It's your website, you know best on how it should be designed. Right? Wrong.
In today's digital business age, the user's experience is equally as important as the product you're selling. If a user has trouble navigating a website, they will simply go to another website, which translates to a lost sale. Lucky for you, website user testing is available and allows you to track the user's experience and adjust your site according to their feedback.
So if you're interested in user testing your website, here's what we're talking about...
In the case of websites and software applications, usability has been defined as the ease at which an average person can use the software or website to achieve specific goals.
If your website is not usable, visitors will quickly move on to the next site. Your competition. Usability is comprised of learnability, memorability, efficiency, satisfaction and errors. It's important to know each of these components and how to properly user test for each one. If you would like an introduction to user testing, take a look at UsabilityGeek's well-written guide that will get you started.
Agencies should look at their own websites -- and their clients' websites -- as constant works in progress. Designs are not intended to be fixed, but rather, they should evolve to fit the needs of users over time.
To get any job done, you need the right tools to complete the task. User testing tools take many different forms and picking the correct service is completely dependent on your website's objective. From advanced heat-mapping software to a drunk guy that will stumble through your website, this HubSpot article details 10 tools that will help you get going on user testing.
Finding the questions you want to ask is important, but also, the people who participate in your test should be representative of your target audience (user persona). There’s no point in watching people use your product if they don’t match your target audience.
Now that you know the tools to use, you need to know that observation-based research is only as good as your testing criteria. There are various common pitfalls that need to be avoided when setting up the research environment to ensure an accurate sample. Check out Smashing Magazine's guide that offers 10 simple tips to improve your website testing and how to avoid making common mistakes.
If animated videos are your thing, check out this short video on how Ferpection conducts user testing. Ferpection is a great tool to receive user feedback that will direct you towards making positive changes to your website. They even allow you to test their product for free!
Designing for great user experience is hard. And communicating your design process can be even harder. That’s why high quality infographics can be so helpful.
User testing is a fundamental element of user experience, also known as UX. As the name implies, the UserTesting blog covers all topics related to this subject. Check out this awesome collection of infographics covering everything from the Elements of User Experience to the Disciplines of User Experience Design.
Now that you possess the right tools to get the job done, making the changes based on the received feedback is the critical part. While some may be hesitant - might I even say stubborn - about changing their website design, just remember that the website is for the user, not the designer. The user's experience should take top priority and will directly translate into a higher number of sales if done correctly.
Now go get testing.
Oh, and if you are using landing pages to generate leads for your business, we suggest running them through the 20-Point Landing Page Audit that we use on ourselves and our marketing clients to boost their conversion rates.
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