Success Factor Usability
Successful businesses have one thing in common; customers highly favor their products. Why? Most often the key factor is – user- friendly, in other words the usability.
Whether it is websites, software programs, automats, smartphones or machines – when products and services are developed it should always be about the people who use them.
Instead many a developer of machines or programs get lost in their love of technology and perform function overkill
But: most products don’t even use their full potential. They play a subordinate role and aren’t even the decisive factor for success on the market.
The key factor and unique selling point in competition is rather the intuitive handling – the usability.
User-friendly products reduce the learning time, minimize operating errors, increase the work production and escalate the working process. A high usability supports the user in completing his tasks quickly, accurately, and to his satisfaction which helps in making it possible to reach goals intuitively.
Thus user- friendly is a decisive factor for a product’s success. To reach this added value, the development and implementation of a product should be the primary aim.
Because: User-friendly products can be the reason for a winning difference, plus these products are gaining more importance. The reason being, that users weigh the importance of usability as a purchase criteria. The same applies to the end-user, as well as for B2B relationships. Suppliers who integrate usability in their products achieve a higher customer satisfaction and for that reason are especially successful in the market.
Successful products through professional usability studies
But how do you test your own product’s usability?
To accomplish that, suitable methods are used for testing the actual product. In classic cases the user is observed, while handling the product. Target questions conclude the test.
However the observation results rely on the subjective feelings of the observer, as well as the subjective impressions of the tested person.
To obtain objective and meaningful usability studies, it is advisable to use specialized developed usability testing software, like Mangold LogSquare.
A website analysis, for example, can pinpoint this very well.
- The test person is assigned a task, which he has to solve using a specified website. For example: Find specifics from the product XY on Mueller GmbH company’s homepage. This investigation will reveal whether the customer is able to find the information in question, easily and quickly, on the designated homepage.
- A usability test software records every movement with the mouse, every mouse click and every keyboard message that the test person makes.
- Remote-controlled cameras and high-tech microphones register the subject’s behavior, his stated opinions on the subject and records it for later analysis.
- An eye-tracker measures the test person’s eye movement, therefore it reveals how the subject observes the visual information; which images does he consider –and in what order and intensity does he perceive them.
- An additional further option is analyzation through physiology measuring data. For example, measurements of skin resistance or skin temperature, which allows conclusive stress analysis.
The following analysis answers questions like:
Can the user easily find his way around?
Is the most important information placed correctly in attention getting areas?
Do necessary navigation options even get noticed?
Which elements, on the website, are the eye-catchers?
For 25 years Mangold International GmbH has been developing solutions for small and mid-sized businesses so that they are able to take a closer look at their user-friendly products and services.
Studies can be decisively explored. For example: What design criteria should be used, for the targeted audience to accept and consume, and how the criteria can be systematically implemented in the product design.
The Results:
- Better products
- Satisfied customers
- Significant competitive advantages
- Increased market success