Are firms leaving customers stuck in the web?

As the versatility of the internet increases at warp speed, web users are quick to adjust their expectations of what online experiences a company should deliver. So, are businesses really satisfying their users?

By Matt Henkes, staff writer

When computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee designed and developed the world’s first website almost two decades ago, it’s possible he was the first to envisage the kind of online information availability we enjoy today. But how well are the descendents of his brainchild satisfying the needs of users?

Expectations weren’t high when people logged on to the basic, sluggish sites a decade ago. In stark contrast, today information on anything from how to pay your gas bill to finding out the queen’s favourite brand of tights is assumed to be easily and speedily accessible online. And world-dominating super sites like Google and Amazon are constantly driving up the benchmarks for website user experience, forcing everyone else to play catch-up.

Yet, Jakob Nielsen, researcher, author, director of the Nielsen Norman Group (NNG) and, according to Fortune magazine, “the reigning guru of web usability”, says the user satisfaction ratings he sees today are only marginally higher than that of 10 years ago.

“People get more but they also expect more, so they are not any happier with the individual websites they are using,” he says. “The practical implication for companies is they need to continuously improve their website's usability, simply to stay in place and receive the same level of customer satisfaction.”

Research carried out by communications consultants Empirix shines some light on the extent of users’ impatience when it comes to clunky websites. A third of respondents said they were put off doing online business with an organisation after a bad web experience, with a fifth feeling strongly enough to take their offline business elsewhere. Furthermore, nine out of 10 people said they wouldn’t make more than three attempts at an online transaction, with less than one in 10 willing to telephone a company to resolve a problem.

It’s not surprising, therefore, that a recent report by web marketing specialist E-consultancy suggests that 72 percent of UK firms plan to increase spending on web usability over the next 12 months.

Sector scores

Larger B2C e-commerce sites tend to score the highest when it comes to ease of user experience as good usability often translates directly into increased sales. “Almost all big e-commerce sites have substantial usability teams and follow the majority of usability guidelines in their design,” says Nielsen. “Smaller e-commerce sites don't have the budgets to build up in-house expertise and are often at the mercy of design agencies who deliver sites that may look good but have poor usability.”

Financial websites also pay particular attention to simplifying the online customer experience for the simple reason that every time they conduct a transaction, the organisation involved saves money on processing costs. “Online banking, online stock trading and the like have received significant usability investments in recent years and have improved accordingly,” Nielsen points out.

However, not all sectors pay such attention to their users’ experience. When NNG tested 179 B2B sites, it found that users were only able to accomplish typical online tasks 58 percent of the time, whereas B2C sites scored 66 percent. This is an improvement on figures from the 1990s, when most sites regularly scored below 50 percent. However, says Nielsen: “B2B sites still have the furthest to go, which is a puzzle, given that they typically sell much more expensive products and, thus, have much more at stake.”

Marty Caroll, director of consulting at web analytic specialist Foviance, believes that B2B sites are lagging behind because they tend to have lower traffic volumes, resulting in less hard data with which to calculate the necessary improvements. “They’re not using the hard measures that we’re seeing in the B2C space,” he says.

He also cautions against paying too much heed to “usability evangelists” like Nielsen, who Caroll claims have marred the industry with their “draconian views”. He argues that website creators need to cater to other factors than ease of use, such as communicating brand essence and integration with other forms of offline advertising.

The perfect website should mix a careful understanding of aesthetics with a user experience that appears seamless and hassle-free to the customer, Caroll claims.

However, Nielsen argues the evidence is very strong that making sites simpler by following usability guidelines will increase sales. “This is not draconian, it's heavenly – at least for the bottom line,” he adds.

Reduce jargon

Government sites have different problems to B2B and B2C sites, often related to their less clearly stated goals. The lack of a distinct ‘line-of-sight’ between online customer experience and organisational objectives means they often put too much focus on their departments’ own bureaucracy and terminology that flies over the heads of most users.

However, there are some exceptions. Direct.gov.uk is a valiant attempt to present public information in a way that the majority of people are able to understand. NNG recently studied Direct.gov state pension information and found that most FAQ answers were written in a way that could be understood by someone with 11 years of formal education.

“There is still a long way to go for government websites to be sufficiently easy to serve the entire population,” says Nielsen. “It may be a small comfort that government sites in the US test even worse than government sites in the UK.” When NNG studied online pension information in the US, they found that readers required 16 years of formal education, the equivalent of a degree, to make sense of it.

Caroll says the problem extends into the commercial sector also. He sees a large number of companies using too much industry-specific jargon and believes the problem stems from organisations not walking in their customers’ shoes. “The intention usually starts out pretty good,” he says, “but somewhere along the way the customer is forgotten and corporate strategy and technology take over.”

To stay on track cheaply and easily, Carroll advises asking someone from your office, not involved with website design, to give a running commentary as they navigate the main page. The things they come out with may surprise you and show where changes are required.

“The problem, especially in smaller organisations, is the person with the loudest voice and the most authority usually gets their way,” he says. “And that’s not always what’s best for the customer.”

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