Accessibility is an important aspect of the user experience which is often overlooked by businesses and benefits extend well beyond meeting UK legal requirements.

Accessibility for job boards (PDF 126kb)

Other client documents we offer include a document about job board classification.

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Basic attributes are what your customers just expect, features they take for granted. e.g. a search on a jobboard that returns job results

Performance attributes are features where there is a connection between achieving something and the satisfaction you get from this. e.g. Providing a search that provides quick, relevant and easy to scan results.

Delight attributes are the unexpected. This is when you please your customers by over-delivering or doing something unexpected. e.g. Providing visual job location information.

What’s interesting is how these can change over time. What starts out delighting can become what is expected. What delights a jobseeker today will soon degrade into a performing attribute and eventually maybe just become a basic expectation. For example, useful features like Jobs by Email and other personalisation features were once upon a time pleasers, now jobseekers will naturally expect to find these on any jobboard they visit.

That’s a basic explanation of the Kano model but how can it help when researching to improve your product? Well I think it’s a great way of sanity checking and getting recommendation priorities right, especially by constantly monitoring your user’s basic expectations. There’s no point adding bells and whistles to delight or even improving performance if the basics aren’t there. Brings to mind those well worn phrases ‘lipstick on a pig’ or ‘polishing a turd’. It is definitely guiding my approach to improving our recruiter services. I think it will help when presenting research results, especially in explaining how decisions and prioritisation has been made. These are the principles that I take forward from it:

• Get the basics right first, making sure your product meets expectation squarely
• Make sure you invest in performance for the right people, i.e your target audience
• Only when the basics and performance attributes are right should you look at those little extras that delight and excite
• Providing delight requires a very good understanding of your customers through research
• Continuous re-invention and assessment is necessary as customer expectation constantly changes and increases

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There are 2 main problems to solve; the set up of the hand held device (making it as natural as possible and easy to record) and technically how to record both interaction with the phone and facial expression. The latter is made easier if you have Morae version 3 which records a 2 camera set-up but not everyone has the budget for this.

I decided to use a plastic sled to mount the phone and camera. This came from fellow Brightonian and User Experiencer Harry Brignall in his blog post about making a sled for mobile testing. I made sure the sled was light, clear and slightly narrower than the average width of a smart phone. The angle of the bend was just over 45 degrees, so a camera could be fixed easily to record the user interacting with the phone. (Handy that my brother is in the plastic moulding business but Harry Brignall suggests using a toaster to mould the plastic).

I used a HUE web camera which is small, flexible, cute and relatively affordable at £40. It’s pretty adaptable as the base can be removed; so it can stand nicely on a desk or if you remove the base can be attached to a device using a USB extension lead.

Next,  as I already knew the types of smart phones my participants would use (targeting), I purchased simple plastic cases. I was then able to velcro the cases to the sled using double sided velcro tabs. This way I could just slip in the users phone without worrying about damaging or leaving unsightly stickiness on their precious phone. (Word of warning here – don’t get silicone cases as nothing sticks to silicone!).

When the camera arrived I attached it to the top of the phone and realised this produced an upside down image (doh)! So I fixed it to the bottom instead. This actually works better, as I was able to angle it to the left so that it didn’t interfere with their view and it presented a better position for recording, as their thumbs and fingers don’t get in the way as much. (It would need to be positioned to the right if a left handed participant). Of course this also meant that I didn’t actually need the plastic sled to have an angled portion above – it could be just a less intrusive straight piece of plastic. Although, I think having it leaves you the ability to change your options in the future – some cameras do swivel so could be used above the phone. (Also Morae has an invert image functionality).

For capturing both the user’s interaction with the phone and their expression I used a 2 camera set up with a Phillips web cam on the desktop. The software used was Microsoft Expressions Encoder 4 which has a screen capture/recorder and a manager, similar to Morae. Initially I tried the free download version but this only records for ten minutes at a time – so it was necessary to upgrade to the Pro version which was about £150. The trick here is to connect the HUE webcam to the encoder screen capture and have the desktop camera running through Amcap’s (free) screen capture software. You can then have the Amcap window open on the desktop at whatever size you want and define this as the desktop region to record with the tool in the Encoder screen capture. Below is an example of what a recorded testing session would look like on playback in a media player.

So there we have it. This set-up worked well for us and also didn’t swallow up all our research budget.

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If I was told to use one word to describe my week at Madgex, I wouldn’t be able to!

I started the week by doing some coding with Ben who is one of the Front End Developers. Learning coding is like learning a foreign language, but I soon got the hang of it! I can now add headings, paragraphs and pictures, and change the font and colour of text. I started my website on Monday using Notepad++ to code it.

I also spent some time creating icons for mobile websites and applications. For example: ‘upload your CV’ and ‘Widget tools’.

I created these icons in Adobe illustrator, which I now enjoy using to create and design. I prefer to use it instead of Photoshop now.

Friday, my last day, was Hack Day. This was the seventh Hack Day at Madgex and this year was themed on Automation. Hack Day is an event where everyone stops their usual work, and tries to come up with new ideas. These concepts are then presented to the rest of the company in presentations at the end of the day.

For my contribution to Hack Day I joined a team with Jack, Nik, Stephen and Hannah. Our team came up with a way of making it easier to input the configuration information needed to create a job board. I put together a masthead for the top of the document.

I then went on to create a series of wire frames (with the help of Jack) that would make it easier to fill in all the information. This would make the process less daunting and easier for all parties concerned.

I have really enjoyed my time at Madgex. Everyone has been really pleasant, enthusiastic and willing to help me. I have enjoyed working in a different environment and doing different things like coding and designing. I look forward to meeting everyone at Madgex again sometime in the future, whether during another week of work experience, or if I apply for a job with them.

A big thank you to Madgex!

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But simplicity sometimes just isn’t that simple! Good simplicity always has clarity and is usable as well as simple. Elegant simple designs don’t just happen by chance, they involve careful curation and are usually the result of difficult decisions. We are finding it best to think very carefully before judging something to be unnecessary and removing it from the interface. It is also important to differentiate between ‘nice to haves’ and critical business or user requirements.

I love that John Maeda (The Laws of Simplicity) describes simplicity as ‘thoughtful reduction’. In the initial stages of our design process I found a good question to keep asking ourselves was; ‘what can we remove to make this more focused and clear?’ Most big decisions we are making are around what to include and not to include, which might involve taking out features and functionality that aren’t crucial for the user to achieve what they need to achieve on the mobile website.

We are finding that it is usually necessary to simplify interactions so that they work not only on a small screen, but for multiple platforms and mobile devices. What works well on an iPhone might not work as well on an Android or Blackberry device. It’s important to remember that a mobile interface is layered, or ‘stacked’, rather than just linear journeys – this can be valuable in making more of limited screen space and simplifying navigation.

A mobile web app for a job board is a task based experience and the key focus should always be on the primary tasks. The tasks in our case are searching and applying for jobs and the app should have simple, clear journeys to achieving these user goals. If we can simplify the journeys and at the same time remove some of the barriers that the mobile experience presents then even better. For example, there are still so many barriers to applying for a job on a mobile – so how can we make it easier to apply or do we provide alternatives?

We also found that it’s possible to end up putting things back or adding functionality if research and testing indicates that they are necessary for a richer experience. For example, we removed browsing for jobs from our original concept, but our research indicated we should include it because a very significant number of users rely on this preferring it to keyword search.

The word simplicity can be used to imply beauty, purity and clarity. It may also be used with a negative connotation to denote insufficient complexity. When designing for mobile it’s important to get the balance right between simplicity and complexity to create the most fulfilling experience for the job seeker. As Leonardo da Vinci once stated – ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’.

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The brief was to re-design a page which would market a new mobile app, as well as instruct users on downloading the app. My first stop was to the Creative Director to get insight into the current design as well as draw upon their extensive knowledge of the product we were marketing (the mobile app). This helped me to break the original brief down into some requirements, and understand the hierarchy of information that I would be working with.

Looking for ways to improve the overall design I decided to share my findings as well as some layout sketches with our User Experience Consultant. With some further discussion and iterations we came up with a new design that met both the existing and new requirements.

3 integrated improvements:

• We structured the client’s copy into a pyramid model, page title, intro and full text. We then divided the marketing text over the page; creating an introduction for those keen to download, followed by the two step download instruction and the remaining marketing text for those wanting to know a bit more about the app.
• As an image of the app was a requirement we decided to add a large one for visual impact, making that app tangible. We gave the far left device a jaunty little jump, creating a bit of movement and adding a little joy to the experience.
• The size of the ‘Download App’ button was increased, making it bigger than the buttons on the rest of the site. With mobile users in mind, the thumb or forefinger could be deployed with ease for that all important download moment.

View this page for yourself and leave us your comments.

http://www.drapersjobs.com/apps/iphone

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At Madgex there’s a constant stream of new projects, products and functionality. We’re in the process of developing a new mobile website at the moment and we needed extra wall and physical space for exploration of ideas. We didn’t have enough room to visualise, pin-up, share, discuss or a place to to leave stuff on the wall for a period of time. In the past we have used portable solutions, such as white card, but this can be limiting. Sometimes it’s OK to do this in an open plan office, depending on the space you have, but it can be disruptive for those not involved.

So, it was time to create a special Madgex research and exploration space. Limited office space meant it had to be a multi-purpose room for collaboration, brainstorming, research and user testing – as well as a general meeting room. It’s a place primarily where visual and UI designers can work together but also a relaxed space for designers and developers to collaborate offline.

Some might call this kind of space a War room but I prefer to call it something a bit less combative. (War room originated as a term to describe a war command and control center). Perhaps an explore or research room? In one corner we placed a desk with a desktop computer and simple video set-up for user testing. In the centre a desk and chairs for meetings but making sure that there’s plenty of room around the edges for wall action. All walls are for displaying and collaborating  on designs, wireframes, sketches etc but one wall has a fixed big whiteboard for quick draw, brainstorming and presentational purposes.

Lastly, adding paper, post-its, blue tack, marker pens, ideas and energy completes the recipe for creating great user experiences.

Spot the difference - Madgex explore room (left) and a war room (right)

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Each job board owner has a different set of categories, or a different way of classifying their jobs but the same principles of organisation can be applied to make sure a classification system works well for the business and the user.

A faceted classification system allows you to give an object (like a job or a book) multiple classifications and then people can find things in ways that suit them. For example, a collection of books might be classified using an author facet, a subject facet, a date facet, etc. Most job boards divide their jobs into similar categories or facets, for example industry, location, salary and hours. One person might want to look for a job by location, another by industry, the next by contract type.  How you group, order and balance categories and also the number of options within facets will have an impact on the usability of the classification system.

Not all users like using keyword search and sometimes if a jobseeker isn’t totally clear what they’re looking for then browsing is the best option. Faceted navigation needs to provide a solid information trail or ‘information scent’ that will guide users quickly to their destination and the information they are seeking.

What happens if we have too much choice?

People have difficulty processing large amounts of information and this can lead to ‘choice-blindness’. If we are presented with too many options we can feel overwhelmed and unable to make a decision or at least unable to make it quickly and efficiently. This is what psychologists call cognitive overload.

Too many choices can lead to decision-making paralysis for your users. (Hall and Johansson – Psychologists)

If offered too many options the brain can be overwhelmed by decision. When we feel our options are manageable we are able to make better decisions. With vast amounts of information it is best to group information into manageable chunks. Then we can make quicker and easier sequential decisions.

Hick’s Law, named after British Psychologist William Hick, states that the time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices. As the decision time increases, the user experience suffers.

People are more likely to make a purchase when offered a limited number of choices. What’s more, they are actually more likely to be satisfied with their selection when the choice is less. The more options, the more we might feel that we missed something.

Resist the impulse to provide lots and lots of choices to your customers. You will think that lots of choices is a good thing (because you like them too), but too many choices means they won’t buy at all. (Susan Weinschenk – Neuropsychologist)

When you place a lot of options in front of a user it is more than likely that they will reach a point where satisfaction drops. The goal is perhaps to find the sweet spot on the satisfaction curve so that we provide an optimum number for the experience to be good.

Good sense would suggest that the optimum number should be as much as you need and no more.  Finding this ‘optimum number’ can sometimes be difficult and may require thought and research.

Sites such as Amazon or Marks & Spencer tend to have up to 50 or 60 options within facets, which is often a necessary number when you have a lot of products. Similarly, if we view jobs as products, a job board has a multitude of goods on offer and is likely to need a lot of categories.

Best practice would be to keep the number of top-level categories at a manageable number. So, although there is no magic number, smaller is always better and no more than 50 or 60 options should be considered. The control and structure of groupings is paramount in the management of broad categories to ensure browsing is efficient and painless.

This is part of a more detailed document prepared for Madgex clients on User-Focused Classification for Job Boards (2MB – PDF).

To keep up to date with the latest news from Madgex follow us on Twitter @Madgex

Reference and further reading:

Hicks Law

Susan Weinschenk. You want more choices and information than you can actually process

Sheena Iyengar. The Art of Choosing (Published 2010).

Peter Johansson. Choice Blindness

Barry Schwarz. The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less (Published 2004)

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Why is accessibility important?

Much like a building needs specific facilities catering for people with disabilities, a website also needs to be viewed in the same manner. Information on any website should be available for everyone regardless of ability, technology and environment. To put this into context and fully appreciate just how important this issue is we only need to look at the statistics for UK below:

• There are approximately 10 million disabled people in Great Britain covered by the Equality Act, which represents around 18% of the population. 1
• Over 6.7 million disabled people are of working age which represents 18% of the working population. 2
• 2 million people have a sight problem and every day another 100 people start to lose their sight. 3
• The estimated annual purchasing power of people with disabilities is £80 billion. 4
• An accessible website can increase a company’s UK market audience by more than 17%, and boosts traffic because it will be indexed more efficiently by search engines. 5

The four groups of people affected are those with visual, auditory, cognitive and physical issues. Websites designed and built with little regard for accessibility will result in problems viewing images, forms, links, navigation and multi-media. This leads to a frustrating user experience restricting engagement on a fundamental level and can negatively impact a brand.

What we did

As part of the audit we looked closely at our platform and conducted expert reviews of key pages, utilised various testing tools for browsers, used screen readers and stringently applied WCAG 2.0 guidelines. Despite making a concerted effort to comply fully with the current guidelines historically, we wanted to ensure our platform has the functionality needed for the best possible user experience. We also know that with changes in browser technologies and the increased use of HTML 5 that we could identify areas for future improvement.

Key Findings

Overall the Madgex Job Board and CV Search & Match platforms produced extremely positive results. By closely adhering to Web Standards we have ensured we conform to good levels of usability and accessibility but there is still room for improvement. With just a few tweaks we can achieve compliance with the WCAG Accessibility Guidelines to the AA standard (There are 3 levels – A, AA and AAA).

The main issues identified were relating to:

• Colour contrast between text and background that may create readability issues which could cause problems for colour blind and low sighted users.
• Form messaging and consistency of labeling and error system which could make form completion difficult for users with screen readers.
• Some functionality produces an illogical reading order which would be a problem for screen readers and users navigating with a keyboard.

What next?

We believe firmly believe in championing accessibility to help our clients reap the rewards gained from compliance with WCAG 2.0 guidelines. Following our findings our product team has already started looking at implementing the recommendations from the audit for inclusion in future platform releases. The changes will benefit both clients and jobseekers by enabling pages to load faster, improve search engine visibility and create better usability.

As part of the audit process we are preparing a white paper which will available to all Madgex clients which will outline our findings in more detail. We will be in touch with more information shortly.

To keep up to date with the latest news from Madgex follow us on Twitter @Madgex

Source:
1. Family Resources Survey, Disability prevalence estimates 2008
2. Labour Force Survey, May 2009
3. RNIB website
4. Family Resource Survey 2002/2003
5. Nomensa humanising technology report, January 2011

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Even though this is obvious, there’s very little published data on the kind of uplifts you can achieve by implementing lazy registration properly – i.e. taking out all of the unnecessary steps from a sign-up process. In this post we’re going to set this right by sharing some data that one of our clients, Haymarket, has kindly let us publish.

This article focuses on email alert creation and the impact of mandatory email activation on the conversion rate. In other words, we’re going to look at what happens when you send users an email and require them to click on a link before they can do anything else.

Email alerts aren’t the sexiest part of any webapp, but they are extremely important. The conversions you get from email alerts can easily be double (yes, double!) what you get from organic search. In our case we’re talking about job application rates – in your case it may be ecommerce transactions, bids, or indeed any other kind of conversion. The reason email alerts give great conversion rates is quite obvious when you think about it – a user has explicitly specified their search criteria and has asked to be notified only when new matching items appear in your inventory. It’s not surprising that they are more likely to take action from an email alert than a random person surfing in from Google.

With this in mind, we decided to move email alerts outside of the registration barrier in our new V3 platform, so users can create (and delete) them in a single step, without needing to register or verify their email address. This delivered huge uplifts for Haymarket, who were upgrading from a bespoke platform that included an email activation step in the email alert creation journey, as shown below:

Lets look at some hard data demonstrating the value of this change on Brand Republic Jobs. (If it’s not a site you’re familiar with, check out the Brand Republic page on Alexa.com to get a sense of the site’s size). I think you’ll be able to guess the date of launch:

You’ll notice that there are no labels on the Y axis of the graph – unfortunately this data is confidential and we’re not able to share it with you. One of the things we should emphasise here is that this is not a scientific study. With before-and-after data, you always get numerous uncontrolled variables. There are lots of things that are different between the old and new platforms, and besides, in the natural world there’s lots of stuff that varies in the passage of time. If we’d have wanted to go to town, we’d have run an AB test, removing all the uncontrolled variables and serving two different versions of the user journey to randomly selected users in the same window of time. However, we really didn’t feel the need to do this – we knew the new platform would deliver an uplift, and our remit was to launch it quickly and efficiently.

So lets not get carried away here – this is indicative data, but it’s not the result of a rigorous scientific study. That said, a T-Test revealed the uplift on Brand Republic Jobs to be highly statistically significant (P<0.001).

Since that’s just one site, let’s take a look at the effect of the exact same platform upgrade for Campaign Jobs Asia. It’s a smaller Haymarket site, servicing a different audience in a different geographical location.

Above you can see a very similar uplift. A T-Test also revealed this to be highly statistically significant (P<0.001).

There are of course certain types of site where the verification of email address ownership is critical to a site’s security, so you should be careful when considering this change. However, if you are able to do it, the graphs above show you could stand to benefit greatly.

While this is a useful tip in itself, you should bear in mind that there’s a far bigger picture issue here: you really shouldn’t be gaining this kind of insight from blog posts like this. Instead, you should be running your own iterative research and design programmes for your own sites. If you’re not gathering and actioning these sorts of insights on a regular basis, then you’re always going to be playing catch up.

Of course, running this kind of programme is expensive, and if you can’t meet the costs, outsourcing is one way to go. For example, all Madgex customers benefit from our iterative research and design programme which feeds into our regular product release cycle. In other words, if you buy one of our White Label job boards or CV / Resume Databases, you’ll find that for the life of the contract, it’ll get updated every few months with User Experience enhancements – at no extra cost.

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