Only connect: Reassessing technology's face value

There's a new mantra buzzing around the boardrooms of some of the world's most successful companies. That mantra is: "Simplicity."

At the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Florida this year, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates told the attendant masses: "Throughout the house, whether it's a music speaker or picture frame or something on your refrigerator that lets you look at your family schedule, all of your information will be available. And the fact that it's coming from that PC and, therefore, co-ordinated and shared, isn't something that people will have to know about or administer.

Gates said that software companies were failing to realise this vision because of a failure to make technology user friendly. "The computer industry, including Microsoft, has a lot more we can do about ease of use," he said.

At AOL Time Warner's first presentation as a merged company on 31 January, AOL CEO and chairman Barry Schuler said: "Our focus is on what are consumers doing. Are they engaged? Empowering applications lead to transformational customer experiences."

Meanwhile, retail giant WalMart had an embarrassing stumble with its first online foray in 2000 when it was bombarded with customer complaints about the usability of its website.

Customers complained that they couldn't complete online transactions because the site was too complex. In response, WalMart temporarily shut its servers down and redesigned its website with customer ease of use in mind.

Huge global businesses are now taking heed of the simplicity mantra, providing vindication for usability evangelists everywhere who have long advocated the primal importance of user-friendly technology.

As the brave new dot-com world began to fall apart in 2000, e-tail corporate managers started to ask themselves why online sales were so poor. Again and again, they admitted it had a lot to do with over-dependence on the preferences and idiosyncrasies of designers and developers, and little to do with a focus on the customer experience.

The dangers of bad design should be all too obvious to anyone tracking the rise and fall and rise again of ecommerce bellwether boo.com, whose original website was so graphic-intensive that logging on using a modem was a slow and painful process. The site was revamped and simplified by new owner FashionMall.com.

Usability expert Jakob Nielsen, formerly a distinguished engineer with Sun Microsystems, said recently: "Usability lessons are not always easy to take. It's a painful experience to sit in the back room watching as a user clicks every button on the screen except the one button that 'obviously' leads to the answer. The first time project members observe a usability study, they almost always lapse into denial about the true lessons of the experience."

"That's until we bring in the second user. He or she typically has many of the same problems as the first user. Then the third user comes in, and again: many of the same problems. At this point, designers often start to soften to the users' plight. If not, the fourth or fifth user will do the trick."

He concluded: "When people have problems using a design, it's not because they're stupid. It's because the design is too difficult."

The writing was on the wall for e-tailers as early as the 1999 Christmas buying season, though few managers were taking heed. A report by CreativeGood.com - a company devoted to the customer experience focus in ebusiness - made grim reading for ecommerce outfits.

In the "Holiday '99 E-Commerce" study, president and founder of CreativeGood.com Mark Hurst asserted that nearly $6bn in potential revenue was lost because of the complexity of online transactions.

Users complained about sites making repeated requests for passwords, problems with search engines, validation glitches and an inability to register on sites where US zip codes are required.

Although the corresponding 2000 buying season was soft, it wasn't as weak as most pundits had predicted.

These findings may go some way to explaining why so many seemingly promising ecommerce ventures are now historical footnotes.

Nonetheless, ebusiness managers have taken note, as more and more go back to the drawing board to address the real issue for ecommerce: putting the customer first.

By Rod Amis