Talking Usability: The 80:20 Rule and Product Design

What percentage of features and functions do you think you use on your smartphone or any application on your PC? If you are like most people, you probably use only 20%. Jim Bird published an article called “Applying the 80:20 Rule in Software Development” in which he applied the Pareto principle to software and concluded that 80% of the users use 20% of the features. His theory made me think about my own observations of people and products.

The typical smartphone has as much processing power as the computer on board Apollo 11 that rocketed astronauts to the moon and back. Yet most people just use a smartphone for  games, instant messaging, listening to music, and phone calls. One can assume that only 20% of the people who know how to use a smartphone connect to an infinite number of Web applications and use intelligent assistants to query a variety of Web services.

Microsoft Outlook is a powerful tool for managing meetings, tasks, and email correspondence. Despite the robust features of Outlook, most people use it only for email. One can assume that only 20% of the people use Outlook to create tasks and associate them with due dates, track progress, organize meetings, and track attendance, to name a few.

A Content Management System (CMS) automates documentation management, yet most people use it only to check in and check out documents. Because users are not taught how to manage a CMS correctly, document libraries resemble shared drives, and multiple versions of the same document are stored in multiple libraries and folders. The result is an ineffective CMS and disgruntled users. One can assume that 20% of the users do know best practices for implementing and managing a CMS.

I believe the reason 80% of users use 20% of the features and functions of any given product is because that’s all they know. If using 20% of the features gives a satisfying outcome, then there’s no motivation to learn how to do more with the product. However, if users are motivated to do more with the product then the learning opportunity must be available. There are a number of solutions we can provide to help users learn more about the products they use:

  • Design user assistance to help novice users to become intermediate users, and intermediate users to become advanced users.
  • Offer video tutorials as user assistance because people are more motivated to watch videos than read.
  • Send notifications to registered users with tips and explanations about other features of the product.

We can use focus groups to inquire whether these methods are practical and helpful, and to evaluate their effectiveness during usability and user acceptance testing. When we understand how users use tools and technologies, we can provide the means for them to improve their skills and knowledge to use products effectively.

 

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