This is an interesting question and one often debated!

Alot of the research tells us that in fact although how easy to use something is is important, its the value you get out of something – it’s utility – that really influences our behaviour.

Let me put it this way. If you think about your own behaviour, think about your responses to the following questions:

• Why tweet on Twitter?
• Why connect with friends on Facebook?
• Why share photo’s on Flickr?
• Why talk to your family through Skype?

Isn’t the phone, a BBQ, a photo album, a conversation over coffee technically easier? Yes!

But there is something of value in these technolgies that we connect with, especially over time and geography! Although ‘ease’ is important, especially in system design, it is tapping into the value your market get’s out of them and their functions compared to other channels or technologies is what really matters.

Let’s think about social networking!

According to report published in March by Nielsen (2009), two-thirds of the worlds Internet population visit a social network or blogging site and these technologies now account for almost 10% of all internet time.

Social networking has overtaken personal email to become the world’s fourth most popular online sector after search, portals and PC software applications Nielsen (2009).

Why do you think this is?

They provide a real human value over traditional modes of social interaction, especially email!

The scary thing for marketers (and somewhat for designers) is that this rising trend to co-create, share and comment on content alters our expectations.

It not only alters our expectations of interactions in general, but places more demands on our expectations of the ease of use and especially the value of the web (be it social or linear web). It changes our expectations of the offering you provide through the web and your brand overall.

So perhaps we need to ask less questions about the measurement of the use of these technologies by our communities – yes there are over 6 million registered people using twitter, So!

Why are they using it? What value is it? Let’s focus on figuring out and tapping into what ‘value’ our communities really get out of them and then work this into content and design to engage dialogue within the community.

So points to consider, what ever technology, tool or channel, if you use it in your marketing:

• Make it easy to access, use and read
• Make it easy to download, share, and participate
• Understand what value your community get’s out of these technologies
• Most importantly – make it’s use of real human value!

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A basic model of usability developed by Davis in the 1980′s is the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) – (some 62,000 Google search results!). Based on years of research on what influences an individuals propensity to accept or adopt a technology, it’s basics parameters are still fundamental today. There are many others, but let’s start here.

It identifies two core elements for usability:

• Ease of Use – how easy something is to use – the level of perceived complexity or simplicity
• Usefulness - how useful something is – the core value it delivers over another channel, technology or tool!

What is the difference between ease of use and usefulness?

These two are not one in the same.

It is like saying that a push bike (cycle) is easier to use compared to a car (automobile) in how complex it is to use, however a car has more value (usefulness) to us in terms of distance travelled, number of passengers and protection from the weather than a push bike (cycle).

It sounds quite simple, but usability, especially in terms of complex interfaces such as web sites, social network sites etc is not that simple.

But how usable a technology is perceived, especially in terms of how much value they deliver compared to other channels, technologies, tools will most certainly have an impact on your brand and your market’s tendency to revisit and reuse your site.

What do we need to know about usability?

Now we understand the very basics. It is important to develop insights in the very least about what ease of use and usefulness means to the users of our websites, systems, networks and technologies! Do they find it useful for communication, information search, transactions? Of Perhaps none of the above!

We also need to profile what influences these perceptions – is it age, income, education, gender … or is it more complex, such as experience, knowledge, usage context and user aspirations.

Don’t just skip over these questions until after your site is launched, ask your market, your users of the technology before, during and after system design and launch and ensure you listen to them, document their language and how they feel!

How do you gain this insight?

Very simply – talk to users, conduct a survey, hold a focus group or workshops during the system development stage and profile their usage of your site or other related technologies.

In this day of social web technologies, there are loads of technologies that can facilitate a dialogue about what makes a useful and easy to use technology or channel.

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Is Usability a Marketing Thing?

No longer just the domain of web designers, system developers and the technological proficient. For marketers this area is of increasing interest as our communities (consumers, clients, buyers, customers, our fellow marketers), and even ourselves are facing greater technological interaction.

In my mind, this should be a core skill-set of the marketing profession not just tomorrow, but today, and yesterday! We are using technologies in customer service, communications, marketing research, service delivery … nearly every function of marketing, nearly every activity touches human-technology interaction. And if we are not using it, the people we are trying to reach surely are.

Yet overall, as a profession who knows our products and our markets very well, and can sell and promote to them, we are not that proficient in understanding the core basics of what it means for a technological interface in a hypermedia world is to be ‘usable’.

We measure trafffic, monitor sales and collect survey’s on satisfaction, but whose domain do we leave ‘usability testing’?

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