Catherine Hills - It’s more than designing shmick features to achieve kaching!

Both users and designers are similar in their views of some factors of e-commerce website UX design, but as would be expected, there are also differences arising from respective mental models and views. Specifically, those differences include users’ concerns regarding the security of purchasing and visual presentation of information and graphics. For designers, my research suggests they might heavily focus on information hierarchy and not surprising branding. These issues will be discussed in this talk by Catherine in relation to new contributions to theory and practice, extending from the literature and offering new recommendations to UX designers in the design of e-commerce user experience.

Transcript

1. © Catherine Hills 2020 It’s more than designing schmick features to achieve kaching! Catherine Hills – UX Australia 2020 A call to action to designers - we must understand e-commerce users with more depth to design more effective e-commerce user experiences August 2020 1
2. Catherine Hills @daughterofbev Hi I’m Cath. I am passionate about learning, ways of working, building capability, equity, inclusion and STEAM. I’m a senior manager and acting Head of Experience at Publicis Sapient and I lead a talented team of multi-disciplinary designers. Alongside my 20 years in design and software delivery, starting out in graphic design, website design and front-end development, I’ve accrued over 10 years of experience in innovation, data collection and analysis, mixed-methods research, product discovery, vision definitions, roadmap creation, business model and value proposition development through to running experiments, participatory design, learning and development. I teach UX as a casual academic at RMIT’s School of Design and have led learning delivery in a range of businesses including ANZ, NAB and General Assembly. 2
3. D E S I G N E R S M U S T C O N T I N U E T O E X T E N D T H E I R T H I N K I N G B E Y O N D T H E P R E S E N T A T I O N O F T H E I N T E R F A C E , P E R S O N A L I S A T I O N A N D B R A N D , T O C O N S I D E R K E Y T H E M E S O F I M P O R T A N C E T H A T U S E R S E X P E C T T O B E P A R T O F T H E E - C O M M E R C E W E B S I T E U S E R - E X P E R I E N C E S , I N O R D E R F O R D E S I G N E R S T O E N A B L E P O S I T I V E U S E R E X P E R I E N C E S W I T H E - C O M M E R C E W E B S I T E S . 3
4. Newsflash: Designers of systems, products and services do have similar points of view but also do think differently to people who are not designers of the user experience these systems, products and services Catherine Hills 2020 4
5. The third e-commerce website example considered by Donny. His immediate response was regarding the advertising saying he, “Ignores the fluff.” He added that he was, “annoyed by the header bars, it is bad marketing and gets in the way of the experience. Big push on marketing banners and advertisements, which makes the experience “super busy.” Donny added, “I personally just sign in and carry on from there” Donny – User Participant 5
6. Kate’s observations on the homepage were that she “finds this pretty useless,” in that the page is “too general,” with “too much broad marketing,” although the “menu is pretty good.” In terms of the information architecture, Kate found the, “taxonomy pretty weird. There is no vetting of advertising in terms of category. You may look up an item, say phone, and the search results are cluttered with, complementary or unrelated items, like covers.” Kate – Designer Participant 6
7. © Catherine Hills 2020 Contributing Factors to the User Experience of e-Commerce Websites: Usability, User Expectations and the Designer Perspective August 2020 7
8. The research background 8
10. 10 The E-Commerce Website User Experience During
11. 11 The E-Commerce Website User Experience During Before After
12. 12 Before After Around Supporting The E-Commerce Website User Experience During Interacting with Designing/Affecting
14. 14 Why Information Systems (IS) and not ‘just’ design? “The IS field is not primarily concerned with the technical and computational aspects of IT. What matters to IS instead is how technology is appropriated and instantiated in order to enable the realization of IS that fulfil various actors’ – such as individuals, groups or organisations – information needs and requirements in regards to specific goals and practices.” Source: Boell and Cecez-Kecmanovic (2015) Information Systems as Work Systems “an information system is a system in which human participants and/or machines perform work (processes and activities) using information, technology, and other resources to produce informational products and/or services for internal or external customers.” Source: Alter (2008) Information Systems (IS) interact throughout the back and front stage
15. The opportunity to contribute • Novel contributions to the field • Contribution to practice • Mastery of a research craft area • Understanding multiple domains • Scholarly approach • Candidature journey – just as enjoyable as the outcome! • Stimulated my desire to do a PhD… eventually 15
16. Mental models represent perspectives on the world and analogous to the context and environment of a person (Laird and Byrne, 2000). A model can also refer to conceptual models like theories and can be diagrammatic (Springer 2008). Catherine Hills 2019 16
17. 17 Given the way the interaction the backstage, the systems (tech or work) affected outcomes for frontstage customers and users, I chose to look at usability in relation to user expectations and designer perceptions. Source: Value Exchange – Publicis Sapient CX 2020 Image Source: Catherine Hills 2019 (based on Norman 1988) The motivation for my research however was around work systems and business drivers in the decisions people make about the way we create experiences for customers.
18. 18 By approaching this research with an IS lens enabled me to think about desirability, viability and feasibility from the perspective of work systems and the interaction of the system with users and designers Source: DVF – Publicis Sapient CX Approach 2020 Cover Source: Catherine Hills 2019
19. 19 E-commerce is considered to be a technology made available by the World Wide Web, with global reach, information-rich experiences and universal standards (Poong et al. 2006) E-commerce is considered to be similar to an online catalogue of products or services for sale (De Bra et al. 2002) E-commerce is also considered to be a form of e-service (Scupola et al. 2008) Entrepreneurial activity, with the use of ICT, has been called electronic commerce, or “e-commerce” (Kwilinski et al. 2019) E-commerce definitions - Catherine Hills 2019
20. In human-centered design, the importance of the gathering of perspectives of people is central to design decision-making - Catherine Hills 2019 (ISO 2019) 20
21. 21 the understanding of user expectations and designer perceptions of e-commerce websites, in relation to user experience and usability needs to be more deeply understood, in order to design more effectively for these experiences - Catherine Hills 2019 (Mahnke et al. 2015; Tang et al. 2015; Olsson 2004; Kujala et al. 2004; De Villiers et al. 2012; Fisher et al. 2000)
22. 22 poor interface usability and user interactions due to poor design effectiveness - Catherine Hills 2019 (Hassenzahl 2018; Wahlström et al. 2016; Norman et al. 2003; Anderson et al. 2010; Tidwell 2010)
23. 23 Creating empathy with users and adequately understanding user needs in order to define problems and create design solutions effectively is a challenge for designers, their teams and organisations caused by a range of factors - Catherine Hills 2019 (Rosenberg 2014)
24. 24 Source: Forbes 2017 Operational constraints impact on business decisions– including time, efficiency, economy and perceived business or customer value – all contribute to conditions affecting the quality of user and customer experiences, and otherwise, value creation - Catherine Hills 2019 (Drucker, 1954; Fjeldstad et al. 2018; Teece et al. 2017)
25. “What are the similarities and differences in the way users and designers perceive the user-experience of e-commerce systems?” Catherine Hills 2019 25
26. 26 • Mental models are incomplete. • People’s abilities to ‘run’ their models are severely limited. • Mental models are unstable (people forget the details of the system they are using). • Mental models do not have firm boundaries (devices and operations might be confused). • Mental models are unscientific. • Mental models are parsimonious (willing to trade off physical action for reduced mental complexity). Genter and Stevens (1983) Mental Models
27. 27 In theory, in order to reduce bias the Designer must seek to understand the User’s Model of the System Image Image Source: Catherine Hills 2019 (based on Norman & Draper 1988) However the considerations of the designer, according to Norman, are different to the User’s expectations, needs and goals Image Source: Catherine Hills 2019 (based on Norman & Ortony 2004)
28. 28 Source: Catherine Hills 2019 / Neilsen’s User Categories 1993 Neilsen’s user categories refers to the user, not the designer. While this might support a designer’s assessment of a user, via for example a usability study, it could have been applied to the designer herself. Catherine Hills 2019
29. 29 Central knowledge domains As identified in the literature, many researchers have investigated human-centered design, usability and user experience. However, a limited number of researchers have explicitly investigated the topic of the mental models of designers and users – two distinct groups with different perspectives. This combination of topics have rarely been studied and the mental models of users compared to designers have rarely been compared. - Catherine Hills 2019 (Norman 1986–2016; Nielsen 1994; de Souza 2005; Press et al. 2017; Xie et al. 2017; Card, 2018) Usability Designer Perspective User Expectations
30. © Catherine Hills 2020 Research approach August 2020 30
31. 31 Image Source: Catherine Hills 2019 (based on Norman & Draper 1988) Image Source: Catherine Hills 2019 (based on Norman & Ortony 2004)
32. 32 Users Designers • Users, buyers or consumers • Mix of gender, age and ethnicity • All live in Melbourne, Australia • Conveniently sampled • Designers, or designer-consumers • Mix of gender, age and ethnicity • All live in Melbourne, Australia • Conveniently sampled Users Participant Age Gender Mary 35-44 Female Gerald 45-54 Male Harry 65-74 Male David 65-74 Male Michael 35-44 Male Anita 25-34 Female Konrad 55-64 Male Eliza 55-64 Female Jason 35-44 Male Designers Participant Age Gender Rachael 25-34 Female Donny 35-44 Male Jade 25-34 Female David 25-34 Male Kate 35-44 Female Josie 18-24 Female Shane 25-34 Male Lauren 25-34 Female John 25-34 Male 18 people in two participant groups (9 each)
33. 33 Users Designers Research Design and Methodology Qualitative Interviews: Same Research Design and Approach
34. The study was qualitative using primary and secondary data sources Qualitative data (primary) Questionnaire data (secondary) Instruments/ protocols • Qualitative interviews, in person at a preferred location for participant • Paper-based questionnaires Number of items • Single 1-1.5-hour interview: Part A with users or designers • 18 interviews in total: 9 users and 9 designers • Testing instrument (website examples, printed and order rotated per interview to decrease bias) • Personality questionnaire each participant • Part B qualitative interview • Total of 4 questionnaires per participant interview, 36 per participant group, 72 for whole study • 1 x reflective questionnaire (part A) • 3 x observational questionnaire (website examples part B) • Items listed as website issues per questionnaire Types of scales/questions • Interview protocol with discussion guide, specific Part A and Part B questions to do with perceptions and expectations in relation to user experiences of e- commerce websites • Likert-scaled questions (1-10 scale) on ‘website issues’ Primary Data Collection: Qualitative Secondary Data Collection: Quantitative
35. Not testing usability, testing user expectations and designer perceptions of e-commerce website user experiences Part A – Experiences, enjoyment Part B – Responses to examples Questionnaires consider importance factors around issues of e-commerce UX
36. Data analysis approach – essence, evidence and data Getting data ready for analysis • Transcribed by the researcher and a third-party transcription service • Inputted into spreadsheets in Excel Preliminary analysis • Narratives written, discussed with supervisors • Themes identified broadly via reading and manual notation • 1 x reflective questionnaire (part A) • 3 x observational questionnaire (website examples part B) Steps in analysis • Nvivo qualitative analysis tool used to understand most commonly mentioned terms in data • Nodes created with Nvivo tool, run against user and designer participant data • Theme counts identified • Post-it Note meta matrices created for data immersion per participant group, analysed for strength, theme names drafted and ranked based on strength • Themes grouped according to theoretical underpinnings in literature review • Essence, evidence and data analysed for themes, sub-themes, key findings and importance • Excel spreadsheets created per participant • An aggregate view across participants created • Themes addressed (in relation to qualitative data) and strength analysis with pivot tables in Google Drive. • Assessed what is consistent with Qualitative, supportive, or central to themes that emerged and any issues identified Primary Data : Qualitative Secondary Data: Quantitative
37. 37 Examples of Keyword Searches and Nodes in Nvivo
38. 38 Themes ranked based on strength or “utterances” then split across participant groups and result themes analysed (evidence, essence and data)
39. © Catherine Hills 2020 Results - Enjoyment August 2020 39
40. Qualities Michael attributed to enjoying the most about a good e- commerce website included, “security,” “costs,” “trust,” “quality, sometimes you can get good quality at a low price.” Michael – User Participant 40
41. Factors of most enjoyed website e-commerce user-experiences Most enjoyed e-commerce website user experiences had a number of qualities that sit in the following factors: • effective usability • positive customer experience • effective navigation and information design • easy-to-use and efficient user task flows • clear and findable information 41
42. In terms of the overall website experience she felt it was, “easy to use” and “feels safe, in that there is a guarantee behind the website, security around your information.” Eliza explained that she also likes, “their delivery routine. It is well displayed and makes you feel secure.” Eliza – User Participant 42
43. In terms of factors that created an enjoyable experience of a good e-commerce website, Lauren mentioned the following qualities; “search functionality, being able to search, move and filter without having the screen refresh each time is good,” “a ‘seamless’ experience,” “websites optimised for iPad usage,” “drop-down boxes,” “good scrolling options,” and “reliability, it doesn’t crash.” Lauren – Designer Participant 43
44. 44 Users – Enjoy most* Designers – Enjoy most* •Security & trust •Easy navigation, system feedback •Short & simple task flows •Easy to use •Clear information design •Learnable •Loads easily •Reliable tracking information •Low scrolling •Error-free •Predictable •Clear presentation •Instant purchase •Available support •Relevance, recommendation •Useful •Pleasant marketing •Product reviews •Reliable return policies •Visual presentation •Shopping cart is efficient and remembers items •Short & simple task flows •Quick checkout •Seamless search functionality •Client-side loading •Findable information •Device-friendly •Site-reliability Neilsen’s User Categories 1993 Technical perceptions Feature level ideas System perspective Practical expectations Use and goal focused Immediate needs *Asked the same question
45. 45 Users – Enjoy least* Designers – Enjoy least* •Poor navigation •Errors •Lack of purchase confirmation •Site crashes •Waiting time, network delays •Too much text •Negative feedback •Scrolling •Complicated tasks e.g. Enlarging images for detail •No record of purchase •Lack of product availability •Too much personal information required to complete task e.g. Red tape •Feeling stupid •Poor error handling •Poor mobile usability •Tiny buttons •Dodgy sellers •Bad pictures •Irrelevant, inadequate or limited information •Confusing or long task flows •Barriers to task completion e.g. Purchase •Allowed to add to cart when not shippable to location •Short shopping cart time-outs e.g. Empty Cart •No record of purchase •Same information entered more than once Neilsen’s User Categories 1993 *Asked the same question More empathetic to painpoints Error free flows, efficiency Removing friction/poor experience factors More similar But note “feeling stupid” ”asking too much about me”
46. © Catherine Hills 2020 Outcomes of the research August 2020 46
47. 47 Usability Designer Perspective User Expectations E-commerce Websites lenses
48. For an experience to meet the users’ expectations of Usable systems, the e-commerce website UX must utilise effective and sensitive use of Colour, information and wayfinding as well as understanding, effectively, what level of Simplicity is required in the experience. Catherine Hills 2019 48
49. Users and designers both found the following themes of relative importance, including, User goals and needs, Easy to use and understand, Clarity in presentation, Time on tasks and system performance and Straightforward functionality. These common themes were most closely aligned to the sub-themes of Usability. Catherine Hills 2019 49
50. 50 Usability Ease of Use Familiarity Time on Task and System Performance Confusion Reduction Easy to Use and Understand Navigation Findable Information Straightforward Functionality Information Provision and Presentation Clarity in Presentation User Needs and Goals Usability Designer Perspective User Expectations Usability of E-commerce Websites
51. Designers must understand more deeply what user experience factors and interactions might support the themes identified in relation to User Expectations. These themes were Usable systems, Meeting information needs and a Positive Experience. Catherine Hills 2019 51
52. The most important aspects of the user experience of e- commerce website systems for Users were Simplicity, followed by Trust in the system, Use and goal completion, Colour information and wayfinding, Visual presentation, Familiarity, Purchase and security and Information appearance and appeal. Catherine Hills 2019 52
53. 53 User Expectations Usable Systems Colour, Information and Wayfinding Simplicity Meeting Information Needs Information Appearance and Appeal Visual Presentation Interesting, Attractive and Relevant Positive Customer Experience Use and Goal Completion Purchase and Security Trust in the System Usability Designer Perspective User Expectations User Expectations of E-commerce Websites
54. The designer will support Meeting information needs expected by users by modelling the experience with the correctly understood Information appearance and appeal, Visual presentation and Interesting, attractive and relevant content design. Catherine Hills 2019 54
55. For designers, in relation to e-commerce website user experiences, this was different. Designers instead focused on Relevance to users as most important, followed by Image quality and brand, Positive user interactions, Scale and information hierarchy, Findable information, In-system support and customer service and Copy, style and typography. Catherine Hills 2019 55
56. 56 Designer Perspective Understanding User Expectations Information Detail Access Information and Proximity In-System Support and Customer Service Effective Information Design Scale and Information Hierarchy Image Quality and Brand Voice, Tone and Typography Understanding User Needs Positive User Interactions Relevance to User Usability Designer Perspective User Expectations Designer Perceptions of E-commerce Websites
57. To support ease of use, to enable flow and an effective user experience, user intentions and motivations must be understood Catherine Hills 2019 57
58. Finally, to afford a Positive Experience for users, the UX must support effective Use and goal completion, trustworthy and robust Purchase and security processes in the experience in order to establish Trust in the system for users. Catherine Hills 2019 58
59. 59 Usability Ease of Use Navigation Information Provision and Presentation Usability Designer Perspective User Expectations Relationships and Dynamic between Usability, User Expectations and Designer Perceptions User Expectations Usable Systems Meeting Information Needs Positive Customer Experience Designer Perspective Understanding User Expectations Effective Information Design Understanding User Needs
60. Users expect that they should be able to reach their goals with minimal difficulties. This means that in order to meet user expectations, effective user experiences should be supported via inclusive design, responding to a range of diverse users with a range of difficulties and abilities Catherine Hills 2019 60
61. 61 The E-Commerce User Experience Before During After
62. 62 The E-Commerce User Experience Before During After Usability
63. During 63 The E-Commerce User Experience Before After Usability User Expectations User Expectations
64. During 64 The E-Commerce User Experience Before After Usability User Expectations User Expectations Designer Perspective
66. “What are the similarities and differences in the way users and designers perceive the user-experience of e-commerce systems?” Catherine Hills 66
67. T H A N K S C A T H E R I N E H I L L S A K A @ D A U G H T E R O F B E V 67