User experience importance is being recognised

Published by Martin Kleppmann on 25 Jul 2007.

Marketing professionals are finally beginning to understand the importance of designing a coherent and positive user experience is an important part of online marketing. Usability News quotes from a recent report: “…the biggest benefits of usability investment are improved perceptions of brand, increased conversion rates and greater customer loyalty and retention.”

However, there is still a long way to go. Although usability is on the increase, there are still plenty of people who do not recognise it. But the benefits are huge: the average e-commerce site can increase its sales by 79% through a usability overhaul, according to the world’s leading user experience expert, Jakob Nielsen.

I discovered an unbelievable website today: UsabilityNet is supposed to promote usability resources, but the website is itself a usability nightmare. The whole page is in embedded Flash, and there is not even a good reason for it. The navigation is totally confused, it looks ugly, and the button asking you to complete a survey on the quality of the website just adds to the irony. In fact, it features as one of the 10 worst websites of 2007 on Vincent Flanders’ webpagesthatsuck.com.