Usability to the UX

How does usability relate to user experience?

Together with accessibility, information architecture, user interface design and interaction design, usability is part of the overall experience a user has when interacting with a website. The UX  umbrella covers a combination of skills and processes from areas including creative design, technical development, information design, human-computer interaction and psychology.

UX combines these disparate activities from an empathetic perspective to build a single cohesive experience. Whereas usability has a narrow focus on efficiency of use, UX as a whole is concerned with the resulting feelings, emotions and attitudes. Regardless of usability, if a user's overall experience of a website produces a negative emotion, that will be their overriding memory. They won't come back and they’ll probably share that negative perception with others.

Good usability is not necessarily a good experience

Imagine a fashion website with great usability. All the products are nicely categorised and you can easily browse for something that takes your fancy or perform a keyword search to go directly to the product you want. Sounds great! But what if the description is almost identical for every product and most of the images are missing. You might assume that they don't really put much effort into maintaining their content and worry about their commitment in other areas.

Meanwhile the checkout process is fast and efficient but it's also lacking any hint of personality and reassurance. All unnecessary instructions were removed and there was no mention of security or who to contact for help. Shopping online is still an intimidating experiment for many and they expect to be guided through it, even if that makes the process more protracted. The feeling of being rushed or pressured into handing over money, compounded by the lack of empathy, is not pleasant.

On this imagined website, the functional usability might be good but the experience is poor. For e-commerce projects in particular, the experience has to be maintained from the welcome on the homepage to the 'thank you' message after payment, and beyond.

Conversely, there are plenty of examples of people choosing to make things hard for themselves in order to achieve a more satisfying experience. People are happy to sacrifice ease of use, expediency and efficiency in return for positive emotions.

People will gladly trek long distances and negotiate confusing combinations of transport networks just to reach an idyllic holiday destination; and often the journey is half the fun! Some people choose to explore rough and winding roads in a knackered campervan rather than glide along the tarmac in a comfortable car, all for the sense of adventure over the mundane.

Consider a website promoting an upcoming movie or a brand new car. You're not there to complete a transaction or to perform a specific task – you're there purely to explore or be taken on a tour. You want to be immersed in the atmosphere of the movie or be wowed by the performance and good looks of the car – and imagine how cool you'd look driving it. You don’t care if usability conventions are broken or it takes a few more clicks to get where you're going.

The latest generation of social networks like Facebook and Twitter are another great example. Facebook breaks with many long-established usability conventions but still manages to offer fun, social, user-generated experiences. Twitter has seen massive growth despite relying on the unconventional and apparently clunky @relies system – a system invented by its users and later adopted by the developers as an integral feature.

Thinking beyond function

UX is a higher concept than pure usability because it deals with the conceptual desirability, personality, credibility and perceived value offered by the website in ways that transcend utilitarian functionality.

• Desirability: The user should want to spend time interacting with the website. A functional, usable, efficient product is good, but don't ignore the fun factor. A satisfied user is one who appreciates the practical usability of the product but also enjoys their time spent interacting with it. They want to use that product again
• Credibility: Is the message believable? Can the user put their trust in the product and the company? Open, honest and authoritative interaction with the user is key
• Personality: A website is a representative of the company. If the website was a shop assistant or a customer service agent, how should it behave? How does it talk? What is its 'voice'? Personality is expressed not only in written copy but also in the labels, instructions, messages, calls to action and controls that form the interface. It's subliminal and organic
• Continuity: If you express one personality on the homepage and another during the checkout, you create a sense of dealing with more than one person – a bit like being passed between disinterested assistants in a supermarket – or a feeling that the website was designed by lots of different people. Stay true to your brand throughout.

The benefits of good user experience

UX is part of branding and contributes to the perceived personality of the company. Good UX creates trust, loyalty and goodwill; a sense of belonging and ownership over the brand. Users enjoy interacting with a website that offers a good experience; these satisfied users will return and bring their friends while those who suffer a bad experience are left looking for an alternative.

This blog post was written by Matt

If you liked this post you may also like:

• Website design and usability - keeping it real
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