Title:

3 Proven Techniques for Improving Your Website s Usability

Word Count:
1684
Summary:
The number one factor that makes or breaks your website is whether or not people
can use it. This is typically referred to as your website s usability. It seems
simple: if people can t do what you want them to do (buy things, subscribe to thi
ngs, request a call, etc.), they won t do it. Yet, because websites are so easy t
o change, several companies just create websites, web applications, e-newsletter
s, etc., and hope that the changes will help their business.

Keywords:
website analytics, usability testing, personas

Article Body:
The number one factor that makes or breaks your website is whether or not people
can use it. This is typically referred to as your website s usability. It seems
simple: if people can t do what you want them to do (buy things, subscribe to thi
ngs, request a call, etc.), they won t do it. Yet, because websites are so easy t
o change, several companies just create websites, web applications, e-newsletter
s, etc., and hope that the changes will help their business.
What further confuses this is typically a lack of clear insight into your websit
e s performance. For example, how well does your website convert visitors into bu
yers? What are the key decisions that visitors must make on your website? Do y
ou give them the information and tools necessary to make those decisions?
This article will help you focus on 3 proven techniques for improving your websi
te s performance: website analytics, usability testing, and personas. Exactly how
you choose to implement these techniques is obviously up to you. However, one
thing is guaranteed: all three techniques help you get closer to the people who
visit your website: their needs, their desires, and their behaviors. This infor
mation is critical if you plan to optimize your website s usability to achieve you
r goals.

<b>1. Measure Progress with Website Analytics</b>

Many companies mistakenly install a standard website statistics program and only g
et a group of standard reports. Typically, these reports do very little to help
you judge the true effectiveness of your website.
Want to get a jumpstart on creating your own website analytics? Just follow the
se 3 simple steps:
1. Begin with the end in mind start with your objectives. Define your webs
ite marketing strategy objectives (i.e. Increase the number of qualified prospect
s coming from web search engines ), and what you want your website visitors to do
to reach those objectives (i.e. See our listing in the top 10 in Google and click
on it)
2. Get in touch with your visitors behavior on your website. Track how many
unique visitors you get, and how long they stay on your site (including how man
y pages they view). You want all of these numbers to be going up, since that me
ans you re getting more visitors who are staying on the site longer. You are maxi
mizing the odds that they will do what you want them to do.
3. Develop your conversion rate. Track how many visitors do the key action
you want them to do and compare this number to your total visitors. This helps
you determine your conversion rate. For example, if 15 out of 100 visitors req
uested more information from you (and that is one of your objectives), then your
conversion rate for information requests is 15%.
Once you have these key website analytics in place, you can start to evolve your
tracking and look for trends to optimize for. Here are two examples:
Let s say you notice higher conversion rates on weekends. Then you might want to
spend more on online advertising on weekends and reduce your spending during the
week.
Let s say you need more visitors and embark on a search engine optimization projec
t to improve your rankings. Then you can track the increase or decrease in visi
tor flow from your project s activities.
Regardless of what you want to achieve, getting to website usability first start
s with solid website analytics. Why? Because website analytics force you to id
entify those areas that matter most, and identify how well or poorly you are doi
ng in them. Once you know this, you are armed with key data that can help you f
ocus your efforts and determine where things like usability testing can help the
most.

<b>2. Leverage Usability Testing</b>

Usability testing is where you take people who would use your website, and actua
lly watch them using it. Typically, you ask the person to do things on the site
, and you watch either over their shoulder, behind a one-way mirror, or via a se
cond computer where you can see what s being recorded on the test computer.
It s amazing how many things you can make better on your website just by watching
people use it. Yet, as you get into it, you may find that hiring a usability pr
ofessional for a testing project can be unnecessarily expensive. Usability prof
essionals are helpful, since they typically have substantial expertise in planni
ng and conducting tests, as well as interpreting test results. However, usabili
ty testing does not have to be fancy or formal: people are going to give you the
ir opinion whether you re sitting in a research company or at Starbucks. So be ca
reful when hiring a professional that seems to make the testing process complica
ted or costly. When someone does this, it s usually only for their own financial
gain.
To successfully conduct a usability test, just follow these 5 steps:
1. Define your objectives. Begin with the end in mind. What do you want t
o accomplish with this usability test? Do you have specific areas of your websi
te that you want to improve? If so, this is a great way to get ideas on how to
make those areas better. Are you planning on rolling out a new area of your web
site? A usability test is a great way to do a trial run before the big launch.
2. Recruit the participants. This will take the most time, and can be the
most frustrating part of the test process. You have to find people to participa
te (which can be tough, particularly if you need to match specific demographic p
rofiles), and then you need to schedule them. Then, some will cancel, some won t
show, and some will be great test participants. The best way to get a feel for
the person is to talk to them directly more than once over the phone. TIP: Be s
ure to call the person the day of the test to remind them about it.
3. Script the test. You ll want to have an intro script, the test script, an
d a post-test survey. The intro script serves as a checklist of things you want
to be sure to cover with the person before you start the test. TIP: During the
part, try to focus on making the person feel comfortable giving their opinion,
and reiterate that any feedback is good feedback. The next part, the test scrip
t, is a checklist of the actual things you want the person to do. This is follo
wed by the post-test survey, which allows you to ask the person questions, and l
ater compare those answers to what they said during the test.
4. Conduct the test. This is the fun part! You sit down with the person,
and walk them through the test scenario. Some tests benefit from close hand hold
ing, while others benefit from letting the person do whatever they think is right
. It completely depends on the objectives, and they information you want to col
lect. In either case, the best thing to do is to record both the person and wha
t they do on the computer. TIP: Be sure to compensate the person for their time
.
5. Report the results. The best way to report the results is two-fold: Fi
rst, do a quick, one-page or less recap of each session immediately after the te
st. That way, the information is still fresh in your mind. TIP: Include a pict
ure of the user in your recap, since it will help make that person s feedback come
alive. Next, take the information collected during testing, and create 1 to 4 per
sonas user profiles that explain the type of person, what they need from the webs
ite, what issues they encounter frequently on the site, and what can be changed
to help them. This will help you explain the results to others, and you can reu
se these personas later when you are adding or updating areas of your website.
How many people should I test?
For most usability tests, you can learn the maximum amount by only testing ten p
eople. Too many more and you ll start to see too many recurring patterns. If you
go less than ten, you might miss things or not see enough of a pattern.

<b>3. Develop Personas</b>

Let s face it - no one reads a 20-page usability report from cover to cover. It ju
st doesn t happen. Usually, key decision makers ask for recap presentations, and the
n latch on to one or two key points from the study, quoting that point over and ov
er again.
This presents a great opportunity: why not give those key decision makers someth
ing memorable? Enter personas.
Personas are a way to get everyone involved thinking about the actual people who
visit your website.
What Personas are:
Fake people based on real data
A practical tool to maintain focus on your target customers
A way to make your data come alive and be more memorable

What Personas are not:

Every possible customer profile
Made up ; they are created from real data, like usability test results
A replacement for existing ways we design and build our web site

Reporting user tests as personas is a great way to:

1. Get key decision makers on board with the persona concept
 2. Communicate web site issues in the context of the people actually using yo
ur site
Creating personas from usability testing data is time-consuming, but very valuab
le. Just look across the data for key trends: what common roles, goals, and act
ions do you see? Can you group the feedback along those things? You ll quickly s
tart to evolve a handful of personas which can be refined over time. Add a name
and a few pictures of that person and you ll be on your way to creating a more user
-focused website experience.
Again, exactly how you choose to implement these techniques is obviously up to y
ou. Even small steps can make a big impact. You don t have to have super-sophist
icated website analytics, test your website with 100 users, or develop extremely
detailed personas. Every step you take in these three areas, no matter how big
or how small, will help you get more from your website, and your website market
ing strategy.