The Ultimate Usability Test

DesignLabs, August 18, 2020

DesignLabs, August 18, 2020

Transformation is a natural phenomenon

My third week in lockdown has come to an end. Like most of the people I know, my days have been spent on collaboration by means of various online tools. Screen time on my devices has skyrocketed. Internal and external Web and Native Apps are battling for my attention including Enterprise Applications demanding to be updated constantly to keep the processes flowing. I’m guessing that these past three weeks, the world’s use of information technology has accelerated at an unparalleled speed. The world has gone crazy hunting for new ways of working in cyberspace.

And then it dawned upon me: This must, without comparison, be the largest and most comprehensive unplanned usability test in the digital age.

Thomas Ove Rasmussen

Designer and Solution Architect at Invokers. Design Thinker

As a Business Application Designer and Design Thinker, my job is basically to deliver innovative solutions that balance Viability, Desirability and Feasibility while solving wicked problems and challenges. This means that Empathy and Reframing is an essential part of my work when delivering design driven user-centric solutions.

New Normal

So, if the “New Normal” is working online, and not being able to physically be together with your colleagues, customers and vendors, what impact will this have on your business from a user-centric and User Experience(UX) perspective? Now – more than ever – your customers will be interacting with you through different digital interfaces, are you ready for this? And remember: As the digital customer engagement increases, this channel will become a larger part of your business. With this scenario in mind, ask yourself if you can afford poor UX? Your customers will most likely go elsewhere for a better experience. If you take your business seriously, and I know you do, it is time for you to do some Reframing and step up your UX game. You have to ask yourself if new digital services are required for you in order to stay relevant.

And what about your employees? Did you know that according to Forrester, 86% of employees think that the User Interface of an application is the main reason for business productivity improvement? And according to Gartner, what makes employees most unhappy is slow, incomprehensible and needlessly complex systems that impede their ability to successfully accomplish their work. Now add the “New Normal” to the mix. What do you think will happen?

Remember, a solution’s User Experience extends beyond an application’s user interface. The out-of-box ceremony, physical deployment, installation, registration, upgrade process, security, support and end-of-life cycle are all critically important to delivering a consumer-grade user experience for the enterprise. No matter if your target group is Customers or Employees.

UX is serious business

So I’m guessing that if you haven’t taken UX seriously, your user productivity (time on task) will go even further down (time on task will go up) because the infrastructure did not take into consideration the possibility of employees working from home with slower internet connections –  leaving the employee waiting for the system to react and not being able to guide the user during the interaction. 

Did you know that according to a study done by Ericsson, it was found that the level of stress caused by mobile delays was comparable to watching a horror movie?

Thomas Ove Rasmussen

Designer and Solution Architect at Invokers. Design Thinker

By the way, did you know that according to a study done by Ericsson, it was found that the level of stress caused by mobile delays was comparable to watching a horror movie? I assume that this must apply to  other applications as well. Think about what impact this will have on your employees already being stressed because of their situation.

What about data quality? Will the employees be able to feed the systems with sufficient data of high quality? Do they still have access to the same information or will time on task go up because relevant and high quality data is no longer as easy to access as before and it takes longer time to generate the quality required?

Then there is training costs. You might be in a situation where you haven’t been aware of how much time you have been spending on training on a yearly basis, depending on employee turnover and the rollout of new applications. Now this has to be seen in a whole new context. Maybe your strategy hasn’t been to deliver applications to employees that are self-explanatory and have the employee up and running in no time using the application without constantly requiring support or entering faulty data. Where will this leave you in the “New Normal”? If there were room for improvement before what is there room for now?

What about internal support costs? If the above to some extend describes your situation, where will that leave you? I guess one of the outcomes will be employees spending much more time trying to get support which leaves less time to take care of business.

Stress of your products users and not to be taken lightly.

What else?

Now when it comes to employee satisfaction, you could argue that as long as the employees have a job, they should be satisfied – but is that the company you want to be?

Did you know that according to a survey of 159 IT buyers and software decision makers done by Sandhill Group & TSIA, 70% of companies fail to get value out of their software due to poor user adoption? How is it going with the adoption of your enterprise applications? The applications that now more than ever require a high adoption to keep your business going.

I hope the above examples have caught your attention and made you stop and evaluate your situation. My guess is that the world will be forever changed once we move past this hapless situation. Not only for us humans and how we interact but also how we navigate in the digital world.

If you still do not have a digital strategy and haven’t thought much about your digital transformation and the associated challenges, you have to circumnavigate in order to stay relevant. I suggest you get going now, if you want to stay relevant.

And to my fellow colleagues in the Design Community, now more than ever there is a need for your expertise supporting your company in this endeavor. You hold the key to help your business stay relevant. You know how to Empathize and Reframe. You know how to navigate these waters “Where there be Dragons”. You have all the arguments and if you remember to empathize with C level, you will be able to gain influence now. Don Norman reminded us all at UX COPENHAGEN 2020 that the Design Community needs to make an effort to empathize with C level as well, and now is you moment! You know how to balance Desirability, Feasibility and Viability to perfection. You have the tools, the mindset and a proven process. Now show them. The mission remains the same: To deliver Business Value through User Experience.