A Personal User Study...Me
July 06, 2004 | 
21 Comments
…or, will they ever learn…or, the Web is still in many ways a hard-to-use mess where I can’t find anything. Back in November I posted about the Unusable Web and I’ve made it one of my professional goals to help turn that into a usable, people-centric Web.
In order to do that I need to keep studying user behavior on the Web and every so often I like to use myself as a test case. After all, even though I am a Web professional, I’m also a heavy Web user and I feel that when I have problems, you can bet your sweet ass others do as well.
I’ve spent a few hours on various sites tonight, taking care of various tasks. While I was at it, I decided to make a personal little user study out of it and keep track of “issues” I came across. It did not go well.
Lets start with what I wanted to accomplish in the last two or so hours. I’ve:
- Bought a book on Amazon.
- Found and signed up for an online poker room that supports Mac users after quite a bit of searching and research.
- Done a bit of research on branding.
- Checked out a few Web Visions’ speakers sites.
- Looked into booking a hotel room.
- Updated my Comcast account…again. I guess it didn’t “take” the last time.
- Did small “cognitive walkthroughs” of some high profile hospital sites for a project at work.
- Signed up for an e-mail newsletter.
- Looked into some online and offline classes.
- Got some information on Kickball leagues in Seattle.
- Bought tickets to Sky Cries Mary on Ticketmaster.
- Looked into New Found Glory tour information.
- Looked for information on presentation software.
Sounds like I got quite a bit done. Well, yeah, I guess, but it was a total pain in the ass with a few exceptions.
In those two hours alone I also:
- Had two .exe files start downloading automatically. Now that’s just disrespectful.
- Had to fill out three Web forms more than once. Argh.
- Filled out 11 form fields I’m pretty sure won’t ever be used. Sure they aren’t marked “required” but why have them at all if they’re not needed???
- Got trapped in three auto-forward loops. I hate these and they’re still common on otherwise good sites.
- Had to dig much further than I’d have liked or expected for pricing information a few times. Why is this stuff hard to find? It’s usually the first thing I want to look at! It cost a sale tonight.
- Had to close numerous pop-ups. Twice with auto-spawning children. Bad form. I needed to have my pop-up blocker off for an application I was using.
- Got two incomprehensible error messages. Contingency design anyone?
- Managed to use a completely unreadable calendar in a Web application.
- Waded through pages of poorly titled and described Web pages in search results. Common and so easily remedied.
- Landed on four pages where I couldn’t figure out how to get home at first. And, no, a left pointing arrow in the top, right corner of the page doesn’t say “home” to me.
- Gave up searching for contact information twice. This should be really easy to find on just about any site.
- Launched one “blind” PDF. Why don’t people label these?
- Encountered navigation I couldn’t read or easily understand three times. Mystery meat isn’t cool — it’s a pain.
- Was once “told” (rather rudely to boot) to “upgrade” to IE 4! WTF?
- Encountered two sites that I simply could not use at all.
- Was truly confused three or four times.
- Had a perfectly legitimate confirmation e-mail get tagged as spam. Guess that’s what you get for trying to spam me in the past. I wonder if this has happened before?
- Saw a whole crap-load of poorly designed, poorly written and even more poorly functioning Web sites that someone out there probably expects works just fine.
Sometimes I get so frustrated when it comes to my own experience with the Web. We have such a long way to go before we have a truly usable, people-centric Web.
Of course, I’m part of the problem, or rather my host is. I also got frozen out trying to comment on my own site tonight. It’s a big problem that I’m going to take care of, I promise. Make no mistake, creating a more usable Web can be a big challenge at times. But then again, for every difficult problem out there there are a hundred easy-to-tackle issues that go untaken care of.
(Rolls up sleeves.) I guess the first step is admitting you have a problem and I do think that more and more people are jumping on the bandwagon for usability and Web best practices. Some times I feel it’s baby steps, but those are better than nothing at all.
Filed under: IA and Usability
Comments
1. Alex said:
A very well designed site in my humble opinion, and an interesting post as well. I just found it off of Movable Type’s recently updated list. I’ll certainly check back for updates.
Posted on July 6, 2004 10:34 PM | #
2. Ronald van der Wijden said:
Great article, Keith. I think you hit the nail right on the head: if an experienced, web-savvy user like you runs into the sort of aggrevations like you described, imagine how bad less experienced users fare.
The concept of using one’s self as test user is intrigueing (and sooo easy to arrange!) and can, as you proved, already uncover a lot of easily avoidable mistakes.
Posted on July 7, 2004 12:27 AM | #
3. Jason Marble said:
The web is so young, we won’t see a truly usable web for a long time. If we could maybe layout some construction codes, then maybe it would speed things up a bit. There should be a web inspector that checks your site like an inspector checks a building. If people had to pass inspection, we would have more usable sites.
Any site that doesn’t pass inspection should have a yellow caution sign saying that it is a personal site and to use it at your own risk. That would be funny.
Posted on July 7, 2004 12:59 AM | #
4. Chris Hester said:
I’m intrigued by this. Was it down to your browser and operating system, or something else? In what specific way were the sites deemed unusable?
Posted on July 7, 2004 01:55 AM | #
5. Ste Grainer said:
I know the feeling - it’s still so easy to get frustrated using the Web these days. :\ However, at least two or three of your problems should be easily fixed from your end just by using a browser other than IE.
For instance, the self-downloading exe files. I’ve actually converted all of my coworkers to Firefox recently to cut down on the amount of spyware/adware they install accidentally (due to self-downloading .exe files and confusing javascript alert/redirect tricks). In the few weeks since we converted, the number of problems related to spyware/adware have dropped considerably (after using Ad-aware to remove the stuff that was already installed).
Popups, also, are a thing of the past. Sure, sometimes Firefox might block legitimate popups, but this can almost always be fixed with two clicks. :) Anyway, I’m sure you’ve heard enough about other browsers and have your own reasons for using IE.
The thing that gets me about contact information is Amazon’s site. They have an incredibly usable site unless you want to get in touch with them in person. Trying to find a phone number on their site is (or was, last I checked) like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I’m still not entirely certain that it *can* be found on their website!
Posted on July 7, 2004 04:32 AM | #
6. heath weaver said:
First we will need a friendly customer centric market place, once I see that I will think that a usable, people-centric Web is possible.
If we were to even start venting our frustration with different businesses our lists would be twice as long as Keith’s.
Just to begin:
A notary who refuses to draft what I ask him to, rather he ignores my emails and sends me (and bills me) for drafting what I didn’t ask for.
An insurance company that won’t send me a bill, but tells me to just send the money to an account they give me over the phone and it will be fine (insurance/large well known bank)
A tax administration who audits me when they are not allowed to (first three years as an independent you are not supposed to be audited in Belgium, instead they make ‘a request for additional information’)
A president that we didn’t elect.
Just to say we should be 100% committed to creating a usable, people-centric Web, but there will always be the majority of people who feel it is ‘good enough’, not worth the effort, or just don’t care.
By the way, do you send emails to these companies or is that like making changes with a magic market to store signs with grammatical errors?
Posted on July 7, 2004 07:17 AM | #
7. Adrian Rinehart-Balfe said:
I find normal life just as frustrating.
Try to find something at Walmart after they have rearranged it all again!
Try to find an assistant in a store who knows anything about the product in question, even the price can throw them!
Try to drive somewhere you regularly visit but find that construction causes a detour that isn’t properly sign posted and because it is after dark you end up doing a complete loop and trying again!
Unfortunately all your web experiences are echoes of the real World and the web is likely to continue to mirror reality for many years to come. All we can do is try to ensure that our little corners are tidy and cross our fingers for the rest.
Posted on July 7, 2004 08:42 AM | #
8. Keith said:
Chris – I couldn’t use those sites because they were probably built with 4 year old IE only DHTML widgets or something. I just know they were not functional in Safari.
Ste – I never said I use IE. I’m on Safari. I had my pop-up blocker turned off because I need to have it off to use my online Outlook for work and I was monitoring some e-mails at the time. I can’t believe you would think I used IE…Come on man! ;)
heath – True, and as much as I want to fix the technology, most of this starts with people who can be a tougher nut to crack!
Adrian – Again…there are people on both end. We create the Web in the real world, so there are bound to be some echos. I guess we can only do our best in the end.
Posted on July 7, 2004 10:01 AM | #
9. Brian Rose said:
This entry is spot on. Over the years of using the Internet, people like us have come to expect horrendous output of information from websites. It’s disturbing to consider how bad websites still are - 99% of the web is still trapped in 2001.
One thing you mentioned that still amazes me is the complete lack of contingency design. It takes such little effort to ensure that error messages aren’t lost on users and it can make the browsing experience more enjoyable.
My guide to contingency design has been Defensive Design for the Web by 37signals. They did an amazing job documenting problematic sections of a website that often frustrate users.
Posted on July 7, 2004 10:24 AM | #
10. questionegg said:
Keith,
I’ve always wondered this: Is it possible to masturbate *too much*?? Cos if it is, you might wanna slow down a bit. Being a career wanker might be dangerous to your health!
Posted on July 7, 2004 12:13 PM | #
11. Keith said:
questionegg – OMG. That is actually really funny! An oldy but a goodie. And no, I don’t think you can masturbate too much.
Posted on July 7, 2004 12:17 PM | #
12. Ty said:
What a jackass. Hey, Keith, why didn’t you just diga-diga-diga-delete that one? It’s off topic, offensive to you and those who like to read your site and it’s just plain stupid.
It’s your site, but I’d have deleted and banded that mo-fo.
Posted on July 7, 2004 12:37 PM | #
13. Arty said:
I like you say to PDFS. Should always have a mark to let you know they are PDF!!! 100%!
Also, people should be nice in comments more too! Respect to you Mr. Robinson! Sorry for the bad English!
Posted on July 7, 2004 02:23 PM | #
14. Ste Grainer said:
Haha, well, I assumed you were using IE because I’ve never heard of or seen other browsers automatically downloading exe files before. Therefore I had always assumed that it was an IE-only problem … I guess I know better now! Please forgive my ignorance. ;)
Posted on July 7, 2004 02:32 PM | #
15. Keith said:
Ste – No worries! I was surprised the first time it happened as well. I mean I can’t even open an .exe on my Mac, so what gives?!?
Posted on July 7, 2004 02:42 PM | #
16. Matt Pennell said:
When you encounter these problems on sites that you have a valid, sometimes important reason for visiting - do you email or submit feedback to them to either complain, point out their site flaws, or tout for business?
Assuming their contact form works in your browser, of course…
Posted on July 8, 2004 01:41 AM | #
17. Keith said:
Matt – It really depends. I do e-mail at times. For example I tried to buy some FTP software online last month and had some major problems with their form, which actually barred me from purchase. I e-mailed them to tell them this and I got a form e-mail back and that was it.
I find that in many cases it’s not worth the time to e-mail. I also find that it’s often hard to find the contact information to e-mail at all. ;)
Posted on July 8, 2004 10:32 AM | #
18. Lance E. Leonard said:
Situations as you present here hit me every day. Though when they hit my wife or anyone who knows what I do, its that much easier for me to say “now you UNDERSTAND what I do.” Its also beneficial when they hit my clients or employer for me to say “do you understand the ROI on usability now?”
Posted on July 8, 2004 11:37 AM | #
19. LazyJim said:
We should hack into everyone’s servers and fix their sites up nice and usable like!
Posted on July 8, 2004 02:58 PM | #
20. wethepeople said:
I have to agree, usability is generally awfull at the moment, with a new frustration after every click. What I’ve found equally frustrating is that if you can actually get hold of the designers and report problems to them, they often take it as a personal insult, no matter how politely you word your (their?) problem.
Posted on July 9, 2004 07:57 AM | #
21. Derek Pennycuff said:
“Had a perfectly legitimate confirmation e-mail get tagged as spam. Guess that’s what you get for trying to spam me in the past. I wonder if this has happened before?”
Happens to me quite often.
Posted on July 21, 2004 07:19 AM | #
Comments are now closed