As a web design company, we are always thinking about site usability and the overall user experience. Our job is to create a web presence that no only looks good, but is also easy to use. It does our clients (or their customers) no good if the site looks fabulous, but users can’t find what they’re looking for.
One of the keys in designing a user-friendly website is to take advantage of things that users are already familiar with – ie: top and left navigation. Unless you have a great reason (backed by strategy or metrics), there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. As designers and brand builders, we’re always looking for ways to differentiate, but sometimes following a set of pre-existing rules and expectations benefits everyone. The focus on usability is not just a concept for the web - it applies to all areas of design and I was reminded of that this weekend.
We had relatives fly in for the holiday and my great uncle (who’s 70 and a sharp guy) shared his rental car experience with us. He was extremely embarrassed about it, but he’s strong enough to share a laugh with us at his expense.
He and his wife flew into Milwaukee and rented a car at the airport. When they got in the car, the keys were already in the ignition, so they loaded up the trunk and headed to my parents in Fond du Lac. When they reached their destination, he removed the keys from the ignition and placed them in his pocket as he usually does. He never thought to look at the keys – but why would he? What he missed was the fact that the key was not a “key” in the traditional sense – but rather a key fob. There was, however, a traditional key on the key ring which lead to the following “misunderstanding.”
As my uncle went to use the car several hours later he unlocked the car door using the traditional key. But when he tried to use that same key in the ignition, it didn’t fit. He investigated things further and eventually resorted to looking in the owners manual, which said nothing about the key fob. After exhausting all his options, my uncle called the rental car office and explained his situation. He specifically asked the woman if the key that opens the car door is supposed to also start the car. She said “Yes.”
BUT, that’s where the miscommunication occurred, although they didn’t know it at the time. My uncle was referring to the traditional key and the woman on the phone was referring to the key fob. Because of that, it was decided that there must be an issue with the car and the rental car company would bring a replacement via a flatbed truck (from Milwaukee to Fond du Lac – nearly an hour and a half drive).
When the replacement car arrived, the truck driver peeked in the “broken” car to assess the situation – at which point he just inserted the key fob and started the car. At that point, there was not a hole deep enough for my uncle to hide in. I’m blushing just thinking how embarrassed he must’ve been!
But then I thought about this some more and realized he had nothing to be embarrassed about. If, in his lifetime, he had never seen anything like this, how would he know to put what he thought was the keychain into the ignition? Something as universal as a traditional car key was now reinvented to look completely different. In a sense, it would be like changing a door knob to look like a stereo speaker. The majority of people may eventually figure out how to get in the door but should you really have to think that hard to do something as mundane as opening a door – or starting a car?
The point of this article is not to suggest that the key fob design was problematic, but rather to illustrate the point that going against conventional wisdom may alienate some of your users. So, if on your company website you choose to use non-traditional navigation as a way to differentiate your brand, it may be best to have at least some area of traditional navigation for those looking to perform a specific task – especially if that task is purchasing your product or seeking out more info.
As a designer, keep in mind that just because something makes sense to you, doesn’t mean that it makes sense to everyone. The best way to test your designs is to perform basic usability testing and we’ll cover that in our next article.
