Benefits of Bots Over Websites and Apps
Before we explore what areas chatbots need to improve on, let’s take a look at what is working in the world of bots. Here are some things chatbots do well:

• They’re simple. If you can type words on a screen or make a request out loud, you can engage with a chatbot. For the most part, chatbots don’t require a ton of education before you use one.
• They’re faster. Or at least they have the potential to be. There are still some kinks being worked out with regards to bots understanding everything we say, but once that happens, asking something of a chatbot will likely get results much faster than searching for something the “old-fashioned” way on the web.
• Chatbots are more cost effective. From a business perspective, chatbot could save companies tons of money in the future. Chatbots can work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without getting tired or demanding overtime pay. Try finding a human customer service rep who is willing to do the same.
• Chatbots have a consistent UI. What exactly is the UI of a chatbot? Language. The words we speak is a human interface, and it’s the only thing we need to operate a chatbot.
• They provide instant satisfaction. Want to know the weather forecast, or what time that movie starts at the local theater? With a chatbot, there’s not even a need to find your phone or laptop to look that information up – just ask the question aloud and let the chatbot enlighten you.

It may not be the chatbot itself that will replace websites and mobile apps but the concept of providing customized information to a customer contextually rather than having them search for what they need, can replace existing website and mobile app structures.

The Pitfalls of Current Chatbots
So, if chatbots are so great, what is that needs improving? Let’s take a look:

• The communication between customer and computer is unrealistic. Artificial Intelligence has a ways to go before most real humans will feel able to get conversational with a bot and have the encounter actually be productive. This is because — as strange as this may sound – most chatbots aren’t actually intelligent. Many chatbots were programmed with a many pre-set paths and aren’t able to deter from them.
• Chatbots still provide a poor user experience. In most cases, the experience of talking to a chatbot is still very awkward and frustrating for most people. This can (and does) result in the bot failing to provide the user with the information they were looking for.
• AI doesn’t understand context. For chatbots like Siri or Alexa, the scope of what may be asked of them is extremely wide, so it’s impossible for them to understand every request and its context. At least for now. Time will tell whether or not improvements can and will be made in this area.
• They don’t keep pushing to solve problems. Have you ever tried asking Siri something that she didn’t understand? She’ll basically just tell you she doesn’t know what it is you’re asking of her and end the conversation. You have to initiate another Siri request and either rephrase your question or talk more clearly. This is a frustrating characteristic of many chatbots and needs to be fixed before the world will embrace bots wholeheartedly.
• Not talking to a human can be tricky. When speaking aloud to a chatbot, one must always enunciate clearly (and hope the bot understands your accent if you have one), and talk loudly enough for the bot to hear. If you’re typing to a bot, you’ll want to make sure you’re at least a decent speller. Indeed, communicating with a non-human can sometimes feel tedious and like uncharted territory.
• Lack of transparency still exists. There are some cases where it’s not always clear to a user that they’re talking to a computer online. In most cases, human behavior would be different if the user knew they were texting with a machine and not a human. Transparency is important in all avenues of business and chatbots should be no exception.

So, are chatbots the way of the future or doomed to fail? It’s still probably too early to easily make that call. As TechCrunch points out, 15 years ago when mobile apps were taking over the world, their benefit and trajectory were quite clear. Their usefulness (and use) was inherent, and it was much easier to access information using an app on your phone than to do the same tasks on your computer. But since chatbots still need a lot of work, the benefits of speed and efficiency aren’t as apparent just yet.

It requires a lot more thinking and use case creation to design a good chatbot compared to websites and apps. Additionally, UX teams need to re-think the design process in order to create bots since they are very different than websites and apps. But, it is pretty apparent that many people are championing chatbots so they are likely here to stay and will be improved upon and perfected over time.

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To fully comprehend users’ experience and satisfaction with a digital product, it is important to gather both quantitative and qualitative data. In the past, quantitative and qualitative testing had to be done separately due to limitations of online testing tools and methodology. This inherently created timeline and budget constraints. For example, if you needed both types of data, performing two separate studies meant that you also needed two separate user groups. This was not only costly and took longer, but it also meant your data wasn’t coming from the same set of users.

Today’s industry leading online testing tools allow user research researchers to combine both quantitative and qualitative studies into one, while using the same user set, and consequently accommodating more efficient and cost effective results.

Some of the latest online user research tools are able to collect a comprehensive set of quantitative and qualitative data in a single study:

Behavioral/Qualitative Data

• User comments and reasons why
• User’s facial expressions
• Clickstreams
• Heatmaps
• Screen recording

Quantitative Data

• Task success or failure
• Task effectiveness and efficiency
• Task ease of use
• User preferences
• Survey responses
• Satisfaction metrics
• Net Promoter Scores
• Information architecture data

What’s more, this data can be collected from hundreds of participants all over the globe, not just the 8-12 participants that one-on-one studies average. This will generate statistically significant results for your study.

Another benefit of online user research is the participants are taking the tests in their natural environment using their own devices, so their behaviors are natural – this is something that is almost impossible to recreate in a lab setting. And, because online testing can be automated (rather than just moderated), users are able to participate on their own schedule.

With automated testing, there are fewer logistics involved. There is no longer a need to set up test schedules, moderate individual test sessions, or recruit more users than necessary due to no-shows. All of this saves time and money. The majority of the effort is in configuring the online testing tool based on the user research research goals, monitoring the study while it’s live and analyzing the data collected by the tool. Online user research research facilitates frequent testing at lower costs at any stage of your product design cycle.

Many UX research experts agree that modern advancements with online user research allows us to perform more complete research that can capture the same qualitative data as in-lab tests, in addition to many other quantitative points of data. Because of this, unmoderated online user research is becoming more commonplace and more trusted. According to UX Matters, “Remote user research is a welcome addition to any researcher’s arsenal—particularly as we try to fit data collection into agile sprints and work within the constraints of an increasingly lean bottom line.”

The post Gather Significant Qualitative & Quantitative User Data with Online User Research Testing appeared first on OneSource Labs.

Discoverability & Standardization
Users mainly interact with the interface for primary and necessary actions. Ensure to follow industry standard gestures specific to a platform (i.e., iOS or Android). Secondary actions may be easily dismissed if the related gesture is hard to discover. If users can’t find it, it doesn’t exist.

Consistency
Participants expect the same gestures to produce identical or similar results. Swiping is an industry standard and well-known gesture, but it could translate to multiple outcomes within your app. For example, flip to the next page, change a section, delete content, scroll up/down, turn a function on/off, etc. With all these possible outcomes, users need a sense of predictability within an app.

Be sure to keep gesture results consistent within a single app.

Feedback & Recovery
Touch screen interfaces need to provide responsiveness by displaying immediate feedback upon user’s action. Any delay in feedback may result in abandonment on the user’s part. They need to know immediately if their action resulted in their desired outcome, and if not, find a way to fix it. The app should allow users to recover from their mistakes, especially if they are due to non-standard gestures or lack of immediate feedback. For example, if a user deleted an important piece of content by mistake, the app should to provide a confirmation question.

In conclusion, unpredictable outcomes have a direct effect on users’ confidence, level of engagement, and frequency of revisiting. Ensure your mobile app accommodates for user needs by following best practices.

The post How Touchscreen Gestures Affect User Engagement with Your Mobile App appeared first on OneSource Labs.

OneSource Labs team is excited to be a part of the WorkSearch initiative and to bring our skills, experiences and resources into the job search market on behalf of WorkSearch.com. We are looking forward to designing an intuitive user experience for WorkSearch.com’s target audience and continuously improving the user research of the site pre and post launch.

About WorkSearch
WorkSearch.com is the newest entry into the job posting and job seeking online platform. The company’s focus is on security, privacy and remaining anonymous. With its ease of use secure platform, and their patent pending matching process called Performance Placement, unique to this industry, there will be no cost to post a job or seek a job – wherein people or companies only pay when they are successfully matched with a qualified candidate or company. This feature is unique to this industry and we believe the combination of ease of use, privacy, low cost, quality of matching and remaining anonymous while shopping their experiences for the web candidate will make a huge impact into the job seeking and job posting industry. WorkSearch’s focus is to support job seekers, HR professionals, head hunting organizations and job placement companies alike.  

“LAS VEGAS, Feb 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — WorkSearch.com, the newest entry into the job search market, today announced a strategic relationship with OneSource Labs. As part of a team of companies, OneSource Labs is designing the User Interface (UI) for the WorkSearch website and is working closely with the web development team.” (source: PR Newswire)

Visit PR Newswire to read the complete press release: WorkSearch Enters Strategic Alliance with OneSource Labs

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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)

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Testing on different mobile platforms could result in higher customer satisfaction and net promoter scores.

In a mobile app user research, it was found that standard gestures do not translate from one platform to another for the same action. For example, the functions requiring a swiping gesture on an iOS, may require a tapping gesture on an Android.

The app that we tested utilized iOS gestures for a specific functionality on both iOS and Android platforms. The iOS users easily completed the task because they were accustomed to the swipe gesture for that functionality. However, many Android users were unable to complete the task because the swiping gesture for that functionality was not standard on Android. Therefore, many Android users failed to complete the main task.

The survey results revealed that some Android users were less satisfied with the product and less willing to download the app on their device. Most importantly, they were less likely to recommend the app to a friend or family member.

In conclusion, it is vital for a single app to be customized and tested for major platforms. Doing so will help to avoid compromising the user perception, experience, and satisfaction of the product.

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