We at iQ pride ourselves on our interaction design work. Crafting the perfect flow, creating beautifully efficient paths to completion and fashioning calls to action that entice your mouse are the daily bread and butter of my job.

And so I was really excited when given the chance to work on my most recent project, the redesign of an online self-service web application. Not just one flow, but lots of intricately connected, consolidated flows and actions. Sad as it is to say this is what and interaction designer’s dreams are made of.

It’s design time

And so I tucked in, analysing the priorities of the tasks, creating an application hierarchy, optimising the processes and combining related actions. I toiled and toiled and after some considerable effort I was quite happy with the progress.

iQ Mantra: User test it

So we put it in front of some people. They really loved the spacious layout and the new shiny buttons.  But they asked so many questions:

• What will happen to my account if I press this?
• Will my plan change now, at the end of the month or when I pay my next bill?
• Is there a downgrading charge associated?
• How much is a 5 minute call to Timbuktu on my new plan?

Psst! Why questions are bad

Most notably, there was an utter resistance to progress through a flow or complete an action if even one query went unanswered. The standard response from users meeting this difficulty? “I’m just going to pick up the phone.”  Phone = Application Fail!

The session demonstrated how important supporting information is to self-service applications. Self-service applications are typically functionality focused. They provide the ability to change your account in some way, but provide none of the vital detail that would make you to feel confident enough to actually complete the change.

E-commerce: the role model

Self-service applications need to look to their e-commerce cousins as example. Online stores provide users with enough product information to convince them to part with their hard earned cash. Self service apps may not be selling products, but they are selling a way to self-manage a user’s account, so they must contain the relevant detail to allow users to confidently do this.  Confidence is the key to self service success.