Andrew’s Usability in the Real World: Life intrudes - Rare but important Use Cases

When the bombs went off in London, I was at home in Yorkshire, and feeling concerned for my friends and colleagues, all of whom fortunately turned out to be fine. While I was fretting, I was scouring the web for information, and generally impressed with what I found. The Guardian’s website had up-to-date news with a factual edge, and their own news blog was a great way to see how events were unfolding. BBC reports had an official tinge them. The latest unofficial information was on American news sites, although this was often unsubstantiated and sometimes wrong.

I had already been outlining this column for a while, about the unusual but important use cases that are often overlooked by busy development teams. One of the cases that I had been considering, especially as we have been working with a client on usability concerns for a new CMS (Content Management Systems, the software that organisations use to publish and maintain large complex websites) was the need to handle emergency situations. One of the main goals of a CMS is to enforce rules of consistency and require proper chains of approval for new content, but sometimes you need to break the rules to handle a truly unusual situation. Some CMS’s make that difficult.

I noticed on one train company’s website that they had taken down their normal home page to say that until the situation in London became clearer, they would be stopping trains short of London. And right next to this dramatic notice? An ad exclaiming the virtues of a day out in London and offering a special price. Their CMS probably didn’t offer a simple way of turning off ads. Probably not the effect they would have wished for.

With that in mind, here’s a catalogue of important life events that software should be able to handle, but often doesn’t.

If you write or publish personal software, some important use cases to consider are:

• BUYING A NEW COMPUTER. People switch computers. They buy new ones, upgrade when friends or colleagues hand down their used models, or swap when moving to a new office. Because many software installations rely on multiple files, registry entries, and hardware-specific copy-protection schemes, re-installing software can be a nightmare. Even the big names don’t support this use case well – ever tried to move over a Microsoft Outlook installation, or Explorer? In the best case, software developers should provide tools and commands that copy over all preferences, macros, and organisational structures (folder hierarchies, group addresses, favourites, etc) for the user. If that is not possible, at least provide detailed, tested instructions.
• UPGRADING SOFTWARE. If you sell personal software, chances are you’ll want your customers to upgrade from time to time. It may help keep the customers happy, and for many firms upgrade paths provide an important income stream. Support your customers by making sure your software doesn’t penalise them for upgrading. See that it’s easy to maintain preferences and shortcuts.
• SHARING ACROSS COMPUTERS. It’s not unusual for people to have multiple computers which can all be used for some of the same tasks, running some of the same software. The standard today is to make it easy to share files and difficult to pirate the software without buying an extra licence, which seems fair enough. What typically needs more work is to make it easy for users to synchronise their environments – copying over customisations, macros/shortcuts/styles, etc.

If your firm works mainly on web or mobile portals, the oft-overlooked use cases are:
• CHANGING EMAIL ADDRESS OR MOBILE NUMBER. People change jobs, leave school, get fed up, or for a million reasons might change their e-mail addresses or mobile numbers. A surprising number of sites make it difficult to update this information, even when it is vital for the day-to-day use of the site – the main login name, the destination of confirmation emails, etc. We suggest that in every main place the information appears or is entered, a small link for changing it should also appear. For example, if your site has customers using their e-mail addresses as a login name, place a link to update the e-mail address on the login page itself. And if you send regular communications, include info on updating addresses in the footer of every message.
• DEATH. Most e-commerce sites and services strive to maintain lifelong relationships with their customers, but what happens when that relationship ends? People die – it’s the one use case people usually don’t like to talk about, but it’s important to plan for. Imagine a grieving adult son or daughter who has lost a parent and can’t figure out how to stop the joke-a-day text message (and its accompanying charges). Or the family that wants to download the pictures from their loved one’s account on a photo website. Or the partner who would like to post a final entry on their partner’s blog. Much of this is a matter of setting up sensitive and sensible policies (and don’t forget to talk to your lawyers to see what is required and what is forbidden). Usability people can help in making sure the use cases are considered, and that where possible the right pointers exist in the interface to tell users what to do.

Finally, if you create tools for people who publish websites, there are a couple of use cases you should consider:
• THE UNUSUAL DAY. If there’s a national emergency, a local disaster, or problems affecting the whole company, you need the ability to slot in a special home page. Make sure you have an override switch that allows you to change the format of the home page, include text and pictures, provide special navigation if necessary, and turn off advertising.
• WHEN THE WORKFLOW DOESN’T WORK. Remember that in any organisation people come and go, leave on holiday, or get so busy that they don’t have time for their regular duties. Make sure that no workflow is so rigidly enforced that you can’t allow for exceptional circumstances. Allow ways for articles to be published even if the normal editor is away. If security is a concern, make sure that such exceptions are included in audit trails, and that when normal conditions return, it is possible to track what is done and perhaps even conduct the normal reviews after the fact.

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I would love to hear what you think. Send me an e-mail at aswartz@usability.serco.com.

by Andrew Swartz, Serco Usability Services
© 2005 Serco Limited, All Rights Reserved.

Associated Link: Serco Usability Services

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