Warning: this is a repost from UsableMarkets. ~alex

I was recently alerted that Betfair, a betting and prediction market site, has created something called the Betfair Academy, which, as described on their website, is “specifically designed to teach our customers how to explain and demonstrate Betfair effectively.”

Usually when someone in my profession reads something like this it raises red flags. Namely, reading between the lines, we hear: a) this website is not very usable, and b) because this website is not very usable, we need to train people how to use it.

While I have no specifics on the number of people who use the site, nor have I done a formal heuristic review (or usability testing) of the site, a move like this usually smacks of desperation.

Training, the way of the Dodo
Training used to be something that was considered part of every software rollout. And while it is still sometimes seen in the world of enterprise software, it is rarely, if ever seen when it comes to public websites.

The reasons for this should be fairly obvious. It’s virtually impossible to train everyone who comes to a publicly available website. And, if you considered it, it would be prohibitively expensive. So instead of training users, builders of public websites have focused on usability. And this makes sense. A usable website is less likely to turn users off (surely Amazon would not be the success story it is if everyone had to be trained to use it), and it costs less.

Which is what makes the Betfair Academy so fascinating. Presumably Betfair has decided that the least costly solution is to train a few people, and then get them to train all their buddies. It’s a novel solution, but will it succeed …?

The users just need more training!
“They just need more training!” is a fairly typical old school response to poor usability. I have heard this response to poor usability in all sorts of environments: start ups, enterprise software, and now, finally, public websites.

It’s a knee jerk response, and it is usually a programmer or “IT person” who says it. After all, it’s not their fault that the users can’t figure out their elegantly designed applications. It’s the user’s fault.

But you’ll be happy to know that I do see this attitude changing – and often in very traditional environments. At my last job the IT department finally admitted to themselves that they could not build usable applications, and that they needed help.

Perhaps, once their Academy fails to sufficiently grow the user base, Betfair will finally admit it, too.

As always, thanks for listening.

~alex