CHAPTER 19
Meaningless Choices
(Decisions That Do Not Matter)
Vignette: New Employee Benefits
“We are not interested in your benefits plan,” said Steve, the spokesperson for the plant workers. His statement took me by surprise.
I was proud of the negotiations I just had with a group insurance company. I would be able to offer the 30 employees of my young firm a group benefits plan that was comprehensive yet affordable. Although the company was only 2 years old and had recently turned the corner to profitability, I wanted to include what I thought would be an attraction to help recruit additional employees for a business ready for growth.
I had not planned for a rejection of the benefits plan by my employees. Indeed, in Canada, where the government health care program is universal, people have access to reasonable and affordable health care. However, additional benefits, such as dental care, life insurance, and prescription drug coverage, are not included in the government health care program. Of course, all these other benefits come at a price. I proposed to the workers that the company share this expense equally (50/50) with them. They refused my proposal.
Steve argued that most of the workers were young; some were married, and their spouses had already comprehensive coverage. Furthermore, the additional cost was too high for them. They preferred to continue without the proposed benefits package.
It became apparent to me what mistake I had made. I did not consult them to explore their interest in a benefits package. I was under the impression that if I had asked them and could not meet the resulting financial implications, it could be perceived negatively by the workforce. I decided to go ahead by myself.
In this situation, my unilateral decision to provide employee benefits did not matter to them.
I should have consulted them beforehand and not taken this benefits package as a given.
Verify your assumptions.
Lessons Learned: Open Communications
Open communication is necessary for young growing companies.
Employees need to have their say in how business is operated.
Vignette: Three Tailors
Three tailors had their store front on the same street, a few blocks apart. Competition was fierce. The first tailor decided to spruce up his business by posting a sign in his display window reading: “I am the best tailor in the city.”
The second tailor did not want to lag behind. Soon, he also posted a window sign: “I am the best tailor in the country.”
The third tailor decided to be more realistic. His posted sign read: “I am the best tailor on this street.”
The Internet is not your market space.85
Vignette: The Website
My partner and I decided that it was time to develop a website. Our business was growing steadily. We had now secured clients in Canada and the United States. Negotiations were ongoing with agents in England, France, and Italy. Our Malaysian partner targeted Australia and New Zealand. This was an impressive achievement in less than 2 years.
Could we expand even more by having a website glorifying our unique product line? We thought so.
Our website content was geared toward new business development. It displayed the brand name, the uniqueness of our manufacturing process, and the amazing features of our product lines. How could anyone resist this website’s appeal?
We were convinced that new orders would come from “all those new clients” we had not yet reached.
Nothing happened. Not the first day, not the first week, not the first month. What happened or did not happen?
We forgot that 80 percent of our existing clients came from the Mid-West of the United States. They did not need a website to describe them the product. They needed a website to improve our communication capability with them because of the time-zone difference with us. We were on the Pacific Coast. The website did not have any functions addressing this issue. We still needed to start our day 2 hours earlier to be able to support our Mid-Western clients.
Only once the website was modified to accommodate our existing clientele, did the website show some activity. Word of mouth began generating new leads.
Ask for input from your customers.
Lessons Learned: Website Usability
Jakob Nielsen’s seminal 1995 book on user interface design still remains very pertinent.86
I reprint here a brief summary of Nielsen’s general principles of website usability guidelines.87
Nielsen’s General Principles of Website Usability Guidelines
1. Visibility of system status
The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within a reasonable time.
2. Match between system and the real world
The system should speak the users’ language, with words, phrases, and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.
3. User control and freedom
Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.
4. Consistency and standards
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.
5. Error prevention
Even better than good error messages is a careful design that prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
6. Recognition rather than recall
Minimize the user’s memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate. (Read full article on recognition versus recall in UX.)i
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
Accelerators—unseen by the novice user—may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
Dialogues should not contain information that is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
10. Help and documentation
Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search and focused on the user’s task, should list concrete steps to be carried out, and should not be too large.
Know your market.
iR. Budiu. 2014. “Memory Recognition and Recall in User Interfaces Nielsen Norman Group.” Author’s summary: “Showing users things they can recognize improves usability over needing to recall items from scratch because the extra context helps users retrieve information from memory.”