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5 Usability Problems that Web Apps Need to Overcome

Looking through the hundreds of popular web apps that are out there, it seems as if the same few UI problems keep cropping up. Some have been solved to some extent where some have simply been ignored. So, I think its time to “out” those little problems so they can be beaten back with good interface design.

  1. Assuming your users know something about your interface - Web applications pose a huge problem. They are more feature rich than normal websites yet not quite to the level of desktop applications. What this means is that users can’t take any pre-requisite knowledge into the web app. Compare this to a desktop app, which will (nearly) always have File, Edit, View etc. and many people can get lost pretty quickly. The classic solution lies with flickr, where they highlight any “click to edit” areas in yellow when you move your mouse over them. As solutions go, its fairly elegant but it still relies on you knowing that the yellow highlighting means “click to edit” as well as the user exploring the screen with their mouse.
  2. Being reliant on Javascript - This is a huge problem for new web apps. Its very easy for designers to be blinded by the abilities Javascript provides, especially in these post-AJAX days but, lets not forget that Javascript isn’t everywhere yet. For these web apps to become ubiquitous they need to be capable of running on as many platforms as possible. For some, this will apply mainly to mobile devices. If your building a calendar application, people are going to want access to it on their phone. If your calendar is controlled entirely through Javascript, and offers no alternative, then you’ve shut off your key audience.
  3. Trying to use desktop conventions on the web - In point 1 I touched on the fact that web applications are becoming richer and richer but aren’t quite on par with the flexibility of desktop applications. A major problem can come about when application vendors try to cross the boundaries by using Desktop interface conventions on the web. Personally, I think the worst way this can manifest itself is through drag and drop based functionality. I’ve seen this crop up in a number of different ways, some where it almost works and some where it certainly does not. A specific example I can think if was a beta shopping service where you had to drag products into your basket to purchase them. Yes, there is a logical process of “putting something in your shopping basket” but when you’ve got ten years of web convention, and very poor instructions, a simple task suddenly becomes difficult. Yes, this was a beta service that shall remain nameless and yes, it was changed before they went live but you know what, someone, somewhere obviously thought it was a good idea.
  4. Overcomplicated interfaces - This is a real issue for me.  I play around with several Web 2.0 services every week and am constantly left baffled by the complexity of some interfaces.  They just don’t get it, and unsurprisingly, they don’t last very long in the industry. I think web applications need to be investigated more thoroughly.  I don’t have anything against web apps having sophisticated functionality, it’s more an issue of revealing that functionality to the user as and when they need it, and not before.  The best example I’ve come across is stikkit.  Not only does it hide alot of the more complex functionality from users and then automatically invokes it when required.
  5. Being too Web 2.0 -I’m hoping there are some of you out there saying “yes, that’s soo true” to this point.  Unfortunately, the Web 2.0 seems to be trendy.  That means people are keen to promote the fact that thay are Web 2.0 services.  For the average user, Web 2.0 means very little, and the terminology that gets banded about when talking about the Web 2.0 means even less.  The problem comes about when services use this terminology in their interface.  You can’t expect all your users to know what a tag is, or what RSS does, or why AJAX is such a good thing.  This harks back to some of the earliest usability guidelines, make sure your users understand what your saying.  In the early days of the internet, the bigger problem was the fact that websites were on the whole run by engineers and technies and as such they used the sort of language they were comfortable with.  Recently, it;s the marketers who have gotten their hands on services and turned the into these confusing experiences for the vast majority of users, just to appeal to the tiny percentage of people who care whether a service is classified as “Web 2.0″ or not.

This post was written on Friday, June 8th 2007 by Simon T and has been categorised under Opinion , Usability , Web 2.0. The trackback URL is here or you could add a response. If you really want to you can Digg Story or add it to del.icio.us, Technorati Cosmos, Blinklist, furl or Reddit.

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