God is on our side, but we can help him. (Rolf Molich)

One thing I always liked about doing usability is the knowledge that we are fighting the good fight. In our own small way, we are actually helping to make the world a better place. 

I mean, it’s not like we’re curing cancer here, but we are doing our own little part. If we make some poor user’s life a little bit easier, we are part of the solution – and maybe can even sleep a tiny bit better that night.

It’s not that there aren’t challenges in this space though.

For one thing, the battle isn’t over when you’ve run a test, or created a report, or delivered that report. Resistance is just human nature, whether the result of pride, stubbornness, or just plain laziness. You have to do a little selling, if not some follow-up and then even more selling. Hey, if that great suggestion of yours is actually going to help anybody, it’s gonna have to be implemented, right?

There is also a challenge that is fairly new to our work. It used to be that usability and UX were primarily about making a user’s tasks easier to do. These days, though, there seems to be a real emphasis on selling things – get ‘em in the funnel, get ‘em to click the call to action, get ‘em signed up, take their money …

Now, a more streamlined process is what users often want themselves. I’m really surprised, though, how often that’s not the case. Often, they want a little bit more information on something before they sign up. They might click on Apply Now just to see what the process is like. Quite often, they’ll even want to call to get their questions answered. 

Personally, I know I’ve often been the victim of buyer’s remorse on the Internet. I tend to be an impatient, slapdash kind of buyer to begin with. As a result, my garage is now full of stuff that wasn’t quite what I thought it would be. 

There is, however, often an additional result, something which is often not talked about. In addition to the cluttered garage, I’m also often left with a bad taste in my mouth, especially around the brand of the company whose website I was on or whose product I bought. So, congrats, guys. You got the sale. Unfortunately, though, you also lost the customer. Honestly, short-term thinking like that drives me crazy sometimes.

In general, I think it’s great to offer a streamlined process for those who want one. At the same time, though, we also need to provide the details that another set of potential personas need, want, and expect. Just include that information in a link, or on another page, or in some fashion that doesn’t necessarily slow down those first users. Heck, you might even make even more sales that way!

Buy before midnight tonight!  Not sold in stores!

 Also from Rolf:

• "A successful test is a test that uncovers many problems."
• "Help doesn't."
• "Even developers have feelings."