Usability Watch - Tuborg Beer

In pursuit of looking at all dimensions and examples of usability around us (mostly in software world), we're committed to bring you readers some focused reviews and experiences on real-world products. Products that have innovated to achieve a long-lasting user experience. The case in question today is: Tuborg Beer.

I have been a delighted consumer of beer since 1997, and have experienced the taste of many brands over the years. With evolving taste buds and changes in company at the tables, I have shifted loyalties too; some due to geographical constraints of unavailability of few brands. Anyways, no beer has caught my fancy to the extent of a not-so-far-ago launched brand in India - Tuborg, a beer of Denmark. The main reason of my fascination was beyond its soothing mild flavor; it was the usability innovation in its packaging! And it hit me and my close friends that all these years, we'd never "missed" this neat little way of opening the bottle like a beverage can. The very apparatus that makes drinking a beverage in a can more fun and manageable as compared to a bottle, was simply introduced in the bottled drink.



Wow! The expression is also about the experience you get by the sound made. It's not just a convenience about managing without hunting for an opener. It's the ambiance this creates. Almost invisible cold white fumes emitted after a "puckk!" - just setting the tone right, even for teetotalers. And the makers must have known indeed one of the immediate promotion benefits - the strong recall value about this unique mechanism. The word-of-mouth viral effect I hear was very strong, naturally.

A good watch on usability and user experience - from a beer maker (Tuborg).

Thoughts?

We'll be posting similar features, taking on examples of singular products - opining about the user experience. If you wish to contribute any such reviews/experiences, please get in touch - we would love to feature them on our blog, post-moderation of the content.

WATCH THIS SPACE!

Visibility Principle

A user interface is only valued when the user interactions achieve their purpose. The first element of user interaction is what the user sees in the interface. Visibility is all about how clearly the user sees the state of the interface and all the possible actions. If the users cannot "see" how to use the interface, it is not adhering to the visibility principle of user interface design. Let's dive into some real-world examples and then follow-through with web examples.

 

Good visibility - car dashboard that is designed with everything positioned in a way that can be easily found and used.

 

Sleek design in this case compromises usability - auto-faucets have a great advantage of saving water, but its common challenge is "where to put our hands" to ensure timely hand-wash.

Style yes, visibility of main functions - a big NO! One of the most complex wrist-watch dial ever designed.

How many combinations!? Phew!

 

Most straightforward with high visibility - ATM.

Over to few web examples:

• google


• dropbox


• business catalyst


• high rise


• fidelity


• acosmin


• justdial

Employ commonsensical ideas like highlighting important parts of your web page on top center, avoiding dead-ends, and always suggesting users the 3 answers: "where he is", "what there is", and "where can he go next".

Suggestions?

Usability Dimension: "Valuable"

VALUABLE.

The 7th and last feature in the series of Usability Dimensions. For earlier features, kindly follow the following links: useful, usable, desirable, findable, accessible, and credible.

Depending on the specific case, all previously discussed dimensions need to be balanced in varying degrees, and not treated as mutually exclusive. However, the aspect of "valuable" is commonsensical and must. On one hand, it should relate to and contribute towards the company's ROI. On the other hand, it should also equate itself to ROE (User's Return on Experience). The user-interface design of your site or product should in effect result into one or more of measurable and sustainable benefits like:

• increase in sales


• increase in operational efficiency


• increase in productivity


• decrease in operational/maintenance costs


• re-use of existing components and infrastructure


• increase in brand awareness/networking outreach

This makes your site/product valuable. Only "shared" value (between Business community and User community) is the key to long term sustainability. I'm struggling to list down the examples of "valuable" websites, primarily because the "value" can be really diverse based on specific businesses, specific user community etc. For example, Technical Developers may find technology forum sites really valuable, much different than a teenager finding value in gaming or music sites, and so on. I'll attempt to list down few generic valuable sites that most end-consumers today from any category, qualification, or industry would not live without. Yes, it's easy to guess a few at least...as they would definitely echo your own choice too.

Here goes:

• google (Need I give a link for you to navigate?)


• youtube


• wikipedia


• facebook


• gmail (Isn't this a new term for email?)


• ebay


• linkedin

I encourage you to share your views and few more additions to the list, as comments to this post.

In conclusion, our sites and products must deliver value to the customers and sponsors. For non-profits, the user experience must advance the mission; for profits, it must contribute to the bottom line and provide customer delight.

Watch this space for more example-oriented features (please expect some overlaps in discussion points) through another series of the Five-Es of Usability - another view of usability dimensions: Effective, Efficient, Engaging, Error Tolerant, Easy to Learn.

Usability Dimension: "Findable"

FINDABLE.

Fourth feature in our series: Dimensions of Usability. First three posts discussed the dimensions - useful, usable, and desirable.

Peter Morville says: "Findability precedes usability, in the alphabet and on the Web. You can't use what you can't find."

For your web site, there are two aspects of findability: how well your site can be found on the Internet, and how well information can be found on your site. While the former aspect is very important and concerns itself with concepts like search engine optimization and marketing techniques, we're going to restrict this feature to the latter aspect of findability. The issues that affect findability are: organization of the web site, representation of the user interface, web standards, user interaction, navigation, and content. Achieving a good design and score in these parameters would actually directly contribute to having a higher SEO too.

A standard way of measuring this dimension: "findable" for your web site is usability testing methodologies such as: Tree Testing or Reverse Card Sorting. It's all about focusing on the user's ability to identify and navigate  through your site/application to find and retrieve information and sources relevant to his needs. Things like: navigation, sub-navigation, placement of content, choice of words and phrases, information-flow, search functionality...contribute towards making your web site findable or not.

Few examples of highly findable sites:

• opera


• hbo


• chandra harvard


• fwa


• questacon


• ted


• brainpop


• penguin classics


• stimulus

Simply put, we must strive to design navigable web sites, products, and locatable objects, icons, user interface elements, so users can find what they need. Few things to keep in mind:

• avoid having no way of going back to home


• don't have illogically named links


• have consistent navigation across different pages


• don't have too many sub-navigation levels/hierarchy


• use breadcrumbs and sitemaps


• make states of hyperlinks different and noticeable

Next usability dimension topic: Accessible.

Usability Dimension: "Desirable"

DESIRABLE.

We saw few examples of useful and usable sites and applications. This feature is on "desirable".

"Form follows function" is an age old principle. Everyone is up for beauty. Good looks (form) works like a charm, in any industry, at times even at the expense of function. You may be witness to a great looking movie star, less on acting skills gather more fan following than an average looking, but great actor. Likewise, you would find a person going for a used car, more interested in examining the exterior/body of the car than the functional parts like engine. What about an architect paying more attention to colors and symmetrical dimensions in space, rather than focusing on the lifelines of the household system - electrical and plumbing lines?

Same applies to software and internet world. Not many achieve the balance of their site/app being desirable, at the same time high on usability: useful, usable, etc.

Few examples of beauty that doesn't work:

• verbatim


• creative with a k


• real casual


• jones...


• got milk?


• record tripping


• lego


• echo genesis


• incredibox


• there studio


• coca cola light


• google gravity


• on toyota's mind

If the primary function/industry of your web site is to convey beauty, one should design for beauty. Else, beauty should be a by-product, still essential, but not at the expense of functionality and ease of use. A desirable site may attract more visitors in the short-term, but the visitors are unlikely to revisit as they would find it difficult to achieve their desired goals; in which case, a more functional site will score in the long-term.

Typical user echoes the following while using any of the above sites:

"where do i look?" "where do i click?" "what do i do?" "how long does this take to load?" "where's the navigation?" "how do i scroll?"

The sad part about these sites is that there's undoubted creativity and plenty of ideas that's gone into the concept and production. But, like most real things, a tool is no good unless you can figure out how to use it. There are multiple ways the sites fail to function. It can be visual clutter, slow loading time, navigation issues, archiving issues, visibility/scrolling issues, etc. Instead, direct the users to certain sections/pages of the site; make your navigation clear; make menus and icons self-explanatory; use proper contrast ratio for higher visibility; and have a clear "call-to-action". More...

Few brands like: Sony, Apple, Microsoft - achieve form without sacrificing function.

Watch this space for the next usability dimension: Findable.

Dimensions of Usability

Is it more important for your website/product to be desirable or accessible? How about usable or credible? The truth is, it depends on your unique balance of 'context', 'content', and 'users' - and the required trade-offs are better made explicitly than unconsciously or subconsciously.

We'll attempt to discuss and exemplify various aspects and dimensions of usability and user experience - that should be actively considered for the visualization of our brand, product, website, etc. In a series of blog articles, we'll discuss the following dimensions of user interfaces, singularly:

• useful


• usable


• desirable


• findable


• accessible


• credible


• valuable

Watch this space as we explore the topics with appropriate examples.

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User Experience Best Practices

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