What is Usability Testing, and Why Should You Care?
User testing is THE most effective way to improve the quality of your results.
Have ever gone to a web site and gotten frustrated because you couldn’t find something? Most potential clients will leave your site within seconds if it is not obvious where they should go next. The key elements of your site usability are:
- Intuitive and relevant navigation
- Clear steps to completing tasks (like making a purchase)
- Quick-loading pages
- Content organized based on the visitors needs and goals
- Clean, clear page design and layout
At Kat McDivitt & Associates we integrate usability guidelines into every design. Then we go the extra mile and do testing with actual potential customers.
Test for maximum impact.
In the design phase we show the designs to sample users to get their feedback. It’s like a mini focus group to make sure that the site is conveying the message. We test your designs with real users to make sure your site:
- provides the ideal first impression
- answers questions and builds interest
- inspires people to take action
We make recommendations based on feedback from people who don’t know your business or marketing material.
We watch, listen and talk to real potential visitors about your website, how they get to your site, what their response is to the current and proposed design, and how they actually use the proposed design. From this we can:
Save time and money. When a user is confused or irritated by a web site you lose revenue and, eventually, you have to re-design the site. By testing your current site to find areas that work well and areas that give users trouble, then testing in design, and testing your final site, we’ll help you save time and money and increase your revenue and credibility.
Find areas of confusion. Our testing reveals what works well on the site, and areas of confusion. User testing tells us where the process gets bogged down, allowing us to make the learning/buying experience more fulfilling.
Identify user keywords. We learn what keywords users enter to find your site, a key part of our search engine optimization for your website.
Usability is a necessary condition of website survival.
“On the Web, usability is a necessary condition for survival. If a website is difficult to use, people leave. If the homepage fails to clearly state what a company offers and what users can do on the site, people leave. If users get lost on a website, they leave. If a website’s information is hard to read or doesn’t answer users’ key questions, they leave. Note a pattern here?
There are plenty of other websites available; leaving is the first line of defense when users encounter a difficulty.
The first law of e-commerce is that if users cannot find the product, they cannot buy it either.
For intranets, usability is a matter of employee productivity. Time users waste being lost .. is money you waste by paying them to be at work without getting work done.”
- Jakob Nielsen – Usability Guru
If you want to have your site tested, contact us for a free quote.
