Usability Buyer's Guide

Produced by e-consultancy

Being user-centric is seen as a must for any business these days. But how can you persuade a large company to change its ways and truly focus on its customers?

At a World Usability Day roundtable facilitated by E-consultancy, it was suggested that the process of making a business user-centric can take years. Leading consultants agreed that the most effective way for an internal user experience manager to raise the profile of usability is often to create a “success story” with clear goals and business benefits. But despite inroads that have been made within many organisations, it is still often usability and accessibility (U&A) testing which ends up being sacrificed if projects are running behind schedule or going over budget.

Saying that, more businesses are catching on to the importance and revenue generating potential of U&A.

In terms of accessibility, the public sector continues to show the biggest commitment, and despite the fact that many companies remain unconvinced by the legal threat of failing the address accessibility issues, the commercial benefits of becoming accessible are becoming more apparent.

Voice of the Expert

“Blue chips are still definitely the leading contractors of usability and accessibility services, and both local and national government are beginning to adopt these methods into mainstream development lifecycles. Companies that place a real emphasis on providing an ‘experience’ instead of simply a ‘service’ really buy into the benefits of usability. Whilst Financial Services and Mobile Telecoms were the dominant sectors during 2005 and will continue to be so in 2006, it is anticipated that Retail and Travel will begin to adopt usability best practice more seriously during 2006 due to the exponential rise in online shopping and flight/hotel bookings.” Jim Webster, MD, fhios

“In the past, we found that it was normally larger companies that could see the benefits. We have found in the last 12 months that a growing number of SMEs are looking into this area - whether because they see competitors doing it, or just simply because they realise that if they don’t make their website or applications accessible or usable, then they are losing a considerable percentage of their online market.” Darren Pickering, Co-Founder, Elemental Creative.

“Larger organisations are always likely to have greater budgets for these services. Enlightened smaller companies are beginning to build usability and accessibility considerations into their businesses generally, but are less likely than corporates or other larger organisations to have the funds to dedicate specific projects to these activities. At the moment, accessibility issues seem to be higher on the agenda for public sector organisations than they are for businesses.” John Cowpertwait, Director, UsabilityWorks

Organisations are also increasingly addressing user experience issues from the start of the website development process. They are putting the customer at the heart of their decision-making and design frameworks, because they recognise that a better user experience equates to better business results, and are trying to ensure that the user experience is consistent across different platforms and channels such as mobile devices and call centres.

This progression has gone hand in hand with the growing trend towards understanding user-centred design in terms of “user persuasion” or “persuasion architecture”.

While large commercial and governmental organisations continue to make up the bulk of the market, U&A suppliers are also witnessing increased interest from SMEs, who have realised that they can gain a clear competitive advantage through investment in user-centred design. It is often easier for smaller companies to see a direct correlation between their spending and the benefits, such as increased conversion rates.

Rather than being a design issue that is disconnected from commercial issues, the user experience is now firmly regarded by many marketers as something which should be geared towards driving customer behaviour, which will bring about fundamental business benefits such as increasing revenue.

But picking the right supplier is key in both the U&A spaces. The growth of this market and burgeoning demand for services has led to a rise in the number of agencies and consultants claiming to be U&A experts.

The barriers to market entry have now been reduced further because the technology required to carry out research continues to fall in price. This has resulted in a proliferation of small agencies and one-man bands whose experience may in some cases be limited.

The reality is that there are a limited number of experienced professionals in this field who are very much sought after by both the specialist U&A companies and full-service digital agencies, as well as by client-side companies who are trying to bolster their in-house capability.

This means that buyers who need these services need to be very careful to ensure that they are getting the right experience and expertise to meet their requirements.

Many companies are still apathetic about the potential legal risk in failing to meet accessibility standards, but what is more surprising is that the commercial arguments for making websites as accessible as possible are often ignored. Here are ten reasons to address accessibility on your website…

·         There are 8.6 million registered disabled people in the UK. (Disability Rights Commission)

·         There are 1.6 million registered blind users. (Employers’ Forum on Disability)

·         Two million UK residents have a sight problem. (RNIB)

·         One in 12 men and one in 200 women have some form of colour blindness - 9% of the UK population (IEE)

·         3.4 million people have disabilities preventing them from using the standard keyboard, screen and mouse set-up with ease. (Employers’ Forum on Disability)

·         There are 12 million people aged 60 or over. (UK government)

·         UK population is also becoming older which means businesses will increasingly need to tap into an older – and often affluent – demographic.

·         Online businesses are potentially losing out on some £50-£60bn per year buying power. (Employers’ Forum on Disability)

·         Businesses can effect significant upturn in conversion rates and online sales by making websites more accessible.

·         Accessible web sites are better websites for users anyway, irrespective of disability.