At UI Centric, user testing is an essential part of the design and development process. We are frequently testing new concepts, designs, but also existing apps and websites for our clients.
It is always interesting to hear what users have to say about other peoples’ work. It is even more interesting to hear what users have to say about work your team has produced. The feedback that comes back is, in most cases, honest and it can go both ways; users can get very excited about new concepts/ features and designs but equally they can get frustrated, annoyed and confused.
After a few years of user testing, you usually have a good idea about what to expect the user feedback to be. But what is really fascinating is that moment when the user next to you says something that you could never imagine hearing or uses the product in a way you could never think possible.
There are quite a few things that surprised me during the User Testing sessions I moderated over the last year and I am sharing them with you.
1) People do read T&C
As surprising as it might sound, people do read Terms & Conditions of services, especially when they are making a financially substantial investment or when they are not familiar with the brand and its products.
Even if the Terms & Conditions documents are more than 50 pages long, users claimed that they would go through the document just to make sure they understand what they are agreeing to.
This means that they would consider stalling the purchase by even a week if necessary. No one claimed that they wouldn’t buy the product and/or service in the end, but they made it clear that knowing the terms is actually quite important.
2) Everyone loves a back button
Lately, there is a rise of the Android/ Windows applications that don’t provide a back button on the UIs in an attempt to simplify and unclutter them.
The result? People struggle to understand how to get back and how to navigate in general. Even though there is a physical Back button on the device, people are instinctively trying to find it on the UI first.
It makes sense. On a touch screen, we are used to interact with the app within the app itself and not by using external controls. Our mental model for that interaction is that everything we need and everything we can do, we can do it from our screen.
Our participants, on various occasions, made it clear that back buttons are not just a secondary aid, but an important navigation control, expected to be found at a very specific location (top left) and behaving in a very specific way (taking them exactly one step back).
3) Users don’t hate all advertisement on websites.
Despite common belief, people don’t hate all ads. Our findings suggest that people actually dislike ads that are not relevant to them. They hate ads that are trying to grab their attention, especially the ones that start automatically streaming audio content.
But when it comes to adverts that are relevant to them, users have a really positive look towards them. Ads regarding items that would actually buy, or services that they would use, were characterized as ‘useful’. People expect the website to ‘know’ what they like, what they need and what would be useful to them.
Personalized ads may have found the secret to success.
4) Most people will avoid using search if there is an alternative (especially if the alternative is quick)
Observing the user behaviour on rich-content websites is always interesting. As a UX Researcher, I always kept in mind that users will likely take the ‘quick and easy way’ to complete the task if not prompted. By ‘quick and easy’ way, I mean the search, which usually acts as a shortcut to a specific part of a website the user is trying to get to.
To my surprise, this only turned out to be true for really poorly designed websites and applications. When the users were presented with a website (or application) with strong navigation, and/ or clearly grouped content, they would rarely use search to achieve their goals. To them, if the end of their user journey was only a few, clear clicks away through the website, the search function was redundant and more time consuming. They would only resort to it after a few unsuccessful attempts to find the information they needed.
5) Maps are really useful but can be extremely annoying
Over the last few years, most websites have moved to present their content in different ‘views’ with most common being the list view, the grid view and the map view.
Especially with the rise of smartphones, adaptive and location-based views have moved the UIs towards map- oriented designs. Maps provide visualised content within geographical context, which makes the process of understanding the options presented on the screen quicker and in some cases, better than a list of items.
Content can be adaptive, context- related and extra options such as navigation from current location really speed up processes, especially when the user is on the move.
Unfortunately, using maps is not always the best experience a user can have. Whether on desktop or touch screen device, users often struggle controlling the map and end up disappointed, frustrated and usually… looking for lists.
It all comes down to the little things: Can the user scroll past the map? Are the commonly used gestures implemented right? Does the map provide enough content so that the user can receive all the information they need without leaving the map view?
If the answer to all the above is ‘Yes’, then in most cases, your users will probably have a good experience from the map view.