Web technology allows organizations to move beyond one-size-fits-all interfaces and products — allowing users to define and design their own experiences. Users appreciate custom homepages and web-based design-it-yourself processes. However, our research shows that users often encounter severe usability issues when trying to accomplish customization activities.

This 93-page report offers 46 design guidelines based on our usability research. Discussions and 78 screenshot illustrations supplement our findings.

The report does not cover personalization — where a software system tries to predict individual users' needs automatically. It is solely about designs where users themselves employ features to manually customize or configure the UI or a product.

Article on research findings: Customization of UIs and Products

Topics covered

• Data on how users behave when using a variety of customization features
• Customization vs. personalization
• Business benefits of customization
• Customization can be effective when implemented correctly
• Findings from our research study
• Interface customization usability issues
• How to improve interface customization
• Designing for user intentions
• Product customization usability issues
• How to improve product customization
• Detailed methodology section that shows how you can conduct your own usability studies

Research Method

The information in this report is based on one-on-one usability studies.

In total, 24 participants tested customization features on 7 websites. Users also tested websites with no customization to allow us to compare the user experience among different approaches.