

Why usability is still a competitive differentiator - nithyad
http://teamblog.supportbee.com/2011/03/18/why-usability-is-still-a-competitive-differentiator/

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tokenadult
Usability (in the sense of a product not frustrating the user's intentions)
will always be key to getting good word-of-mouth advertising. Friends don't
tell their friends to buy frustrating products or services. When I first
started using Google for Web searching, way back before Google's IPO, I told
all my friends about it, because it got me better results than the other
search engines of the time.

After edit: And the reason I knew about Google way back then is that I checked
my server logs for my personal website, and noticed a new search engine spider
coming by to visit. As I began using Google, I discovered its usability, and
soon began telling everyone I knew, tech-oriented or not, about it. That's
viral marketing at its best.

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cantastoria
It can be a differentiator but it's a hard one to sell. Telling someone your
software is easier to use will usually be met with an eye roll or a snarky "of
course you think it's easier to use, it's your software...". Ease-of-use needs
to be either demo'd or experienced during a trial period. The question is how
do you get a potential user to that point?

Further, you'll notice very few companies that make highly usable products
advertise them that way. Look at an Apple ad or Netflix or Toyota. Very rarely
do they ever talk about ease-of-use. They always focus on what the product can
do and how it makes you feel.

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jpallen
What you say is true if you restrict the term usability to just mean user
interface design, but usability can go far beyond that. Usability should be
about how your product solves a problem, not just how its options and menus
are laid out. As soon as you hear about how Dropbox works you know instantly
that it's far more usable than other sync options.

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alsomike
It sounds like you're talking about usefulness, not usability. In HCI/UX
circles, the classic catchphrase is "useful, usable, desirable."

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Stormbringer
From the article:

 _"Businesses can’t make their products usable by just painting a thick coat
of usability over their already functioning complex applications. "_

I don't know about you, but I can think of more than a few products where
layering on a thick coat of usability might not solve all their problems, but
it would be a jolly good start.

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yannickmahe
It will also become a differentiator in that services that don't have good
usability will become ostracised.

I remember when Wifi was becoming mainstream in Estonia's capital Talinn.
Coffeeshop owners started providing Wifi, not because it brought customers,
but because not having it pushed customers away.

