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Five Steps to Website Usability

A simple website usability test can lift conversions and dramatically increase customer satisfaction

2009 HiveMind Marketing, Inc.®

Five Steps To Website Usability Have you looked at your company’s website lately? Did you ever think that web visitors might occasionally get frustrated? Usability is critical. It can make the difference between performing a task accurately and completely or not finishing it at all; enjoying the process or being frustrated.

Don’t guess at how people are using your site. You need to actually watch and see how people find

information and get direct feedback. In most cases, a properly executed usability test will uncover

two key things:

• Areas of confusing navigation. There is no doubt that your web design team knows how

your site navigation functions. But does the new user know this? It is important to realize

that about an hour into designing your project, you have probably lost all perspective on

how the interface appears to others. You need to test and see.

• Roadblocks in the flow or delivery of information. Not everyone in your hivemind audience

may know that the e-mail address for the author is at the end of the text or that the

panoramic photograph moves when the arrows on either side are clicked. What seems

normal and natural to the designer is not always so with the user. If you discover that

3-out-of-5 people can’t find registration links, you can make a quick change to the site and

easily increase the conversion rate.

Here’s how to go about putting together your own usability test.

Intelligent Lead Generation

HiveMind Marketing, Inc. 1724 Alberta Avenue San Jose, CA 95125 T: 408.266.3162 E: [email protected]

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Today’s “hivemind” audience

is an intelligent, collective

consciousness that acts

independently, connects with

other like-minded individuals

spontaneously, can’t be

controlled, and has significant

impact on your company’s

brand and ultimate success in

the marketplace.

mailto:mailto:info%40hivemindinc.com?subject=Whitepaper%20Inquiry



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1: Develop your strategy• Choose tasks. Determine at least ten (but no more than 15) tasks that a user should be

able to successfully execute to get the most out of your website. Carefully select tasks based

on what actual users of the site would do. These could include items such as navigating the

site in a specific, preferred order.

• Test sooner rather than later. No web designer wants to make changes to something they

believe is in its final form. Schedule your usability test in the beta stage of a site redesign

— not quite finalized, but final enough so someone can navigate the site.

• Do not test your colleagues. Anyone already familiar with your website or your company

does not represent a typical visitor. In an ideal world, test subjects are recruited through a

marketing research firm. Bottom line: try to solicit representative test subjects that are as

close to typical hivemind users as possible.

2: Develop your questions• Pre-experiment questions. Give some context to the results and help you understand the

Web practices of your test subjects by asking them to quantify the amount of time they

spend online. You also may want to ask questions that gauge their interest in the subject of

the website you are testing.

• Post-experiment questions. Administer a written questionnaire, once all tasks are com-

pleted, that asks users to rank their success with the site.

• Interview questions. Plan a few open-format interview questions to ask each participant

at the end of the session. These should elicit more overall, qualitative impressions of the

website.




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3: Conduct your usability test• Start with a welcome. Do your best to put users at ease by thanking them, offering them

a cup of coffee, or just chatting with them for a few minutes. Remind them that it is the

website that is being tested, not them.

• Free observation time. Allow users to explore the site with no interaction from the tester.

You simply direct the user to the site and step back. The only instruction should be for users

to “Explore the site for as long as they would like.” Here is where you can either videotape

their behavior or take copious notes.

• Assigned tasks. Using the list you created, ask users to execute your preferred tasks.

Have tasks ordered and prioritized, skipping over any that were completed during the free

observation time.

• Post experiment questionnaire and discussion. Have users fill out your questionnaire.

Once complete, talk with them to cover open-ended questions.

4. Gather Data• Know what you are looking for during the free observation period. Carefully observe

each session and take notes about the participants’ interactions with the site. Which tasks

were performed successfully? How long did they take? What problems occurred?

• Pay close attention to the steps users take to complete tasks. You want to discern the

path that is clear and most natural for users when completing tasks. Ideally they all will

complete tasks in fairly predictable ways. But if they do not, you can learn something by the

“mistakes” they make and how they recover.

• Be as unobtrusive as possible. Awareness of your body language and your non-verbal

reactions to each user’s behavior can smooth the way. It will take them some time to get

used to your presence, but once they do, they will become more relaxed and their behaviors

will be more realistic and natural.

To assist the education of your

audience, create marketing

programs that compel people

to actively seek your company

out in search of further insight,

ideas, and solutions.




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5. Analyze data & list potential improvements• Average all quantifiable responses. Break down the number of men versus women, the

average age of participants, etc. Be sure the demographics match your hivemind audience.

• Look at the free observation notes in light of quantifiable data. If users ranked naviga-

tional controls as weak, what behaviors during the free observation period support this?

Were there any non-verbal cues that indicated their frustration?

• Look at the success/failure to complete usability tasks. Go back and determine what

common behaviors were exhibited by users when asked to complete certain tasks. Did they

become confused at the same points? Did they all sail through certain tasks?

Conclusion1. Make a list of at the top three things that should not change and the top three things that

should. Be sure to make note of what is working and why.

2. Look at user suggestions for improvement in light of the changes you need to make. Your

users aren’t designers or interface experts, but their gut reactions can help you determine

where to put your professional energies and resources.




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About HiveMind Marketing, Inc.Founded by Tom Lauck, a long-time Silicon Valley marketing consultant and practitioner, HiveMind

Marketing, Inc. is a different kind of marketing firm that specializes in digital lead generation, help-

ing companies attract, acquire and retain customers by integrating advanced interactive and social

media marketing activities into web sites and internet marketing programs.

HiveMind Marketing understands that marketing to the hivemind isn’t something that can be done

from the outside. You can’t blast them with ads, spam them with emails, or fill their mailboxes with

junk mail. It simply isn’t effective. You have to engage them.

Intelligent Lead Generation, based on engaging the hivemind, requires a fundamental rethinking and

rebuilding of traditional marketing strategies. One that integrates best practices in lead generation

with web development and optimization, inbound marketing and new social media marketing activi-

ties. To support intelligent lead generation, HiveMind Marketing provides a broad range of inbound

marketing activities, including:

• Website design and development

• Lead nurturing and automation

• Email marketing programs

• Search engine optimization

• Pay-per-click advertising

• Social media marketing

HiveMind Marketing’s progressive lead generation methodologies, which increase critical pipeline

capture, flow and conversion, are redefining the way progressive organizations select business-

critical lead-generation resources.

With offices in San Jose, California, the heart of Silicon Valley, HiveMind Marketing, Inc. is primarily

focused on clients in the technology industries. Find out more about our business-critical lead-gen-

eration services and start increasing your marketing ROI today. Please visit www.HiveMindinc.com or

contact us at [email protected].

Operating without

understanding the hivemind

nature of your audience limits

your organization’s chances for

success. A mistimed marketing

campaign could actually

lengthen your audience’s

buying cycle by raising more

questions than it answers.


http://www.hivemindinc.com

mailto:[email protected]

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