Maybe you’ve heard you need a wireframe for a project or have used them in the past but now you are wondering what value does having a wireframe add?

I think this is a valid question. So what is the value of a wireframe?

Just because a wireframe gets created that doesn’t guarantee the project has been thoroughly thought through. A wireframe starts out as a thinking tool, at least for me and the way I use them. It is something that is a bit of a higher fidelity sketch. It is meant to serve as a conversation starter and to elicit questions and debates.

I find tremendous value using a wireframe to talk through ideas with both business and technology folks without getting caught up in the overall look and feel of the site. Using a wireframe at this point allows for more critical thinking on the core idea and less criticizing how something looks.

Quite frankly, anybody can create a wireframe. At its core the wireframe, as a design artifact, is nothing more than some boxes, text and maybe an arrow or two. However, a wireframe that is created by a User Experience Designer will still be boxes and text but each box will have been intentionally placed. Each decision will have been thought through critically to understand how it works with everything else on the page and how the placement can and will affect the users’ behavior. In short, the critical questions will have been asked, evaluated and tested.

It is important to realize that the wireframe only displays a static version of the page or application. A sort of snapshot of one moment in time a person experiences on your site. Consideration must be given to the flow that brings a user into your page or application, as well as, the flow leading out. In addition thought around what the user’s context is when they arrive on the page or within the application and the managing and matching of expectations going out. These behaviors and outcomes can all be planned for by using wireframes. This of course only works if the wireframes are more than just boxes and text.

Done correctly wireframes hold tremendous value. However, without understanding context, the overall site structure and the users’ expectations, wireframes hold no more value than some squares drawn onto a blank sheet of paper.

If you would like help on understanding the value of wireframes, or designing wireframes that make sense for your business website or application email me or give me a call at 330.648.FARM, to see how Small Farm Design can help.

Here is a good example of what information and how it is collected dramatically influences potential customers.

ClickTale ran a small test on its own site around their sign up process and saw 39% of potential customers fallout at step 2 of the sign up process.

After digging in a bit deeper they saw that nearly all fallout occurred because of one (1) specific piece of information that was being asked for. Phone number. Even though this field was not marked with an asterisk nor required people were uncomfortable with the question, possibly assuming it was required, and chose to bail on the form rather than continue filling it out.

ClickTale’s designed a solution to explicitly call out that the phone number was optional. This one word change nearly doubled conversion rates (from 43% to 80%) and it decreased the 39% fallout down to only 4%.

This is a simple fix that had huge gains.

However, I wonder if ClickTale really needs to ask for phone number at all? If they aren’t going to use it, a better solution would be to remove the field entirely.

In either account, the way in which a website asks potential customers for information has a direct impact on how likely they are to convert.

If you would like help on designing forms that influence your customers and form best practices email me or give me a call at 330.648.FARM, to see how Small Farm Design can help.

User experience (UX) shouldn’t be looked at on a project by project basis. It isn’t something that just gets done. UX is something that lives, breathes and grows. It doesn’t start at some point in the project life-cycle nor should it end when the project is complete. UX should be seen as a continuous thread that runs through the entire organization, from one project into the next always pushing to make the entire users’ experience better.

UX isn’t about being user advocates; it is about dollars and cents. However, money shouldn’t come at the expense of the users either. The goal of all UX activities is to make a product or service more desirable, easier to use, or more fun to interact with. This will in turn create an experience that persuades the user to open their wallet and pay for whatever it is being offered. Creating and understanding the UX strategy will enhance productivity, improve conversion rates, and deliver higher ROI. This can then be translated into reduced costs, higher income or both.

User experience is a big picture job. It takes time and dedication. It requires a person to look into the future in order to design an experience that is meaningful not only today but also tomorrow. It is fluid, moving and ever-changing. As such, our processes, tools and methods must be adaptable. But to be successful it is imperative to know where you want to go in order to create experiences that hold any meaning.

A UX strategy should be built for the long term and contain the following:
• the strategic vision
• mission statement
• key UX principles
• key objectives and areas of improvement

Clearly defining the above is necessary for the success of any UX strategy, the commitment from key stakeholders, as well as to generate an ongoing dialog about the strategy. Commitment is critical.

Ultimately UX must have an equal stake at the management table. This gives UX equal footing against the likes of marketing, development, product and /or other pressures. When this is not the case, UX becomes nothing more than a servant to another group within the organization and is at the mercy of the sponsor’s goals. In a servicing role UX quickly loses any notion of strategy and becomes less about the users’ needs and more about completing a task.

On the contrary when UX is truly part of an organization, on all levels, the UX strategy isn’t something that is forced, but instead it becomes second nature and is integral to everything that is done. This appears to be the case for more and more businesses today – Apple, Zappos and Progressive, to name a few.

This isn’t a power thing, it’s a business thing. Having a cohesive UX thread throughout an organizational culture can lead to much greater success.

Quick test. Don’t worry it’s easy.

Take a look at the image below and see if you are able to correctly identify what each icon is supposed to represent. Scroll down to see the correct answers. Be honest and no cheating.

How’d you do? If you’re like me I’m guessing not well.

The problem with icons is people associate different things with each icon based on their past experience.

But wait, I have a solution, hell I have two

1. Use a rollover or alt text to explain what each icon means.
2. Add a legend or key to explain which is icon means.

These are workarounds and are not real solutions. Reason is each solution relies on the site visitor caring enough to figure out what the icons mean. The first actually takes effort for the user to move the mouse, position the cursor just so and then, if using alt text, wait for the text to display. The second increases the cognitive load of the visitor and adds a fairly significant degree of friction. To use use a legend the user must first think to look for a legend (remember we looking at a website and not a map), then scan back to the icon, take a glance, remember then icon, scan back to the legend, and then find the matching icon and description.

In both solutions the effort seems to outweigh the actual value the icon is trying to provide. I believe there is a much better way to use icons.

The correct way to use icons

• Use icons to show differences
• Use icons to show the unique characteristics of products; not every characteristic
• Icons should be used when it helps the visitor make a decision when choosing between multiple
  products (a way of narrowing selection)

Remember when using icons:

• Label and image is better than just one or the other (image or text). However, if using only one text works better than just the image.
• Icon images will be learned, the position of the icon is learned quicker. If you change the image, but the location remains the same , visitors usually won’t notice. However, if you change the the location and keep the image the same visitors will become frustrated.
• The speed the average visitor will recognize an icon’s meaning from the image alone is directly proportional to how quickly the team can decide on which icon to use. Meaning, things that are obvious to a designer (i.e. question mark for help) are more likely to be obvious to a visitor but things that aren’t as obvious, say maybe return policy, are more difficult to understand.

If you would like to better understand how icons will help or hurt your website drop me a line or check out the website review service for an affordable website review.

For World Usability Day 2009, NEOUPA (Northeast Ohio Usability Professionals’ Association), I gave this ’10 Minute Talk’ on how the confidence a visitor has affects their outcome with a website.

My theory is that confidence and content relevancy make a site more successful. In this presentation I make the case that visitors can very quickly lose confidence in a site causing them to become frustrated and leave.