How can I tell if my web site
has serious problems that make me lose customers?
The answer - usability testing!
Chances are, you have been looking at your own site too long; you can
no longer judge it objectively. Our "heuristic" (or rules-based)
usability testing can typically get you the answers you need in 3-5
business days, pinpointing the usability problems that cause your
visitors - potential customers - to leave your site, and never come
back.
"Usability" refers
to the following kinds of problems:
- It is difficult for customers
to find the information they need (takes
too many "clicks".)
- Customers are forced to
wait too long for the information they need; they become impatient
or lose their train of thought
- Customers are having a
hard time navigating your site; they cannot find what they need
- Customers are not able
to do what you have designed the site to do.
A recent Internet study reveals
why usability is so important:
More than 83 percent of
Internet users are likely to leave a web site [as opposed to
using search] if they feel they have to make too many clicks to find
what they're looking for ... half left after just four clicks.
Many usability
problems stem from the fact that the global Internet (which extends
right to your customer's desktop) has severe limitations and was not
really designed as a commercial-quality medium. The design of your
web site must address these real-world issues:
- Internet data speeds are
variable (right down to zero!) (details
below)
- Customer computer speed
may be slow; your web pages may form slowly (details
below)
- Screen resolution and
contrast are poor (details
below)
- Browser window size is
smaller than you think (details
below)
- Software differences (browser
incompatibilities) (details
below)
- Competitive web sites
set the standards (details
below)
- Limitations in the abilities
of your customers:
| Some
of your customers have terrific eyesight and see all colors
perfectly. |
Others
(about 9% of males and 2% of females) are to some degree color
blind. |
| Some
have great memories; they can easily remember details from one
page to the next, or what options were available on the home
page after they've left it. |
Others
have poor memories and must depend entirely on what is on the
page right in front of them. |
| Some
can glance through a few pages here and there, and have a good
idea of how your site is arranged. |
Others
can look through every page and still feel lost. |
| Some
love to read. |
Others
are dyslexic. |
| Some
customers have enormous vocabularies and are comfortable with
complex sentences. |
Others
know few words and want it short and sweet. |
| Some
are native speakers of English. |
Some
know English only as a second language. |
Skip
The Details and continue to the conclusion at the bottom of the
page.
The Details
Internet
data speeds are variable (right down to zero!)
The Internet "superhighway" is actually made of many connecting
systems, some of which are more modern and efficient than others. The
overall speed of data transmission depends on the speed of the slowest,
most congested "road" in the "highway" system. Your
web server may be very fast, your customer may have broadband (high
speed) access, but if the web page files need to travel through a congested
or narrow bottleneck, the effective speed of data transmission drops
to a crawl. (Go back)
Customer
computer speed may be slow, causing your web pages to form slowly
A web page delivered to your customer's computer is in pieces; all of
the graphic files must be requested by the customer computer, then assembled
with the text page in memory. Customers with old or slow computers will
wait longer for a complicated page to appear on the screen. (Go
back)
Screen
resolution and contrast are poor
The "resolution" of the screen refers to how many pixels (dots)
per inch are seen on the customer's monitor. The resolution of a typical
computer monitor is a fraction of the resolution offered by printed
books and magazines. The poor resolution means you must be sure your
site design does not depend on tiny print and very finely detailed images.
The "contrast" is the difference in brightness between the
lightest color dots and the darkest dots. Computer screens are the losers
again, offering less than one-tenth the contrast of good quality magazines
and books. The poor contrast of your customer's screen restricts what
you can do with colors and backgrounds. (Go
back)
Browser
window size is smaller than you think
Most people work with screens that are at least 800x600 pixels; about
one-third have screens that are larger. However, remember that the browser
window may not take up the entire screen, and the window itself takes
up space; a title bar, menu list and button bars all occupy part of
the screen, along with the scroll bar on the right side. This leaves
a relatively small space to with which to work.
Studies have shown that many people have no idea how even their favorite
web sites are organized; it is like trying to visualize the design of
an oriental rug, when you only get to see a few square inches at a time.
(Go back)
Software
differences (browser incompatibilities)
As if the problems already mentioned weren't enough, there are a wide
variety of browsers in use today. Differences between the various versions
of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator frustrate web
authors. Many people with slow modem connections turn off graphics and
just surf for text. Vision-impaired people surf with an "audio
browser" that will read aloud the text from a web page. And don't
forget plug-ins like Macromedia Flash for multimedia and Adobe Acrobat
to read PDF document files, which must be installed by the user. (Go
back)
Competitive
web sites
Who is your competition on the web? The correct answer is - every site
on the web! Since any site is just one click away (remember, customers
have bookmark files full of one-click destinations), they all compete
with yours. Who is your main competition? The big sites, the ones that
everyone has gone to and on which they spend much more time.
Why does this concern you? Because your customers have all learned to
use the web on these big sites, and these big sites have set the standards
that your site must meet. (Go
back)
Conclusion
We use several different
methods to determine site usability, including rules-based (or "heuristic")
testing as well as a set of tests to determine how difficult it is for
a customer to perform specific tasks (like making a purchase or finding
a specification.)
We prepare a report that
presents all of the issues on your site, page by page. The report provides
you with practical, easy-to-understand facts and recommendations to
help you make decisions about each problem. Click here
to see a sample problem.
The bottom line: we help
you give your customers more of what they want on a web site,
and less of what they don't want.