World Usability Day was last week and, for those of you that missed the parade, the theme of the day was Transportation. The conference at IUPUI was focused on improving the usability and safety of transportation and transportation systems. This got me thinking about my own troubles with planes, trains, and automobiles. Especially, with my new car and all its fancy new “features” that make the car less about driving and more about finding the right button to push.

Here at Tuitive we believe that the sooner you do user testing, the better your product is going to be. Even more important than that, you have to have all the requirements of a project established before any real work begins. These sound like pretty obvious philosophies, but they are apparently not influencing the Subaru car stereo design team. This is my new Subaru. (It came with water drops so it looks extra cool all the time.)

I love this car. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

So what is this blog post about then you ask? …

This:

This is the “center stack” in the car, an AM/FM radio, .mp3 capable CD player, Satellite radio, grilled cheese maker (I wish) with built in iPod functionality. It kinda sounds like they kept adding functionality to this stereo as they went along. I think that is, in fact, what happened with the “iPod integration.” It feels as though, when they were delivering the plans for production, some guy stuck his head out of his office and said, “Hey! That Forester should have iPod integration,” and the design team wrote “iPod integration” off to the side of their design schematic and drew a big arrow pointing to the stereo.

Before we talk more about the lack of usability with this stereo, take a look at that picture again, and try and find the “iPod” button.
Go ahead, I’ll wait… … … … … … (brb, going to make some tea)…

… back. Any luck? Yeah, there isn’t one. So how do you use the iPod? Here is Subaru’s solution:

That’s right a big sticker… this is a 2009 car, fresh off the lot!!
Even with that sticker, the iPod is extremely difficult to navigate. You have to start with the “SAT” button (very intuitive) and it just gets worse from there. I will spare you the gory details, but suffice to say that I have started burning .mp3s on CDs again, to listen to on my long commutes…

So what have we learned from this example?

1. When you throw features in at the last minute, they look like they were “thrown in at the last minute.“
2. It is only a real feature if it is a usable feature! I could probably make toast on the engine block too, but Subaru does not advertise toaster functionality.
3. When stuff does not work well, people will not use it and they will eventually make a blog post that tells everyone how terrible it is!

So when you are starting your next project make sure that you truly understand what your users want out of your product, and decide on all the features and functionality of the product before you start building anything. This will make for a better overall product, and happier users.

Until next time, keep it usable Internets.

While doing website usability assessments, we see a lot of the same issues popping up. Here are some easy fixes that you can apply today:

Put your phone number on every page, especially the home page.

Sometimes a visitor hits your website just because they want to call you immediately. Don’t make them dig for your contact info!

Use descriptive hyperlink text, not "click here".

A link that says "click here" is redundant—we already know we can click there but have to read to understand where it would take us. A simple "Edit your account", for example, is much easier to use than "Click here to edit your account".

Label external links and non-HTML links (PDF, etc.)

It’s jarring to be whisked away to another site or detoured into another program when a simple web page was expected. Labeling your external links and download links empowers your users to click confidently without fear of undesirable surprises.

Don’t play sound without the user’s permission.

I’m talking to you, video people. Instead of being instantly engaging, imagine a more likely scenario when a video is set to auto-play: a hapless visitor lunging for her mute button while curious coworkers prairie-dog over nearby cubical walls.

Scrap that Flash intro.

"Duh" you say? True, the Flash intro has been naturally dying off for years due to an abysmally low purpose/cost ratio. But until declared extinct, it’s worth repeating this admonition: spend your web budget on things that will be of value to your users.

Setup an analytics package

Part of creating a usable website is seeing how visitors are or aren’t using it. This also provides an excellent foundation for more qualitative user research and testing. Google Analytics is great for most websites and the price is right (free!).