10 steps to making your web site easier to use.

Have you ever been at a web site and thought, OK, now what?

This is what you DO NOT want to happen to the users of your web site.  One of the most under-rated items when it comes to web site development is usability testing.

Usability testing is just an evaluation of the site’s ease of use and navigability. Take a look at the brick and mortar stores.  Many stores have this concept mastered.  If you are looking for something, you can look across the store and look for signs, or ask an associate who is identified in a brightly colored vest.  When you are done shopping, just head for the exit and you will see the check outs.  If your site doesn’t have plainly labeled areas, a search function for users to find their items and an obvious check out method, you will lose customers.  After all, it is easier to leave a browser window than walk out of a store.

As Steve Krug titled his book on usability, Don’t make me think!  That’s the secret.  People don’t think about where the checkouts are in any store..they just head towards the exit.

Here’s what you need to perform your own usability testing on your site.

1.  1.  Find 7-10 people who may use your site.  These should be a variety of people and not just family and friends. 
2. 2.  Write down a list of questions to ask the testers.  These should be centered around the activities on your site.  For example if you are an e-commerce site, ask them to buy a specific item.  Have them walk you through their thought processes as they go through the process of that activity.  It may be helpful to video tape these sessions for review later.
3. Keep the requests simple.
4. If they have trouble finding something, ask them What are you looking for?  or What are you expecting to see?
5. You will find 80-90% of all the usability issues after 7-10 people. 
6. Keep record of the patterns that occur between testers.  Are they all having trouble finding one particular item? 
7. Don’t worry about them successfully completing the task, just document what they did to accomplish it.  Later, analyze the results to see if there were any changes that would make sense for your site.
8. Keep the testers at ease and let them know you are not evaluating them, but rather the web site.  Reassure them that they are helping the web site development team make the site better for everyone.
9. Make the changes deemed necessary to improve the usability of your site.  This could range anywhere from relabeling some navigation items, to a complete redesign of the site. 

10.  Finally, reevaluate after making some changes.  Test with another group of 3-4 users to see if the same issues continue to occur.  Keep all usability testing sessions brief.  Also don’t be afraid to retest after any changes in the site in the future.  Sometimes it’s difficult to see the faults of the site since we are the developers and it makes complete sense to us.

Many successful sites like Amazon.com and Google rely on usability testing to ensure people can easily use their site to fulfill their needs.  Usability testing is easy to do and relatively inexpensive, so start small and do it.  Your visitor’s will thank you with more visits and maybe more purchases.