Usability Intro 06 09

Suzi Shapiro June 18, 2009

Using Website Usability Research Tools: 

Keep Your Visitors Coming Back for More

We will discuss:1. why it’s important to be user-friendly2. how to determine what is working and what needs improvement on your website

3. when you can do the usability research and when you can benefit from a collaborator

4. how to find resources that demonstrate effective web-site design

Why is it important to beUser Friendly?

What is important to you?OrganizationEase of UseEasy to Learn/RememberFew ErrorsAestheticsFun

What makes a web site usable ?OrganizedMeets expectationsIncludes needed or wanted materials

About the task or knowledge user wants or needs

How do we know it’s user-friendly?

5 second rule

Drop offs

Navigation

http://microsoft.com

What is the key to a User Friendly web site?

Who is your User?

CustomerUserBusiness Management

Designer/Developer

YOU ARE NOT YOUR USER

Pair-Share (Introductions)

Who is YOUR user?Who do you need

to understand to design

a good web site?

How can you collect information about your users?

InterviewSurveyWeb Analytics

BREAK TIME

How to determine what is working and what needs improvement on your website

Example Sites

What works? What doesn’t?

http://yahoo.com

http://google.com

http://indystar.com

http://amazon.com

How to determine what is working AnalyticsSales or hitsLinks to other sites, blogs, twitter, etc

Analytic DataWeb LogsGoogle Analytics

Sales or hitsA/B testingThe Almighty Dollar

Links to other sites, blogs, twitter, etc

Mining the BlogosphereDo people give a tweet?

http://linkedin.com

How to determine what needs improvement

Complaints and Questions

Observing Users

When you can do the usability research and when you can benefitfrom a collaborator

When you can do the usability research.You have timeYou have experience with usability principles

You have the necessary equipment

You have the background to inform analysis of the data.

When you can benefit from a collaborator

TimeEquipmentExperienceSkills

MethodsWhich to use and which to ignore

How to find resources that demonstrate effective web-site design

Good Reference Siteshttp://Usability.govhttp://Humanfactors.comhttp://WWW.Useit.com (Jacob Nielson)

http://www.uie.com/ (Jared Spool)

Good Books on User ExperienceDon't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach

to Web Usability,By Steve Krug

http://astore.amazon.com/suzishapiroco-20