{"id":125,"date":"2012-02-13T16:06:49","date_gmt":"2012-02-13T22:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/?p=125"},"modified":"2018-08-17T19:17:02","modified_gmt":"2018-08-18T00:17:02","slug":"content-creates-most-usability-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/content-creates-most-usability-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Confusing, Incomplete Content Creates the Most Usability Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you haven’t witnessed\u00a0a usability study before, you may have wondered what types<\/strong> of issues test participants find, and how many<\/strong> issues they typically uncover. 5 issues? 50 issues? 500 issues? Gulp.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of the 100+ issues<\/strong> I uncover in a typical usability study, more than one-third are content-related<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Types of Usability Issues<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I conducted my first usability study in 2006. I asked someone in the IT department to haul an extra PC into an empty conference room for me, then I recruited 6 or so participants via our customer database. It was about as unsophisticated as you could get \u2014 no recording software, no observers. It was just the participant and me (taking frantic notes).<\/p>\n

Since then, I’ve conducted more than 400 usability test sessions \u2014 in formal labs, not-so-formal labs, in coffee shops, remotely and even guerilla-style (where I ambushed some willing moms at the mall).<\/p>\n

When collecting usability study findings, I usually classify them into 1 of 5 categories: design, content, labeling, functionality and wayfinding. Depending on the type of project, there might be a 6th category, such as merchandising for an e-commerce site.<\/p>\n

\"Types<\/a><\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s a good idea to classify usability issues because this extra step can help make divvying up the workload after the study<\/em> easier. For example:<\/p>\n

\"Divy<\/a><\/p>\n

Categorizing usability issues also helps the project team more easily understand\u00a0how\u00a0<\/em>to solve the issue.<\/p>\n

For example, if a user cannot find the “Continue” button \u2014 is it because of the button label<\/em> or because the button is located in an unexpected place on the page? As the facilitator, I know that test participants did not scroll down on the page far enough to see the button. Categorizing this finding as a “design” issue, rather than as a “labeling” issue helps ensure the team solves the right<\/em> problem.<\/p>\n

Usability Results: By the Numbers<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Disclaimer: The following represents my own experience. Your results may vary.<\/em><\/p>\n

To answer my earlier question about which type of usability issue is most common, I pulled out the findings from 10 recent usability studies. The following data comes from 8 websites and 2 web applications from various organizations.<\/p>\n

There were 5 to 8 participants per study, but most had 8 participants. All 74 usability test sessions were 1 hour in length and included anywhere from 5 to 8 tasks per session.<\/p>\n

On average, each study revealed 113 usability issues. The studies uncovered as few as 67 issues and as many as 178. In total, 74 test participants found 1,126 usability issues across 10 websites and apps.<\/p>\n

And so without further ado, here were my findings:<\/p>\n

\"Common<\/a><\/p>\n

Together, content and labeling issues made up 38.6% of the total usability issues on these 10 sites.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve heard it a million times: content is king<\/strong>. However, I like to put it another way: content is<\/em> the user experience<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Often user experience isn\u2019t about navigation or drop-down menus and radio buttons. A website can be flawless functionally and visually, but if the information users expect isn\u2019t there or they don\u2019t understand it, nothing else matters.<\/p>\n

The great news about finding content<\/em> usability issues is that they are the least expensive type of issue to fix \u2014 little to no developer time is involved. Of the 5, wayfinding is potentially the most expensive. If people cannot find their way to critical information, something is fundamentally broken.<\/p>\n

Apply My Findings to Your Next Usability Study<\/strong><\/h2>\n

So now that I did all this analysis\u2026 what is the big takeaway?<\/p>\n

I am a huge<\/strong> fan of prototype testing. Usability testing wireframes \u2013 or even hand-drawn sketches \u2013 saves a ton of money vs. waiting until everything is coded and \u201cperfect.\u201d But here is where I would use caution when prototype testing\u2026<\/p>\n

Use real content in prototypes<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Since content is such a huge part of the user experience (and number of usability problems), I implore you to use as much real content in your prototype as possible.<\/p>\n

Lorem ipsum<\/em>\u00a0(AKA placeholder text) might be passable for wireframes, but absolutely not for prototypes.<\/p>\n

Test participants almost always inquire about greek text \u2014 “what is that, what language is that, I can’t read that”<\/em> \u2014 and you end up wasting valuable time telling them to ignore it.<\/p>\n

Hire a writer who specializes in web writing<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If you haven\u2019t done so already, hire a web copywriter to write content for your prototypes and make sure they \u2014 plus the design and development teams \u2014 observe all of the usability test sessions.<\/p>\n

Test, then test again<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Early prototypes also will likely lack design elements, such as color and information hierarchy \u2014 so it is critical to test again during the design phase. But I wouldn\u2019t wait until the design is complete to test it for the first time. Testing early may yield brand-new ideas, increase scope, decrease scope or even confirm that you are on exactly the right path.<\/p>\n

Happy testing!<\/p>\n

Related Articles<\/strong><\/h2>\n

UX Word of the Day: Content Chunking<\/a>
\nThe 5-Step Process I Use to Plan + Conduct Usability Studies<\/a>
\nSteal These Mobile-First Content Patterns<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you haven’t witnessed\u00a0a usability study before, you may have wondered what types of issues test participants find, and how many issues they typically uncover. 5 issues? 50 issues? 500 issues? Gulp. Of the 100+ issues I uncover in a typical usability study, more than one-third are content-related. Types of Usability Issues I conducted my … Continue reading “Confusing, Incomplete Content Creates the Most Usability Issues”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-usability"],"yoast_head":"\nConfusing, Incomplete Content Creates the Most Usability Issues - June UX<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/content-creates-most-usability-issues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Confusing, Incomplete Content Creates the Most Usability Issues - June UX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you haven’t witnessed\u00a0a usability study before, you may have wondered what types of issues test participants find, and how many issues they typically uncover. 5 issues? 50 issues? 500 issues? Gulp. Of the 100+ issues I uncover in a typical usability study, more than one-third are content-related. Types of Usability Issues I conducted my … Continue reading "Confusing, Incomplete Content Creates the Most Usability Issues"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/content-creates-most-usability-issues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"June UX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-13T22:06:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-08-18T00:17:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/types_usability_issues1.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kristine Remer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@kristineremer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kristine Remer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/content-creates-most-usability-issues\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/content-creates-most-usability-issues\/\",\"name\":\"Confusing, Incomplete Content Creates the Most Usability Issues - June UX\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-02-13T22:06:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-08-18T00:17:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9239f257eb7b6082954622f7bb7a13bb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/content-creates-most-usability-issues\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/content-creates-most-usability-issues\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/content-creates-most-usability-issues\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Confusing, Incomplete Content Creates the Most Usability Issues\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"June UX\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9239f257eb7b6082954622f7bb7a13bb\",\"name\":\"Kristine Remer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/04287e5398aef336c1ac28a3811a49c9a8ab86020c33349ef1f186ade6efc3c7?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/04287e5398aef336c1ac28a3811a49c9a8ab86020c33349ef1f186ade6efc3c7?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kristine Remer\"},\"description\":\"Kristine Remer is a CX insights leader, UX researcher, and strategist in Minneapolis. She helps organizations drive significant business outcomes by finding and solving customer problems. She never misses the Minnesota State Fair and loves dark chocolate mochas, kayaking, escape rooms, and planning elaborate treasure hunts for her children.\",\"sameAs\":[\"linkedin.com\/in\/kristineremer\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kristineremer\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/author\/klremer\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Confusing, Incomplete Content Creates the Most Usability Issues - June UX","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/content-creates-most-usability-issues\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Confusing, Incomplete Content Creates the Most Usability Issues - June UX","og_description":"If you haven’t witnessed\u00a0a usability study before, you may have wondered what types of issues test participants find, and how many issues they typically uncover. 5 issues? 50 issues? 500 issues? Gulp. Of the 100+ issues I uncover in a typical usability study, more than one-third are content-related. Types of Usability Issues I conducted my … Continue reading \"Confusing, Incomplete Content Creates the Most Usability Issues\"","og_url":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/content-creates-most-usability-issues\/","og_site_name":"June UX","article_published_time":"2012-02-13T22:06:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-08-18T00:17:02+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/types_usability_issues1.gif"}],"author":"Kristine Remer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@kristineremer","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kristine Remer","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/content-creates-most-usability-issues\/","url":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/content-creates-most-usability-issues\/","name":"Confusing, Incomplete Content Creates the Most Usability Issues - June UX","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-02-13T22:06:49+00:00","dateModified":"2018-08-18T00:17:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9239f257eb7b6082954622f7bb7a13bb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/content-creates-most-usability-issues\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/content-creates-most-usability-issues\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/content-creates-most-usability-issues\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Confusing, Incomplete Content Creates the Most Usability Issues"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/","name":"June UX","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9239f257eb7b6082954622f7bb7a13bb","name":"Kristine Remer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/04287e5398aef336c1ac28a3811a49c9a8ab86020c33349ef1f186ade6efc3c7?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/04287e5398aef336c1ac28a3811a49c9a8ab86020c33349ef1f186ade6efc3c7?s=96&r=g","caption":"Kristine Remer"},"description":"Kristine Remer is a CX insights leader, UX researcher, and strategist in Minneapolis. She helps organizations drive significant business outcomes by finding and solving customer problems. She never misses the Minnesota State Fair and loves dark chocolate mochas, kayaking, escape rooms, and planning elaborate treasure hunts for her children.","sameAs":["linkedin.com\/in\/kristineremer","https:\/\/twitter.com\/kristineremer"],"url":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/author\/klremer\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125"}],"version-history":[{"count":85,"href":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5399,"href":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions\/5399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}