Frustration and the OWL by Tanner Heffner

Have you ever been so frustrated with a computer that you wanted to scream at the screen? Not in the angry teenage gamer way, but in the what I want to happen isn’t happening way. The article “Determining Causes and Severity of End-User Frustration” discusses user frustration during computer use. While many errors come from popups and computer crashes, the largest amount of frustration when dealing with computers comes from web use. In another article, "Help! I’m Lost: User Frustration in Web Navigation" lists users not being able to find the content they are seeking in the description of web use frustration.

We all have examples of using a website for a specific purpose and have difficulties completing our goals. Whether the goal be finding a particular article or using virtual tools, using the web can be an extremely frustrating experience. Personally, when I encounter frustrations with a website, unless is imperative that I use that particular site, I will try to find a different website to use instead. The data below from “Determining the Causes and Severity of End-User Frustration” shows that many users just give up, move on, or find an alternative method when faced with computer difficulties.

Figure 1

Looking at the graph above, we can see how users react when faced with a problem. While the graph shows that the majority of users have seen the error before and from previous experience know how to solve the problem, the next most used solution is "I was unable to solve it." This means that when users are unable to quickly find a way to solve their problem without having to look at manuals or third-party help, they give up and move on. To design a website for the future, we have to assume that users are used to instant gratification and don't want to spend a lot of time navigating to find the information they are seeking. When they can't find it quickly and easily, we can infer from the graph above that a large majority of users are going to give up and move on to another resource.

The OWL has a huge amount of information that can be extremely beneficial to the users. However, if the users encounter difficulties and frustrations when searching for the information they want, they are likely to disconnect and try finding the information on a different website. I believe that we should begin analyzing how users are interacting with the OWL and from that, determine where users are getting frustrated and disconnecting. By determining where users are experiencing frustration with the OWL, we can make start to make changes about that will potentially increase the amount of time users spend on our site and the amount of resources that they read. Reducing user frustration is a key component in user centered design.

Citation:

Ceaparu, Irina, Jonathan Lazar, Katie Bessiere, John Robinson, and Ben Shneiderman. "Determining Causes and Severity of End-User Frustration." International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction 17.3 (2004): 333-56. Taylor & Francis. Web. 5 Nov. 2014. <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327590ijhc1703_3#.VHDUAPldXHQ>.