Pervasive Usability - Planning For an Uncertain Future

Usability is a phenomenon that has dramatically changed the way the products, including Websites, are designed and manufactured.

Traditionally, usability in the product development cycle was the responsibility of a Human Factors or Ergonomics specialist. Today, due to explosive demand for usable products, many product engineers, developers, designers and technical communicators have had to assume primary responsibility for usability engineering in their organizations. In few situations is this transference of responsibility more easily and successfully achieved than in the development of Websites.

Every stage in the design of a Website is an opportunity to boost or undermine the site’s usability. So, even if you’re up against a tight deadline, it’s important to ensure that time required for testing and fixing a site is incorporated into the production process of the Website. To compromise on testing can result in the production of an inefficient and ineffective product.

There are many principles that govern the usability of a site’s design. The design methodologies may differ, but at heart, all user-centered processes have the product’s usability as their main criterion. It’s important, though, that the design process supports usability without overburdening the Web developers who must live with it. As such, research has shown that products developed iteratively, leveraging proactive user design and feedback mechanisms, significantly outperform their standard counterparts. One such process is the Pervasive Usability model.

What Is Pervasive Usability?

As suggested by the term itself, Pervasive Usability advocates the application of methods to evaluate a design’s usability at every stage of the design process, keeping in mind the goals of the project and the users' needs.

Pervasive Usability stands out from other usability testing methods as it can be conducted throughout the product’s lifecycle, not just in the preliminary development stages. It’s also unique because the steps involved in this method are quite simple, and can be less taxing on those conducting the test.

The 3 Steps Of Pervasive Usability Testing

The steps involved in a Pervasive Usability test are as follows.

Step 1. Analyze

The tester analyses:

• user needs
• targeted usability requirements
• goals for the Website from both user and business perspectives
• the existing version of the site (if any), and evaluate the proposed changes
• competitors’ Websites
• user interviews and surveys

Each Website has to address all these issues right from the start of the design process. Conduct interviews, field study and focus group discussions to gather information on the requirements of the users, as well as the business’s stakeholders. In this way, the analysis phase usually clears up most doubts regarding what results are desired from the site.

Conversely, misinterpretations of the inputs gathered in this phase can mar the credibility of your site in the long run. So, ensure that the Analysis stage is given its due attention, to ensure fewer problems in the stages that follow.

Step 2. Conceptualize

• Conceptualize the site design at an abstract level
• Ensure that the architectural layout of the site is also planned in detail before the design process is begun
• Conduct a task analysis to identify the critical features of the site, and place them prominently in the site architecture
• Create visual (mockups) or interactive (prototypes) representations of the site
• Conduct evaluations of the prototype through focus groups, user tests, and cognitive walkthroughs
• Repeat this process until the evaluation results and targeted goals for the site overlap

The conceptualization stage clears any remaining doubts about the design and navigation of the site. As prototypes and mockups are created and tested in this stage, the user is able to provide the designer with valuable feedback regarding the functionality and his expectations from the Website. Then, after extensive brainstorming, information can be written and rearranged according to the navigation flow.

The design of the user interface and the technical implementation of the user interface are different activities, requiring very different skills. Priorities can be laid down vis-à-vis the completion of the designers’ and developers’ responsibilities. The information architect’s role here is very important, as the navigation structure decided by them at this stage will set guidelines for the individual tasks of designers and developers. Analytical thinking and user empathy play a major role in deciding the fate of the site at this stage. The outcomes of stage 2 will be translated into the final product: a functional Website that’s ready to be hosted.