Usability Report 2013

Usability report 2013

- By Userneeds

About Userneeds

• Copenhagen based • Founded in 2001• 45 employees• 2500+ usability tests conducted• Online consumer panels in Denmark,

Norway, Sweden, Finland & Ireland

The usability method (Webstatus)

• Javascript implement in website source code• Launches a pop up questionnaire containing 12 questions• Four weeks of data collection• Full report with overview of user profile, feedback on usability and design

The study

Through the past 10 years, Userneeds has conducted more than 3.000 usability tests on different web sites in the Nordic countries; Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Ireland. Based on studies within the past 12 months, we have put together a report showing how well or bad the different branches are doing in regards to usability and design. The report also shows the demographic difference between branches and gives us a picture of where to find the most frequent and satisfied users. On the following slides we would like to share some of the findings with you.

The method:

Userneeds has done 498 pop up questionnaires on web sites in the Nordics during the past 12 months. More than 2.5 mill people have participated in the studies. All the sites have been divided in to 22 different branch categories and a full report on usability and design has been made for each branch. We have asked all users the same 13 questions, which makes is possible to benchmark the results.

The e-shoppers

Userneeds has done 100+ user tests on different e-shops containing everything from clothes to groceries. In general the study shows, that the major part of e-shoppers are women (56%). This may not come as a surprise, but even when we look at e-shops selling electronic equipment such as televisions, computers, mobile phones etc., which usually is for men, the women are also strongly represented with an average of 26% of the total number of users. Looking at e-shops selling groceries, kids clothes, books, furniture etc, up to 80% of the users are women. This is probably no different than normal stores, but interesting that e-shops have to appeal to specially the women.

Average gender on e-shops

The most credible

Health sites have the best score when it comes to credibility, which is to be expected, but also leaves that type of sites with a big responsibility. Thousands of people check these sites every day to diagnose themselves, read about different diseases or figure out which supplements to buy, so it is crucial that they leave their users with a feeling of high credibility.

The NGOs also have a top score on credibility. NGOs usually put a lot of effort into explaining how they spend the donations and also prove the results achieved by them. Combined with the fact that we all sympathize with their work, this is probably what makes the great result.

The least credible

In the bottom of the list with the worst score, we find online newspapers. Sites in this benchmark group count large nationwide, niche, tabloid and local newspapers. They all seem to struggle with their credibility, which of course has to be a big issue to them. The reason for that is probably that news today is produced a lot different than 20 years ago. Back then news came out every morning in the traditional paper version, whereas today the users demand for instant news is growing rapidly. We expect to be able to read the news in real time, which of course challenges the news industry. A lot of the comments we get from users on news sites, are related to bad spelling, wrong content, uncritical journalism etc. which are all important parameters for a newspaper, but almost impossible to live up to, if you want to break the news before the competitors do.

The user frequency

Some of the most frequent users you will find on news and sport sites. Nothing strange about that, since most of us checks the news online on a daily basis. In the top of the list we find fan sites, which came as a surprise to us. Our surveys have been carried out on numerous fan club sites (both official and unofficial) and it turns out, that more than 50% of their users visit the site every day. That shows a lot of passion and enthusiasm among the users and no other sites/branch are close to that score.

The best navigation

Within usability, the navigation is essential to get a high score from your users. The sites performing best is in this category are online magazine. More than 90% of their users find it easy to navigate the sites. The reason for that is probably the simplicity in the site structure. The content is very easy to categorize and the fact that most of the sites in the study have a limited target group, it is easy to set up a menu structure that is optimal for all their users.

The worst performing are educational sites such as universities, schools etc. Close to 40% find it hard to navigate the sites. Their content is often very complex and hard to categorize. A university has a very broad user profile such as students, teachers, politicians, private and public companies etc., and one of their biggest challenges is to make sure they are getting the exact information they are looking for.

Navigation score

The best design

When it comes to design of the sites, there are some branches performing much better than others. Among those is the tourism industry, which counts travel agencies, airline companies and travel search sites. Typical for these kind of sites, is that they change and update their design very often to improve the user experience and of course the conversion rate. They also use fantastic graphics and pictures to sell you your dream vacation, which of course has a great impact on the users view on the whole experience.

In the bottom of this list we find online newspapers. In terms of both usability and design, they are struggling to live up the users demands. They have A LOT of content; besides news, they need to make room for banners, competitions, sponsor links etc. All of that has a great negative impact on the design and gives them a bad score. It will be interesting to see, if the newspapers will succeed with paid content, which most of the bigger Scandinavian sites have started doing. By succeeding with this, they could probably eliminate a lot of all the commercial stuff and concentrate on the news.

Design score

More information?

If you want to learn more about the study, see the full report for your specific branch or get user feed back on your web site, please feel free to contact us.

Find your local contact here.

Userneeds A/S

Jens Kofods Gade 1

1264 Copenhagen K

+45 3344 4444

webstatus@userneeds.com

www.userneeds.com