Communicate the ROI (Return on Investment) for Design

In the late 1990s, companies spent exorbitant amounts of money developing web sites. A happy ancillary effect was the maturation of 'user experience design' as a practice -- an opportunity to gain experience and rapidly develop effective methods. Since the dot.bust and collapse of NASDAQ, companies have adopted a thriftier approach, requiring measured accountability for every expenditure, including design. Designers aren’t used to making fiscal arguments for their value. Isn’t it clear that a more useful/usable/desirable/pleasing product is of course a better product, which will sell more or be used more, thus earning more revenue? Unfortunately, this gut-level understanding isn’t necessarily shared by the world at large. Increasingly, designers are asking, 'How do we communicate our value to the business world?'

Merholz, Peter. Adaptive Path (2002). Design>Web Design

Conducting International Usability

As business on the Web matures, organizations increasingly pay attention to the first two Ws in WWW -- World Wide. Companies with international sales offices crave a distinct Web presence in each locale to demonstrate seriousness in that local market. Multi-national companies often use intranets to unify global teams. Maintaining global consistency requires centralizing these Web efforts (usually within corporate headquarters), yet this must accommodate distinct approaches to working which vary from region to region. User testing is a valuable tool in such situations, but how does one conduct user tests internationally? This essay draws from my experience leading an international user testing project, and I hope you can learn from my mistakes and successes.

Merholz, Peter. Adaptive Path (2002). Articles>Usability>International

Finding the Right Users

If you’re using the eenie meenie method to select users for your research, perhaps it’s time you tried something a little more scientific. There is no such thing as sound user research without an airtight user-selection process behind it. No matter how good the observation and analysis, it’s all for naught if you’ve studied the wrong people. Too much “user research” is conducted, analyzed, and applied without anyone ever having spoken to users. Researchers then offer guidelines based on the needs and preferences of people who would never use the product in question. Relevant user research results depend on two factors: First, obviously, you’ll need to find people who are likely to use the product. Second, you’ll need to interview enough of them so that trends emerge from their collective behavior. These trends will indicate your primary design targets.

Merholz, Peter. Adaptive Path (2003). Articles>User Centered Design>Usability

Get Out of Your Lab, and Into Their Lives

We need to practice research methods that accept the complexity of customers' technological world, and take it into account. Monolithic solutions are giving way to smaller point solutions, people are saving their information in a variety of places (personal computer, websites and hosted applications, handheld devices, print-outs), and reliance on stored passwords and favorites is deepening. And yet, in this climate, we still invite folks into a foreign lab, to use a computer that isn't theirs, to leave behind their files, papers, and Post-It Notes, and then ask them to engage in a scripted series of uninterrupted tasks.

Merholz, Peter. Adaptive Path (2006). Articles>Usability>Methods

How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Relinquish Control

How could there be a successful business model in actively sending people away from your site? Seven years and a $75 billion market capitalization later, that question has obviously been answered.

Merholz, Peter. Adaptive Path (2005). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design

Innovation in Classification

This article addresses two aspects of classification: innovation and faceted classification. Includes links to additional online resources involving classification.

Merholz, Peter. PeterMe (2001). Articles>Information Design>Metadata

Metadata for the Masses

Many classification systems suffer from an inflexible top-down approach, forcing users to view the world in potentially unfamiliar ways.

Merholz, Peter. Adaptive Path (2004). Articles>Information Design>Metadata

Organization in the Way: How Decentralization Hobbles the User Experience

Contrary to all the books, articles, Web sites, and workshops that suggest otherwise, the biggest problem in user experience design today is not one of practice. Any competent practitioner can dip into the current toolbox of methods and create a satisfactory product. Right now, the biggest obstacle to good design is poor organizational structure. The fundamental makeup of most organizations runs contrary to producing quality designs, and as organizations get larger, this becomes increasingly apparent.

Merholz, Peter. Adaptive Path (2004). Articles>Collaboration>Web Design

The Pendulum Returns, Part 1: Unifying the Online Presence of Decentralized Organizations

A number of smart businesses are realizing that the organizational characteristics that lead to their successes — such as agility, decentralized decision making, and fast growth — have made their Web sites unworkable through poor development processes and inconsistent user experiences. This frustrates any attempt by visitors to find meaningful information. The irony here is that for day-to-day business operations such decentralized companies have proven much more 'customer-centered' than their monolithic ancestors. By allowing departments to own the customer relationship, these companies rapidly accommodate their customers' particular needs. However, upon migrating their information and services to the Web, such companies typically offered a site organization that simply mimicked the company's structure, inevitably confusing the customer, who was not expecting to see labyrinthine departmental structures that they hadn't realized existed.

Merholz, Peter. Adaptive Path (2002). Design>Web Design>Information Design

The Pendulum Returns, Part 2

Last week I argued for the importance of decentralized organizations to unify their online presences. Now, achieving that is much easier said than done. Over the past few years, we’ve seen a handful of companies that have very successful web experiences despite strongly decentralized organizations. We set out to discover what makes these companies’ sites more effective, and found some consistent characteristics.

Merholz, Peter. Adaptive Path (2002). Design>Web Design>Information Design

Report Review: Nielsen/Norman Group's Usability Return on Investment

In the business world, user experience endeavors are typically seen as a cost—a line item expense to be minimized to the greatest extent possible while still remaining competitive. This has led to a number of essays, articles, and books on proving the value of user experience, including a recent report by the Nielsen Norman Group.

Merholz, Peter and Scott Hirsch. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Usability

User-Centered Design: From Thought to Product

A session presentation from edgewise 1999 available in both PowerPoint and HTML. Covers the what, why and how of user centered design.

Merholz, Peter. PeterMe (1999). Design>User Centered Design