UK Consultants Member Articles

Article Details

Author: Nick Throp, Like Minds UK

02/06/2008

Attached: There must be some way out of here - usability and HR websites.doc

The words of Bob Dylan probably sum up how we’ve all felt at some time or other when we’ve got lost looking for information on the web – “There must be some way out of here”, but which way is it? We work on the mistaken assumption that the designer will have constructed the site according to the same “logical” principles that we would apply. The experience proves rather different. It’s not for nothing that it’s called the web; it can feel like you’re caught in an information trap spun by the designer.

From an HR perspective, if the information architecture of your site is unsound, your aspirations for employee or manager self service may be seriously undermined. Why should employees bother to use the web site if the experience takes longer and is more frustrating than passing the buck back to HR?

Given that the average time users will wait around for information to arrive via the web is 8 seconds, if you construct a site where information is difficult to find and navigation is problematic, you have a site that won’t be used.

Finding your way around

Much of the problem is caused by the way in which the medium works. While the site designer may have a clear site map in his or her own mind, the user, once they are into the site, has no such mental picture. Site designers can easily suffer from the disease of familiarity.

Bear in mind too that users read differently on the web - 79% of users do not read every word; on-screen reading is 25% slower than print reading; only 10% of users are willing to scroll.

Usability – the process by which you can test users’ comprehension, site navigation and overall satisfaction with the site – can help you address some of these problems and should be built right into the process of site construction.

Test, test and test again

One of the common mistakes in site construction is to test the usability of the site too late in the process. If you have got to the beta stage of site construction and you discover that there are significant usability problems that prompt a re-design, the cost of re-construction and the implications for timescales are significant.

The good news though it that there are a number of practical steps you can take to test usability. They include the following:

Create an effective site map at the start of the process with the information links and flows mapped out
Conduct a card sorting exercise to determine how users would structure the information and compare the results with your own structure (you will be surprised at the differences)
Apply good communication practices to the development of content (one thought per screen, use bullet points, make links descriptive); when developing content remember that the site should be able to answer all the questions that an employee has when carrying out a particular activity
Use good rule-of-thumb principles to the design of your web-site (what looks good to a designer might not work in web terms and may hinder rather than help usability)
Once you have a design template that is user-friendly, create your site and run full usability testing sessions with a representative sample of employees (at this stage you may require some professional help as there are tools and techniques that can be used to give you a genuine understanding of how users use the site)
Run final quality assurance testing (both technical and from a communication perspective, such as the consistent application of conventions, terminology, punctuation, etc.) before the site goes live
Use site measurement tools to ensure that the site is being used in the way that you had envisaged at the outset (it is important to have clear objectives for these tools to ensure that you are measuring the right things)
Finally, any links to back end systems need to be fool proof otherwise transactions that disappear into a black hole will very quickly damage the site’s reputation.

How does it feel?

If you have developed your HR web-site to enhance the quality of service you provide to employees or to deliver HR process more efficiently, building usability into the design and development of the site will help you achieve your objectives. Without it you risk an expensive failure. To return to the words of Mr Dylan, don’t leave the users of your site, “On their own with no direction home.”

Add Article