Usability Testing
Usability of websites is of crucial importance to the effectiveness and conversion so it was interesting for us to have a session with the Web Usability Partnership yesterday looking at a client's website.We defined our client's target market and what we'd like to test on the site. WUP then recruited a tester exactly matching our target audience and led a goal-orientated session with the user, looking at relevance of the content, navigational elements and the user's behaviour.
Observations from the session:
- Placing the most important content on a page 'above the fold' - our tester didn't scroll down on any pages for the first 30 minutes so getting your key messages visible without scrolling is hugely important.
- Links - our client's site has many image-based links - our tester missed them all! She even missed many text-based hyperlinks and image-based calls to action int he top left corner of the site. Make links obvious and consistent!
- Home - ensure you have a Home page navigation link.
- Browsers - test your site across multiple browsers - many people still use IE6
- Enquiry forms - if you have an enquiry form, make sure the tone of the form doesn't make people think they're making a commitment to do something - our client's form could be putting off the more casual enquirer.
And most importantly of all, don't make assumptions...about anything...ever! Test & test again!
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