Tips for Enhancing Website Usability

Experience Forces vs. Brand Forces Experience Forces Toward The lIdeal User Experience by Kenneth J. Weiss Experience and brand forces work in opposition within the user experience. Rarely do they find a perfect balance. These conflicting forces arise early in requirements, fester during development, and compete for user's attention during the lifespan of the experience. Brand Forces Familiar Unique Familiar vs. Unique - Good usability dictates that conventions which are known and understood by users should be employed while brand strategy places a premium on being unique. Clarity Driven Personality Driven Understandable Clarity Driven vs. Personality Dri experiences to optimally help the user they must be driven by clarity. Brands, however, desire a distinct personality and voice. Engaging en In order for labels and copy within Understandable vs. Engaging - Users typically want experiences that are immediately clear and intuitive while brands tend to seek immersion and longer periods of involvement. Transferable vs. Ownable - Good user experiences help the user build a collective knowledge of how systems work. Brands like to singularly own feelings, emotions, and a position in the mind. Transferable Ownable Predictable vs. Differentiating Users are more comfortable within experiences that act in a predictable way. Predictability provides ongoing affirmation. Brands by nature want to stand apart with each step in the interaction revealing something new, desirable, and different. Predictable Differentiating Conveyance Centric Finite Task Centric vs. Conveyance Centric - In some instances, the user experience is built solely to help the user execute a task - usability is key. Brands, to the contrary, prefer experiences where not only is the task executed but a message, thought or concept is instilled within the user. Task Centric Finite vs. Lasting - Experiences built around users and their tasks typically have defined beginning and end points - success can be marked with a definitive stopping point. Brands prefer interactions with lingering effects. Lasting www.Slightware.com From the book Slightware - The Next Great Threat To Brands This infographic is governed by the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial ShareAlike 2.5 License. creativecommons.org SOME RIGHTS RESERVED