By Victoria Deen McCrady
Picture the following scenario. It’s late in the day. A thirty-year-old worker, after two meetings and a conference call, opens software recently installed on her computer. She’s inherited a project, but the company has no time or money set aside for immediate training. She wants to quickly make a few changes.
Thirty minutes later, she’s made up her mind. “I can’t use this,” she explains as she gestures at the screen in disgust.
The previous scenario occurred when a new user accessed, for the first time, OnBase, a document-management system. OnBase has excellent reference guides—downloadable PDFs that are updated regularly and thoroughly. Most new users also take time to work through tutorials. Many employees are sent by their companies to week-long training and return to train their colleagues to use the software. It’s a great system and the software works well, but….
We have reached the problem. We all know that some users just stop. These novices refuse to interact further with new software after a brief attempt, and they return to familiar software and “make do.” This under-utilizes potentially useful software and limits its functionality within the company; an even greater issue is that these users tend to create “information silos.” Rather than invest time with software they don’t understand, users will develop stores of documents and their own idiosyncratic ways of keeping track of information (e.g., building schedules for work shifts in an Excel spreadsheet instead of the company’s calendar software). Information silos frequently have no way of showing history, are often kept in places where they do not get backed up, and may be indecipherable to anybody except their creator. Obviously, this is a problematic work-around.
Not “Computer People”?
This scenario occurred in the past, with Baby Boomer and Gen-X users, and particularly with those who have convinced themselves they “aren’t computer people.” We are entering the age of Millennials, though, and most would assume that Millennials, defined by Pew Research as those between age 18 and 34 in 2015, would adapt more readily to new software. Millennials have become a critical demographic, one that has grown up with computers and cell phones. They are projected by the U.S. Census Bureau to number 75.3 million this year, surpassing the projected 74.9 million Boomers (ages 51 to 69). Shouldn’t that familiarity predict an affinity for technology?
Unfortunately, no. Many Millennials are simply a new breed of novice.
Let’s begin by acknowledging that there is a danger to marketing to Millennials as if they are a homogeneous group, as Pizza Hut and McDonald’s have recently discovered. However, we can also acknowledge that Millennials as a generation are distinctly different from previous generations because of their constant access to technology.
The Millennial Novice
What is the Millennial novice like? We tend to think that Millennials are tech-savvy because they constantly interact with devices. This isn’t necessarily the case. While Pew Research reports that Millennials are constantly socially networked (81% are on Facebook), they are often technology-immersed rather than “savvy,” and they do not always understand how the devices they use so frequently (96% of Millennials own a cell phone) actually work. They may use familiar programs and devices in very sophisticated ways, but those skills offer little help when they are confronted with new tools or interfaces. This veneer of technological sophistication suggests a level of adaptability to new software that sometimes fools even Millennials themselves. Their employers are equally flummoxed by this distinction.
What Makes Millennials Different?
Miranda Hunt, a user research analyst at EBSCO, recently presented “Search is the New Black: How Millennials Find Information Online” at the User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) Boston 2015 Conference. In this talk, she identified common search characteristics of Millennials. Much of her data was drawn from a study by the Nielsen Norman Group titled “College Students on the Web.”
Hunt argues, when using computers during college, Millennials:
- Make decisions based on convenience,
- Display a marked reluctance to learn new interaction patterns,
- Employ a self-service model as they use technology, and
- Expect an immediate payoff for effort.
That Millennials expect immediate gratification when they try something new is a common (but true) stereotype of the generation. Yet when Millennials encounter difficulties with a technology, they also want to “figure it out themselves” (the self-service model), even when they have no conceptual framework to understand the technology.
Given these interaction characteristics, what patterns do most Millennials display? Millennials:
- Expect a search box as part of the interface;
- Prefer simple, familiar interfaces;
- Conduct simple searches (rather than advanced/Boolean searches to limit/expand results);
- Search using common language (instead of keywords);
- Misspell often as they search; and
- Rely on technology always functioning as expected.
In her talk, Miranda Hunt said that spelling suggestions guide users to potentially relevant topics and help Millennials find information while compensating for misspelling and impatience.
Millennials Multitask
This generation is defined by impatience, even across cultures. The Nielsen Norman study found no differences in Web design approaches in comparisons of students from four countries on three continents. While non-native English speakers needed simple language without idioms, their overall preferences and tendencies were the same. All felt a constant urge to multitask (for example, operating with multiple browser tabs open at the same time).
In a recent interview through email, Hunt said that “the Millennial self-service model is prevalent; they expect websites, software, etc. to work and if they run into problems they will adjust their self-service strategy until they find something that works or they will give up and move on to something else. They also make decisions based on convenience, and a recent study has shown that this behavior continues upon entry into the workforce.”
Obviously, the definition of convenience in college can be different from convenience in the workforce, as Hunt noted in the interview. Some Millennials will not fit this model, and motivated Millennials who become more adept might develop new problem-solving strategies to enhance their careers.
Millennials in the Workforce
The information to this point has focused on Millennials in college. Since many Millennials are currently immersed in their careers, it seems important to ask, “Are Millennials who are currently in the workforce more motivated to break out of their ‘self-service’ and ‘convenience’ patterns?”
Teresa Hale, the co-owner of TJC Consulting, a Garland, Texas company that provides outsourced technical support, works frequently with Millennials employed at accounting and law firms. Approximately a third of the company’s users are college-educated Millennials. She said these users are more motivated than Baby Boomers to try to resolve computer problems. While their solutions are often not complex, Millennials “tend to try three to five different strategies to resolve their issues before calling for help.” If these users are so fond of self-service, what prompts a Millennial’s urgent call to the help desk? Hale said that this group freezes when they encounter text-heavy instructions or advanced options (radio buttons and dialog boxes).
Hale’s observations supported many points from the Nielsen Norman study. She said, “Programs that look like social networking sites, with sleek design, obvious graphics and areas to click, make [Millennials] feel comfortable.” When users run into trouble, if the program does not have an obvious search function, Millennials tend to go outside the program for help first. They don’t press F1; they use Google and look for a video tutorial.
The New Novices
Despite the myth that Millennials are technological wizards, their technical immersion actually means that they are more rigid in some ways than previous generations. Their transitions from a familiar interface to a new interface are likely to be difficult, particularly when paired with their tendencies to frustration and multitasking.
To meet these users’ need for self-service:
- Look at usage patterns.
- Give immediate feedback on usage when possible.
- Offer tips, tutorials, and wizards, but allow users to easily turn them off.
- Provide up-to-date video tutorials that can be easily found online.
- Reassess the interface when problems arise.
- Respond immediately to direct user contacts or complaints.
Victoria Deen McCrady was, 13 years ago, a technical writer for a software company. In the years since, she’s taught Millennials about clear communication as a college professor. She is currently a senior lecturer in business communication at the University of Texas at Dallas. Victoria’s experience as a member of STC has always given her a great perspective on reaching her audiences.
References
Fry, Richard. 2015. “This year, Millennials will overtake Baby Boomers.” Pew Research. 16 January. www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/01/16/this-year-millennials-will-overtake-baby-boomers.
Loranger, Hoa, Marieke McCloskey, and Jakob Nielsen. 2011. College Students on the Web: Usability Guidelines for Creating Compelling Websites for College Students. Nielsen Norman Group.
Nielsen, Jakob. 2010. “College Students on the Web.” 15 December. www.nngroup.com/articles/college-students-on-the-web/.
Pew Research Center. 2014. “Millennials in Adulthood: Detached from Institutions, Networked with Friends.” 7 March. www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/03/07/millennials-in-adulthood.
Great article… really made me think about my end user in a different way!