The other day, I finally did something I’ve wanted to do for a while now.  I bought The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell.  I had first read his book, Blink, which talks about the power of the human subconscious and I had heard The Tipping Point was one of those “must reads”.  So I read it.  Well, I didn’t actually read it, but I listened to the book on CD. 

It was pretty interesting.   If you haven’t read it, the basic premise is that there are a few key factors that cause all epidemics in the world.  These epidemics can be viral diseases, the explosion of a popular product or even the adoption of a new technology.  The factors he talks about all tend to work together, but he explains that epidemics all tend to start with a collection of little things that have a compounding effect and collectively make a big difference.  Eventually when an epidemic spreads, there is a “tipping point” in which the small movement becomes a large one, seemingly overnight.

In my opinion, usability issues can have this same progression. One issue is no big deal; a second issue adds to that. But as the number of issues a user encounters increases, the rate in which they get frustrated and leave grows exponentially.  As a business, we may not put much stock in each individual issue because, isolated, it is “not that big of a deal”.  Often, however, it’s not that one issue causes a user to have usability problems.  It’s the compounding effect of small issues that builds and burns a negative impression in the user’s mind. 

As these issues compound, they eventually come to their own “tipping point”, when a user will decide that the cognitive effort involved in utilizing your website or product is too great to provide a positive return on their time and mental investment.  This tipping point can occur early in a session (i.e. if someone’s patience level is already low) or mid-way through.  They may even complete a transaction with you this time, but when contemplating a return to your site, they will recall that negative association and chose an alternative.

So the next time you’re thinking of dismissing a simple usability fix because you don’t think it’s a big deal, you may want to consider the full impact it can have.