Introducing new features to users can be tricky at times. Change can be overwhelming to some and unwelcomed by many, but if you follow certain guidelines when introducing new functionality, your innovation can be met with open arms and considered a success.

Crafting the right message about your new feature is as important as crafting the feature itself. It needs to pique users’ interests enough for them to take action, while simultaneously educating them on what the feature does.

So how do you go about introducing new functionality in a way your users will respond positively to? Here are four guidelines you should follow to help ensure a successful feature launch:

1. Don’t get too creative. Creativity is a wonderful thing that breeds innovation and unique solutions to everyday problems. However, overly creative design solutions used on conventional user interfaces and gestures can alienate users. The phrase “don’t reinvent the wheel” applies here. If your creative solution is born out of boredom rather than necessity, then it probably isn’t the right answer and you may find yourself with dissatisfied and confused users on your hands. Many of our studies have shown that many new and unconventional functionalities result in a low satisfaction rating of the product and negatively affect customers’ perception of a brand.

2. Keep it out in the open. When it comes to introducing new features, you don’t want to bury the lead. Anything that may change the way your user interacts with your product should be clearly communicated to them from the get-go. For example, you might first introduce your users to a new feature either before or on the launch date, explaining what it does and how to use it. A link to a tutorial video can be helpful here. Additional alerts when a user signs in are of upmost importance: a notification badge highlighting a new feature provides high visibility where it matters, and for an added bonus you could walk them through the new feature set with a guided tutorial, just remember to give them an opt-out on that tutorial, just in case.

3. Explain why it adds value. Because there will be hesitation with any new functionality, it is important to communicate the benefits for the user. It is not enough to just announce a new feature and tell them what it does. What will they get out of it? How will it add value to the product? Often times, if a user understands how a new feature or functionality will help them, they’re more willing to alter their usual habits in order to try it out.

4. Guide the user. Utilize a seamless process to guide users to the new functionalities. Don’t expect them to find it on their own, and don’t expect them to figure out how to use them. We already mentioned walkthrough tutorials, but it’s worth mentioning again. More subtle forms of offering assistance, like a “tip of the day” feature can make helpful information available to the user without it being too imposing.

What it all comes down to is communication. Keeping your users in the loop every step of the way will gain their trust in your product and improve their perception of your brand. This will also get them on board with new features as they’re introduced. See how not communicating to users clearly when introducing a new feature backfired on a very popular mobile app: Instagram Users Are Already Angry Over New Facebook-Style Feed

The post Introducing Innovative Functionality Can Affect Customer Perception of Your Product appeared first on OneSource Labs.

The organization of the content on your website and how it connects together – known as the Information Architecture (IA) – is an important part of a usable website. If the IA of a site is done well, users’ will rarely have problems finding what they need. How do you structure your site’s content in a way users will understand? One popular way is through a technique called card sorting.

Card Sorting is a tried and true technique for improving the IA of a site because it actually involves the users in the process, allowing them to communicate their organizational expectations and preferences.

We have conducted numerous card sorting exercises for clients across multiple industries to help inform structural redesign of their website content, navigation paths, menu structures, work flows, and product lists. Here are some of the most important things we’ve learned from our studies:

Keep It Simple
Users want logical and simple categories. For websites with extensive navigation menu items or product lists, utilize a multi-level categorization to avoid user confusion and frustration. Multi-level organization of content promotes an easier and quicker access to your content. This can be achieved by using larger and meaningful main categories and smaller and logical subcategories. Too many choices at the top-level can cause cognitive overload, while not enough can bury much needed information.

Card Sorting Resolves Internal Conflicts
If members of your team can’t seem to agree on the Information Architecture of your site, let card sorting come to the rescue. One of our clients had two teams who couldn’t agree on restructuring their website content. The card sorting exercises we ran helped resolve this conflict in the best way possible – the users told them exactly what they wanted.

Avoid Internal Language
Avoid using insider language or jargon that users don’t understand. A usable site should be easy for a user to learn and remember how to use, and if they don’t fully understand the language that’s being used, those goals will be more difficult to meet. The best way to find out whether you are using internal language for your labels, is to test them with actual users. Users are not shy in expressing “I have no idea what that means.” That’s when you know you are using internal language that’s not clear to your users. You can test unclear labels by including them in a follow-up survey study.

If your website is performing poorly, there may be any number of reasons for this, but poor Information Architecture might certainly be a main culprit because bad IA means users can’t find the content they’re after. Online card sorting is a preferred tool for helping to improve IA because it is reliable, inexpensive, easy to execute, and involves a large number of your site’s target users.

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Advocates of user research are familiar with real benefits of testing an interface with the target audience: customer satisfaction, engagement and loyalty, which generally result in higher conversion rates and increased revenue. Including user research late into the design process can create certain challenges. In many cases, the changes are too costly to implement or it’s too late to implement them before launch. However, it is possible to include user research into an Agile framework harmoniously.

The ROI of User Research
The user research of a product needs to be factored in at early stages of the design process in order to achieve the maximum levels of return on investment. As the saying goes: Bad UX = money lost; Good UX = money gained. Indeed, maximum savings are gained from making changes earlier in the design life cycle.

The rule of thumb in many user-research-aware organizations is that the cost-benefit ratio for user research is $1 : $10-$100. In other words, once a system is in development, correcting a problem costs 10 times as much as fixing the same problem in design. If the system has been released, it costs 100 times as much relative to fixing in design. (Gilb, 1988)

What is Agile Development?
If you work in the tech industry, you’ve probably heard of Agile, and maybe you’ve even practiced it. For those who haven’t, Agile is a set of product development practices that favor responding to change rather than following a plan. The Agile framework operates in sprints that usually last one to two weeks at a time, allowing for several design iterations and changes. The agile process embraces change as a useful part of the process that actually pushes designers and developers in the right direction.

In addition to responding well to change, Agile development values individuals and interactions, customer collaboration, and products that work. There are several agile frameworks including Lean and Scrum.

The alternative framework to Agile is known as Waterfall, which is a process where time and cost are variables, but the scope of the project never changes. It’s an efficient way of getting a project done, but it doesn’t account for change very well, which can cause significant–and expensive–problems.

User Research Testing in an Agile Framework
Traditionally, when working within a Waterfall framework, user research is factored in close to the end of development. Because development is mostly completed at the point of testing, making any necessary changes found due to testing can be very costly. Additionally, there may not be enough time to incorporate the user research recommendations prior to launch.

“Agile offers many opportunities for overcoming problems with traditional development methods that have long impeded user research.” (Source: Nielsen Norman Group)

When working within an Agile framework, user research can be done from the early stages of the design and on a regular basis, meaning changes are easy to make and much less costly.

To overcome the challenges with conducting traditional user research in an Agile framework, you need to incorporate the following solutions:

• Test small
• Test during every sprint
• Test any fidelity of the product
• Add a feature/functionality to every test
• Try different types of testing
• Observe testing sessions with the entire team
• Streamline the findings and recommendations report

Promoting Excellence with Agile and User Research
When user research is done during every sprint, it creates beneficial changes that improve the overall experience of a product because Agile methods inherently embrace and harness change, giving your product a competitive advantage.

Agile and user research go hand-in-hand because Agile principles call for good design and technical excellence, and User Research enforces excellence early on.

User Research is all about individuals and interactions while customer collaboration is an Agile value. User Research and Agile bring the user, team and business together on a regular basis. Iterative studies throughout the product life cycle can further inform the product’s Experience Design and result in task success and customer satisfaction.

The post User Research & Agile: An Elegant Collaboration appeared first on OneSource Labs.

A well-designed dashboard provides users quick access to their data on a regular basis. However, user research of dashboards is often overlooked during the design phase.

In order to promote user productivity, dashboard interfaces should be designed to provide quick access to crucial content in a clean, concise and intuitive fashion.

In a recent remote and moderated user research of a complex customer dashboard, real users of the product expressed their pain points in trying to find information they needed. Users expressed how it took them multiple clicks to get to a piece of data they needed on a daily basis. We found that difficulty in use of the existing dashboard had resulted in poor perception of a well-known product.

What Dashboard Users Really Want
The user research uncovered a considerable number of user research issues and resulted in a list of actionable recommendations to improve user research of the dashboard. We found that most users needed quick access to the same data on a daily basis. They wanted that information to be displayed using large font size on top of the page. We also found that users did not find it easy to look through a large amount of unorganized content to find what they needed.

Utilize an intuitive dashboard visual design to prominently display information that most users need regularly, no more or less.

Data Organization and Prioritization
Each dashboard is unique in terms of data and users. Once you have identified your dashboard target users’ needs, prioritize the top 3-5 pieces of information and prominently display them on top of the page. Use graphs, icons and color to differentiate each data. This will help users find what they need at a glance. It is important to display high-level information here. Details may be accessed by expanding each section or graph.

Alerts and notifications need to be given prominence on the face of the dashboard as well. Anything that requires immediate attention needs to be displayed within the user’s main visual field. Organize the rest of the content into meaningful categories and provide access to those from the dashboard. Always make sure your dashboard design is responsive as many users access it on the go.

Customization and Personalization
As user needs may be different based on their roles or preferences, allow for customization and personalization. In many cases, users have expressed an interest in customizing the information displayed and personalizing access to different sections of the site. A usable dashboard design is flexible enough to accommodate unique customer requirements.

Similar to any other interface, find out what your users need and design a dashboard that is usable across all platforms. As always, test regularly to improve user experience of your interfaces. This will result in customer satisfaction, engagement and loyalty.

When all is said and done, good dashboard design works to overcome the limitation of the user’s short-term memory. Read more about Short-Term Memory and Web User Research.

The post Promote Customer Engagement and Loyalty Through Effective Dashboard Design appeared first on OneSource Labs.

You may be wondering what is keeping your customers from completing the checkout process. You have all the right content available and have implemented marketing strategies, but your customers keep abandoning their shopping cart. What could be going wrong?

Through our user research studies we have revealed the key reasons why your customers are not converting:

1. Your product pages are overwhelming

Users give up if they cannot find the right product quick enough. They get frustrated having to look through a long list of products they may not be interested in.

Solution: Best practices call for categorizing products logically. Take it to the next level by providing product filters. Intuitive filters help your customers narrow down their options faster.

2. You don’t display tax and shipping estimates in the shopping cart

Users feel the company is holding back information on taxes and shipping if they are not provided in the shopping cart. Many ecommerce sites provide that information towards the end of checkout process.

“22% of carts abandoned happen due to no shipping information available.” (source: CPC Strategy)

Solution: Providing tax and shipping estimates in the shopping cart makes users more comfortable before clicking on the checkout button to place an order.

3. You require login/registration during the checkout process

The first step of checkout, that mandates login or registration, has continuously shown to have the highest drop-off rate. Users generally find it intrusive to have to provide unnecessary personal information in order to place an order. Many users perceive registration as only benefiting the company for their marketing purposes rather than benefiting them as a customer.

Solution: Providing a guest checkout option significantly improves conversion for many ecommerce sites.

See how offering a guest checkout option drastically increased a site’s revenue: The $300 Million Button

The post What is Blocking Your Ecommerce Site from Converting and What to Do about It appeared first on OneSource Labs.

The continuous growth in mobile use and the release of multiple screen-sizes demands testing customer interaction and satisfaction of a website across devices.

The desktop and mobile versions of a responsive design were tested in a user research conducted for a major automotive brand. In addition to standard user research issues, we discovered insights related to device use and preference. Here are some key findings:

A Rich Mobile Experience Promotes Brand Perception
Participants were pleasantly surprised to have access to the same content and functionality across devices without being overwhelmed. Furthermore, the seamless shift between devices resulted in improved perception of the brand for many participants.

“61% of people have a better opinion of brands when they offer a good mobile experience.” (Source: Latitude)

Some Tasks are better on the Mobile Device
In addition to tasks that are commonly perceived as mobile-friendly (e.g. getting directions, or contacting a retailer), people appreciated the luxury of starting a task on one device and finishing it on another, thus having that information available anywhere and at all times.

Increasingly, people use their mobile device for convenience, not just when they are “on the go.”

Some examples of those types of tasks include:

• Reviewing a list of inventory
• Finding a local retailer
• Saving a wish list to show the sales person
• Getting directions to or calling a local retailer

In conclusion, the shift in responsive design is the natural next step to supporting the purchase process and promoting brand perception. The fluidity of responsive design across devices allows users easy access to do anything at anytime, anywhere.

“57% of users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site. 41% have turned to a competitor site after a bad mobile experience.” (Source: Google)

The post Responsive Design and Brand Experience appeared first on OneSource Labs.

Study Setup

1. Send detailed session setup instructions
Prepare and email two sets of instructions for session setup prior to testing dates: one for the participants and the other for the observers.

2. Create individual sessions for each participant
Create unique session passwords and allocate at least 30-minute breaks in between sessions. This will prevent participants from logging into sessions other than their own.

3. Manage observer expectations in advance
As some observers may not have any prior experience with task-based user research studies (as opposed to focus groups), it is recommended to send a bulleted list of what to be expected in terms of remote and moderated task-based user research methodology and best practices (e.g. thinking out loud protocol, non-leading questions, non-encouraging tone of voice, etc.).

Session Setup

4. Plan for screen-sharing technical issues
Using a screen-sharing program for the first time might take longer than anticipated due to unexpected technical complications. Ask someone on your team to help you with calling participants 15-20 minutes prior to the start of each session and walk them through the installation process.

Always have a backup option for screen sharing. When all other attempts fail, you can email your participant the link to what you are testing and ask them to walk you through the tasks verbally as you follow their path using the mouse on your desktop for the observers’ viewing. In this case, you may need to ask additional clarification questions and be a little more expressive so your observers can get a better picture of what the participant is actually doing.

5. Minimize audio and video distractions
Use the conference call feature to mute entry/exit notifications. Remember to turn off any camera feed on your side. It is also recommended that participants do not use their webcam as it has shown to affect quality and speed of screen sharing, resulting in lags without adding much value.

Conducting Sessions

6. Include additional instructions
In addition to the standard instructions used for in-person user research studies, a couple of items need more emphasis for remote and moderated user research studies:

Emphasize to the participants the importance of using the mouse to point to objects on the screen that they are talking about. Also, do not hesitate to repeat this instruction throughout the session.

Ensure to communicate to your participants that you as the facilitator will be quiet most of the time during the study and will be taking notes of their comments.

7. Share the link to what you are testing during the session
Do not send a link to the website/prototype you are testing in advance. Rather, you may send the link to each participant within the screen-sharing program chat window right before you start with tasks. Doing this will prevent your participants from familiarizing themselves with the site prior to the user research session.

8. Maintain a fluid flow of conversation
As these studies are conducted remotely, the facilitator needs to maintain a more fluid flow of conversation compared to in-person studies. Based on experience, participants and observers feel uncomfortable with long pauses. Therefore, try to maintain a conversational flow by using transitional language from question to question and task to task.

9. Avoid unnecessary communication with observers
The facilitator should avoid any distraction during the user research sessions. Any communication with observers should be handled during the breaks in between sessions. Consider allocating a longer break after the first session to get in touch with observers and gather feedback.

Post Study

10. Preliminary Findings Recap
For those observers who are not in the same location as the facilitator, it is recommended to email a summarized list of high-level findings a couple of days after the study is completed.

A preliminary list of findings will facilitate agreement on the overall findings and will help manage expectations for the final report.

In conclusion, remote user research studies impose a few challenges, which are normally easier to control for in-person user research studies. The above-mentioned techniques can help minimize these challenges.

You can find more information on Remote User Research Tests by Nielsen Norman Group.

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