Re: UKNM: WAP Numbers

[Craig_Sullivan]

Subject: Re: UKNM: WAP Numbers


James Closs wrote:

>Nope. The guy is a pompous twat. He has some valid (though mostly

>plain obvious) points to make about usability but chooses to

>more-or-less totally ignore branding/aesthetic issues.


Unfortunately you are sooo wrong James.


Branding and aesthetic issues are important for many web sites and I take

care to ensure that these are reflected in the design of sites I've

developed.


However, if usability is not a central part of the design of a web site, it

will drag down browser/buyer ratios, result in failed registrations and

discarded baskets and cause immense frustration for the public.  Designers

have been testing products for years to assess their usability so Jakob is

not a proponent of some 'new idea'.  However, many web sites are so

ridiculously UNusable that it is a surprise that anyone manages to buy

anything from them.


Creative Good (www.creativegood.com) espouse a slightly different tack from

Jakob in that they rate the usability and 'experience' that a customer has

when using a site and boy are there a lot of rubbish sites out there.  When

doing usability testing recently, with some competitor sites, it was clear

to us that the designers had put very little thought into how easy to

use/intuitive their sites should be.  Net result was that when comparing

our development, our first version came out as 'usable' as our biggest

competitor - our next release will be streets ahead.


We also managed to validate our feeling that most of our customers possess

distinctly different web skills to ourselves.  People looking at the tests

could be excused for being shocked at the gap between say my browser skills

and the average customer - however, the site isn't for me - it's for a

target audience.


I'll give you a good example here - when we had a form with the fields

'Address 1, Address 2, Address 3' instead of 'Address line 1, Address line

2', customers supplied 3 different addresses rather than one.

Unfortunately, most of the people that brazenly slag off Jakob Nielsen are

the sort that are too ignorant to expose their work to uncomfortable

usability tests.   Feel free to concentrate on the branding - I'm after

customers and money.  You may say that the points Jakob makes are obvious

but have you actually ever performed a usability test and found out how

many issues you've overlooked ?  Why do you think some of the most popular

web sites have such high conversion ratios ?  Because customers find them

easy to use.  Why ?  Because they've tested and fixed them - duh !


mad_dog


*********************************************************************


Notice:  This email is confidential and may contain

copyright material of the John Lewis Partnership.

If you are not the intended recipient, please

notify us immediately and delete all copies of this

message.  (Please note that it is your responsibility

to scan this message for viruses).



*********************************************************************


John Lewis plc			Registered in England 233462

Registered office		171 Victoria Street London SW1E 5NN						


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finding it impossible to trawl through mountains of irrelevant

information on the web? Trying but failing to reach a niche market?

Help is at hand with the launch this week of online advertising

marketplace ADictive.com - the solution to all your advertising needs.


      Visit http://www.adictive.com to find out more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  To unsubscribe or change your list settings go to

http://www.chinwag.com/uk-netmarketing or

helpchinwag [dot] com