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usability problems Topics

Prioritizing Problems in the User Experience: The FMEA

Jeff Sauro • January 22, 2013

The process of thinking through potential problems and knowing how to detect and prevent problems before they create a UX catastrophe is what the Failure Modes Effect Analysis (FMEA) is all about. It takes into account problem frequency, severity and ability to detect into a single priority number.[Read More]

The Value of Measuring Poor User Experiences

Jeff Sauro • January 15, 2013

When we have a frustrating or poor experience, we can hate the product, tell our friends about our bad experience, post it to Twitter, and we probably will not use the service or product again. Using some familiar usability metrics and re-framing them, we can understand and eliminate poor experiences.[Read More]

Report Usability Issues in a User by Problem Matrix

Jeff Sauro • June 6, 2012

Organizing usability problems into a user by problem matrix helps estimate the prevalence of problems, the percent of problems uncovered and increases the clarity and credibility of usability testing methods.[Read More]

Measuring Errors in the User Experience

Jeff Sauro • May 15, 2012

Errors can be categorized as slips (like a typo) or a mistake (incorrect goal) and are common occurrences in usability tests. Errors are often caused by problems in an interface and lead to longer task times, higher task failure and lower satisfaction ratings. While errors can't be entirely eliminated, they can often be reduced substantially by reducing the opportunity for an error.[Read More]

10 Things to Know about Usability Problems

Jeff Sauro • July 26, 2011

If you collect nothing else in a usability test it should be a list of problems encountered by users. It seems so simple yet there is a rich history of how many users you need to test, what constitutes a problem and which method to use.[Read More]

Is that a Usability Problem or a Feature?

Jeff Sauro • July 19, 2011

A usability problem to one usability expert is a feature to another. There is a balance between business interests and user interests but the two aren't mutually exclusive. The discussion should be about short-term revenue at the expense of long term profits--not usability versus revenue.[Read More]

14 burdens placed on the user

Jeff Sauro • July 5, 2011

I've listed 14 of the more frequent/painful burdens I experience in the hope we can shift the burden more from the human back to the computer: passwords, account numbers and confirmation dialogues get special attention.[Read More]

Four Terrific and Four Terrible User Experiences

Jeff Sauro • May 24, 2011

When we look to improve the user experience of software or websites, sometimes the best improvements aren't slight tweaks to the interface but involve eliminating steps altogether. Here are four examples of terrific and terrible experiences from the physical world to inspire the digital one.[Read More]

How many customers should you observe?

Jeff Sauro • February 8, 2011

Observing customer behavior is an excellent way for discovering opportunities for product innovation. The number of customers you need to observe can be determined using the binomial probability formula and will vary depending on how common customer behaviors are and how certain you need to be.[Read More]

Can users self-report usability problems?

Jeff Sauro • October 6, 2010

When users document the usability problems they encounter during a usability test, they find around half as many problems as trained professionals watching users in a lab. This low-cost method is a good supplement to heuristic evaluations and user testing.[Read More]

How should you display links to PDF files?

Jeff Sauro • March 18, 2010

One consequence of analyzing user data is having to reconcile conflicting data-points. How would you display links to PDF files on a web-page?[Read More]

If 1 of 5 users has a problem in a usability test will it impact 1% or 20% of all users?

Jeff Sauro • February 1, 2010

Insurance companies do it, drug companies do it and so should usability testers. When you observe a problem from a small sample test, it is unlikely the problem only affects a tiny percentage of users.[Read More]