What's Good UX vs. Bad UX? Part 1: The Role of Usability

The first part of a three-part series explores the difference between Good and Bad UX measured by key factors including Usability, Aesthetics, and Value. In this first article, we'll examine the role of usability.

Introduction

Determining whether something is a bad or good user experience (UX) can be complex. Good experiences work efficiently behind the scenes; sometimes, they aren’t as easy to notice. On the other hand, bad experiences often draw attention because they disrupt and frustrate what we’re trying to do.

Several factors contribute to the user experience, influencing whether it’s good or bad. Factors such as Usability, Aesthetics, and Value all contribute to differentiating between a good and bad UX.

Before we dive in, let’s discuss what UX means.

Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it's this veneer -- that the designers are handed this box and told, 'Make it look good!' That's not what we think design is. It's not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. (Steve Jobs, Former CEO of Apple)

What is UX? 

User experience is the end-to-end interaction someone has with your product or service. It entails all touchpoints, including websites, apps, and customer service processes like customer support and return policies. It’s important to note that user experience is beyond the user interface.

However, for this article, we’ll focus on experiences with a user interface, like websites and apps.

Factors influencing UX

Good UX ensures users can navigate the experience easily and intuitively with user-friendly interactions. An easy-to-use experience that people find valuable will likely be a good experience.

Let’s explore which factors contribute to making or breaking the user experience.

Usability: The Backbone of UX

Good experiences are usable and follow standard heuristics¹ and best practices using design patterns². Let’s examine the ISO 9241 usability standard³ to gain insight into usability elements.

The extent to which a system, product or service can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use. 

The ISO’s definition of usability provides a framework for determining whether something is usable. However, we still need to identify why something isn’t usable.

For example, what makes an efficient or effective experience?

In my experience, four critical factors impact usability: interaction design, information architecture, flow, and performance. If you’ve encountered an unusable or frustrating experience, chances are that one or all of these elements contributed.

Interaction Design

For every action a user takes, a reaction is expected from the system, service, or product. Designing responses to actions is generally referred to as interactivity. Interactivity includes gestures, sound, haptic feedback, and typical interactions like hover states and error messages.

❇️ In a good UX, interactions are well thought out, anticipating user needs and expectations for every tap, swipe, and hover state.

Information Architecture

Ever struggled to find something on a website or app? That’s likely due to a bad Information Architecture. Creating an explicit IA using proper labeling and site organization is vital to finding information quickly. IA contributes to the overarching structure of a website or app and aids in creating a sense of place and findability. 

❇️ In a good UX, the IA represents user mental models for the site organization. A proper IA ensures that terminology and information organization resonate with the user.

Flow

Intuitive user experience hinges on designing clear flows. Too many steps can lead to user drop-off. However, flows with too few steps may increase customer service calls to undo actions.

❇️ Optimizing the flow for the correct number of steps keeps people engaged in their tasks and provides a good UX.

Performance

Load times: the time it takes for the system to react to user input can impact the user experience. Typical examples might be pages loading too slowly or a database taking a long time to return results.

If you’ve ever encountered the “spinning beach ball,” you know what I’m talking about. It’s not pleasurable to wait for the system to do something after you’ve taken action.

Performance is at the system level and is primarily a concern for engineers.

❇️ However, anticipating and designing for these states can improve user’s perceptions of these scenarios.

Conclusion

In this first part of our series, we've delved into the critical role of usability in determining whether a user experience is good or bad. Using the ISO 9241 standard as guidance, we've explored four key factors that impact usability: interaction design, information architecture, flow, and performance.

Interaction design ensures every user action receives an expected and appropriate system response. Information architecture plays a crucial role in organizing and labeling content for easy access and understanding. Designing clear flows is essential for keeping users engaged and completing tasks efficiently. Finally, performance, while primarily an engineering concern, directly affects the user's experience, especially in terms of speed and responsiveness.

Understanding these factors are foundational in creating positive user experiences.

In the next part of our series, we'll dive deeper into the role of aesthetics in shaping user perceptions.

References

¹ Usability.gov. "Heuristic Evaluation." Accessed March 17, 2024, from https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/heuristic-evaluation.html.

²Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. CFPB Design System Patterns. Accessed March 18, 2024, from https://cfpb.github.io/design-system/patterns/

³International Organization for Standardization (ISO). (ISO 9241). Ergonomics of human-system interaction.