How can I get people in my organization to conduct usability?
What data can I use to convince my team?
If you're trying to persuade the people in your organization to follow the user-centered design process to design your Web site, quote these statistics:
- Research by User Interface Engineering, Inc., shows that people cannot find the information they seek on a Web site about 60 percent of the time.
- Studies by Forrester Research estimate that approximately 50 percent of potential sales are lost because users can't find information and that 40 percent of users do not return to a site when their first visit is a negative experience.
- A study by Zona Research found that 62 percent of Web shoppers give up looking for the item they want to buy online.
- According to Elizabeth Millard, "The best sites we've found are usable only 42 percent of the time."
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What activities can I suggest?
- Start out small: Remind your team that user-centered design doesn't have to be expensive. Bring in friends and neighbors (people who are similar to your user population) and ask them to participate in a card sort or an early usability test. Conduct a mini-usability test and let your team observe. For more information, read the articles on how to:
- Suggest they observe a usability test: Or show your team video clips from a recent usability test. Observing representative users trying to find information on your Web site can be very persuasive. It's easy for a team to disagree on the best way to design a Web site, but it's very hard to disagree with actual users.
- Be creative: One federal agency took advantage of "Bring your Kids to Work Day" and used the opportunity to test out their kids' Web site on their colleagues' children.
- Show them examples: Give your team examples of how other government agencies are successfully implementing the user-centered design process. Read our Usability Lessons Learned.
- Explain that usability can save money: Use data to show that successful usability projects can increase productivity and save your organization time and money. Refer to the articles on:
- Suggest training opportunities: Consider asking your team to attend training seminars on user-centered design and usability testing. See the training opportunities offered by Web Manager University.
For more on how to convince people to conduct usability, visit Making the Case for Usability in Government.
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