1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,670 [Dan Gorgone] Usability is an important aspect of design because you want people to use the things that you build. 2 00:00:05,890 --> 00:00:11,300 You want them to use it for its intended purpose and to be successful at whatever they're trying to do. 3 00:00:11,770 --> 00:00:15,670 and this is what's known as a "User-Centered Approach" to design. 4 00:00:16,150 --> 00:00:21,130 Meaning that instead of focusing exclusively on the wants and needs of the company or ourselves, 5 00:00:21,260 --> 00:00:23,940 we're gonna focus of the wants and needs of the users. 6 00:00:24,650 --> 00:00:29,190 Why? Because as amazing as we might think our site or app might be, 7 00:00:29,730 --> 00:00:34,850 if no one is using it to connect with us, or buy anything, or communicate, it's useless. 8 00:00:36,170 --> 00:00:38,640 Usability is incompletely measurable. 9 00:00:38,640 --> 00:00:43,670 There's no instrument or magic number that's gonna tell if a website is usable or not. 10 00:00:43,770 --> 00:00:48,140 It requires quantitative and qualitative analysis of various parts. 11 00:00:48,300 --> 00:00:53,290 Meaning, that if you wanna know for sure how usable you're site is, you need to consider measurable data. 12 00:00:53,630 --> 00:00:58,170 Like website analytics and SEO results as well as more opinion-based feedback 13 00:00:58,590 --> 00:01:02,360 such as the responses you might get from user interviews or testing. 14 00:01:03,110 --> 00:01:08,500 Usability is influenced by feelings, experience, and human nature. 15 00:01:08,500 --> 00:01:15,240 So it's important to factor any opinions along with any hard numbers that you can collect so you can get whole picture. 16 00:01:15,970 --> 00:01:20,000 But what usability often boils down to is a balance 17 00:01:20,550 --> 00:01:23,730 and when people use your site, they usually have a goal in mind. 18 00:01:23,730 --> 00:01:28,730 They want to find something, they want to read something, they want to download something, or buy something. 19 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:33,170 All of these different somethings have different value to different people. 20 00:01:33,330 --> 00:01:40,870 As people use your site, the amount of effort it takes to find that content will factor into how usable they find the site. 21 00:01:41,170 --> 00:01:46,140 It affects their experience and their willingness to keep going if something gets in their way, 22 00:01:46,140 --> 00:01:52,300 such as confusing links, hard-to-find content, or some other unexpected detours. 23 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:58,820 If any of these things happen, the user will have to decide if they wanna continue using the site. 24 00:01:58,850 --> 00:02:01,060 It is effort versus value. 25 00:02:01,550 --> 00:02:05,850 In the end, if the site proves to be not as usable as they'd hoped 26 00:02:05,850 --> 00:02:11,720 and takes too much effort when weighed against the value of the content they want, they will leave. 27 00:02:11,830 --> 00:02:20,180 For example, if a friend shares a funny video from a social media account, you might decide that it's worth checking it out for a quick laugh. 28 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:23,920 This type of content does not have big value on the grand scheme of the things, 29 00:02:23,920 --> 00:02:29,110 but at the same time, the amount of effort to view it should be minimal; should be one click. 30 00:02:29,130 --> 00:02:38,110 However, if that one click leads to a site where the video takes forever to load, and then the effort and time put in this action, 31 00:02:38,110 --> 00:02:42,060 it's gonna begin to outweigh the value of what's expected at the end. 32 00:02:42,060 --> 00:02:47,890 I mean, how long would you wait for a mildly amusing short video to load? 33 00:02:48,260 --> 00:02:53,450 Users will close that site if they don't wanna wait, and then move on to something else. 34 00:02:53,690 --> 00:02:56,350 Performance affects usability, 35 00:02:56,450 --> 00:03:00,390 and in this case, the usability was poor so, the user abandoned the site. 36 00:03:01,100 --> 00:03:08,680 Well, here's another example. Let's say you need to pay a bill online and the quickest way to do so is your bank's mobile app. 37 00:03:09,170 --> 00:03:13,290 The step you go through to find the bill pay feature might be awkward, 38 00:03:13,290 --> 00:03:16,120 and there might be more steps involved than you expected. 39 00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:20,410 Now, if this was a funny little video and you had to go all through these steps to watch it, 40 00:03:20,410 --> 00:03:22,690 nobody would be likely go through with it. 41 00:03:23,170 --> 00:03:26,700 However, the value of this goal—paying your bill—is high. 42 00:03:26,700 --> 00:03:28,840 It's very important to the user. 43 00:03:29,110 --> 00:03:33,560 Therefore, they are more willing to forgive some usability issues, 44 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:38,000 such as a form with some confusing fields or maybe some formatting issues, 45 00:03:38,730 --> 00:03:41,190 if it means accomplishing that important goal. 46 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:46,830 However, don't think that you can get away with usability issues like these all the time. 47 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:51,270 Because the next time the user wants to pay that bill or do something else, 48 00:03:51,270 --> 00:03:55,120 they may remember how difficult it was to use that app, 49 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:58,090 and they may decide to go through a different methods altogether. 50 00:03:58,630 --> 00:04:02,290 What's worse is that they might tell others how bad the app is, 51 00:04:02,290 --> 00:04:06,400 and bad word of mouth or social reviews are not worth the trouble. 52 00:04:07,420 --> 00:04:10,370 Not every scenario is going to play out like these, 53 00:04:10,370 --> 00:04:16,390 but no matter what kind of content or features you offer, you want to give your users every chance to succeed. 54 00:04:16,790 --> 00:04:22,770 This means understanding what your users want, giving them what they need to accomplish their goals, 55 00:04:22,770 --> 00:04:28,770 and this will increase the chances that they'll come back and use your site again and then recommend it to others. 56 00:04:28,770 --> 00:04:34,690 Ideally, by satisfying the user's need, we should, in turn, meet our own.