Making Web Applications Usable
March 4, 2008Robert Hoekman, Jr. is the founder of the socially-conscious consultancy Miskeeto, author of Designing the Obvious, and one of twelve great speakers appearing at An Event Apart New Orleans on April 24–25.
Q. Why shouldn’t web application designers have the same leeway as
desktop application developers? It isn’t immediately obvious how to
achieve every possible task in Photoshop or Excel. As builders of
sophisticated, powerful web applications, shouldn’t we have the same
flexibility as our colleagues at Adobe and Microsoft? Doesn’t our
emphasis on web usability limit what we can achieve as developers?
Great question! Let’s start by talking about Photoshop and Excel, which you mentioned by name.
These, as well as countless other veteran desktop applications, have had a lot of time to bake. Perhaps, too much. As they’ve matured, we’ve seen new features added with every release to address new possibilities, and while all these features have the potential to enhance the application for the users that take advantage of them, every addition can also mean making the basics incrementally more difficult to master. This endless cycle of new development can sharply increase the learning curve for newer users, as well intermediate-level users, trying to improve their skills.
But despite all this, even the most complicated applications can be made more usable, without sacrificing their robustness, as long as designers do what they can to ensure that less experienced or less committed users can become proficient.
With this in mind, this is actually a bit of a trick question.
It’s not that desktop designers have more leeway than web designers, it’s that designers working on veteran applications can be less prone to maintain or improve the applications’ usability. The problem of decreased usability is not exclusive to desktop applications. There are plenty of very complex web applications, and there is plenty of opportunity for advanced or less common features in almost any application. Even simple applications—online or off—can suffer from poor usability.
Mature applications have become more robust simply as a result of their evolution. This is completely understandable. But within this process, designers can continue finding ways to improve the usability of the applications as they evolve. Ultimately, the scope of an application is not that important. Robustness doesn’t have to equal poor usability. You can have both.
As I wrote about in Designing the Obvious, a user’s ability to utilize an application effectively is primarily the result of applying a few key design principles. For example, users of even the most mature applications can benefit from quality instructive design. By creating short and friendly instructive text, screencasts, screenshot tours, inline tips, succinct Help articles, and so on, we can support all end-users, regardless of their experience level. These elements can not only help new users get up to speed, they can also serve as reminders for the more experienced user who might be struggling with a feature she hasn’t used in a while.
Many of the pain points in Photoshop, Excel, and any complex application can be remedied. By doing more to turn beginning users into intermediates, surface the core and most common features, tuck away the more advanced and less common stuff, exclude redundant or irrelevant features, and so on, we can enable people to succeed within the complexity.
Every application can and should be made easier to use, regardless of the platform. What matters most is the users’ ability to be productive with an application and to enjoy the experience. This should be a priority for any designer. Achieving this goal can certainly be tricky at times, but as long as we keep pursuing it, we can raise the bar and earn ourselves loyal and happy customers, regardless of how complex an application may be.
