Why usability is still a competitive differentiator

Usability (in the sense of a product not frustrating the user's intentions) will always be key to getting good word-of-mouth advertising. Friends don't tell their friends to buy frustrating products or services. When I first started using Google for Web searching, way back before Google's IPO, I told all my friends about it, because it got me better results than the other search engines of the time.<p>After edit: And the reason I knew about Google way back then is that I checked my server logs for my personal website, and noticed a new search engine spider coming by to visit. As I began using Google, I discovered its usability, and soon began telling everyone I knew, tech-oriented or not, about it. That's viral marketing at its best.

It can be a differentiator but it's a hard one to sell. Telling someone your software is easier to use will usually be met with an eye roll or a snarky "of course you think it's easier to use, it's your software...". Ease-of-use needs to be either demo'd or experienced during a trial period. The question is how do you get a potential user to that point?<p>Further, you'll notice very few companies that make highly usable products advertise them that way. Look at an Apple ad or Netflix or Toyota. Very rarely do they ever talk about ease-of-use. They always focus on what the product can do and how it makes you feel.

From the article:<p><i>"Businesses can’t make their products usable by just painting a thick coat of usability over their already functioning complex applications. "</i><p>I don't know about you, but I can think of more than a few products where layering on a thick coat of usability might not solve all their problems, but it would be a jolly good start.

It will also become a differentiator in that services that don't have good usability will become ostracised.<p>I remember when Wifi was becoming mainstream in Estonia's capital Talinn. Coffeeshop owners started providing Wifi, not because it brought customers, but because not having it pushed customers away.