buy just what you want
Go immediately to goal, then leave
Control their personal data
Sites owner wants you to
Buy more than what you want
Look at and click on ads
Take up their cross sells / upsells
Stick around
Capture some personal data
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User’s
View
Designer’s
View
Business’s
View
Task Analysis &
Usability Methods
We need to use this architecture
Lets use this new cool technology
Our database only accepts these characters
We sell these products
Our company is structured this way
People should know about the company history
I want to buy this product
I want to register for updates
I need to find this information
`
Bridging the Gulf
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Ways to bridge the gulf
Remove fear factors & barriers to purchase
Persuade users to continue
Let users play by their own rules (may not be yours)
Check your negative pathways & be forgiving
Keep your site accessible
Take a close look at what your users do on your site
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Being forced to choose a ‘make’ is making the user play by your rules
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Let Users Play by their rules: Inflexible process
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The process is too much work, people will give up.
Lesson: Learn how your users organise & prioritise things and want to perform tasks
Let Users Play by their rules: Inflexible process
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Let Users Play by their rules: Shopping Behaviour
Keeping it real
How do people do it in the real world?
People like to go from overview to detail at same time when shopping
14June 2010 Chris Rourke Managing Director User Vision| 14
Lesson: Persuade users to go from the overview to the details but with easy access throughout
Let Users Play by their rules: Shopping Behaviour
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Let Users Play by their rules: Cross sell intelligently
I am about to buy some men’s Cargo pants
Do I really want a women’s Poncho or cardigan?
Lesson: Use the information you have to better persuade the visitor
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As typical with many travel sites : If no results, I need to re-do my searchagain,
Negative Pathways: Query Relaxation
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www.newzealand.com.
In New Zealand: If no results, I can choose options slightly outside my original search.
A better experience
Lesson: See if you can offer customers the ‘next best thing’
Negative Pathways: Query Relaxation
18| November 2009| 18 | Rob van Tol, Senior Consultant, User Vision
Negative Pathways: Error messages
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Let Users Play by their rules: Don’t force registration
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Around a quarter of shoppers will abandon their purchase if forced to register.Lesson: Don’t do it
Let Users Play by their rules: Don’t force registration
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Keep it accessible
“The power of the Web is in its
universality. Access by everyone
regardless of disability is an
essential aspect. “
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Take a close look at what your users do on your site
Usability Testing Eye tracking
Card Sorting for information architecture
Early prototype testing
Lesson: You are not your user so Learn about them.
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Eye tracking – Heat maps
People often look at
Forms
Faces
What faces look at
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Scanning behaviour is typical
Scanned, than
briefly read
Just skimmed
Scanned and
read
Eye tracking – Gaze Trail
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Advertising effectiveness- Is the Ad Copy read?
Reading meter Number of readers
Average amount of text read
Reading Intensity Maps
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Advertising effectiveness- Is there an Emotional Response?
Strong Response•Strong emotional response
•Brand prominent
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Summary
Remove fear factors & barriers to purchase
Persuade users to continue
Let users play by their own rules (may not be yours)
Check your negative pathways & be forgiving
Keep your site accessible
Take a close look at what your users do on your site
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Thank You! For further information, contact:
Chris RourkeManaging Director
User VisionThe Fairmont DubaiOffice 508Sheikh Zayed RoadDubai, UAE
Tel: +971 4 311 6607Email: [email protected] ,
[email protected]: www.uservision.co.ukTwitter: @crourke @uservision
Come See us at Stand 17!
Try out eye tracking
Accessibility & usability quick check