Design theory: Prioritizing usability issues

Usually a usability test can feed over 100 usability issues. So how do you rank all of these issues so that the development team can start doing the most important things? In my experience, with 3 questions, we can effectively divide the priority of all issues: low, medium, high, and critical.

drink water with a fire faucet

Conducting a usability test is often likened to using a fire hydrant to drink water: You will be overwhelmed by feedback data and problems from users . While you can try to use your own judgment to prioritize the problem, how would you react when a developer challenges your priority perspective? For example, he would ask, "Why is the priority of this problem a ' key '?" I think it's at most ' intermediate '. ”

Using a standard process to define priorities allows you to consistently align the criteria for looking at the problem. This also means that you can provide anyone who needs to examine your work an obvious criterion.

In fact, with just 3 questions to ask, we can prioritize any availability issues.

will this problem lead to red route?

Red routes, regular or critical tasks. The definition refers to the important functions that the system must provide. For example, if the "On/Off" button for a new design component is not available, then all your users will not be able to use this feature properly. Because the red routes problem involves all users, it has a higher priority.

Is it difficult for users to solve the problem themselves?

Some usability issues are project obstructions : Users cannot solve them themselves. For example, if an important control function is hidden in a dialog box or a right-click menu, this means that the feature does not exist for some users. In addition, some usability issues can easily be modified. Therefore, the problems that are difficult to solve are usually higher in priority because they have a greater impact on user complaints .

does this problem continue to occur?

Persistent problems often occur suddenly, and thus affect the time and satisfaction of the user to complete the task, which is obviously a more serious type of problem. An example of an ongoing problem is that the links to the site are not underlined. This means that users can only browse the page in a "minesweeper" style. This problem is persistent, because even if users know the solution they still have to face these problems. Keep in mind that "persistence" refers to problems that occur repeatedly on various interfaces, and that the user always encounters these same problems on different screens or pages.

We can take these three questions through the flowchart below and help you specify the priority level.

How do I define severity levels?

critical level: problems at this level will make it impossible for some users to complete their tasks. Make sure to fix them immediately.

Advanced: This type of problem greatly reduces the efficiency of some users accomplishing some common tasks and encourages them to find a zero-point solution. Please fix them as quickly as possible.

Intermediate: This kind of problem can make some users frustrated or angry, but usually does not affect the completion of the task. They are typically improved during the normal upgrade of the next cycle.

Low-level: This class is usually a quality issue, such as some appearance problems or spelling errors. Note: While these are often minor issues unrelated to each other, too many "low" levels of problems can lead to a negative impact of trust and harm your brand.