Gaining Insight for Website Improvement

Gaining Insight for Website Improvement
Dennis Deacon
deconspray@gmail.com

Dennis Deacon
17+ yr Web Professional
Web Designer / Developer
Web Marketer / User Experience Specialist
User Experience / Web Site Goals = My Passion
dennisdeacon.com

PASSION

My goal …
Stop thinking of websites as destinations
Start thinking of them as solutions to solving problems
Make you think, laugh
Walk away with motivation, inspiration to take action.

STOP!
Presentation & resources discussed available online at
bit.ly/oVEYrt

5 Dubya's
WHO
WHY
WHEN
WHAT
HOW

Questions…
How many own websites?
Happy with the results?
Meeting intended goals?

Questions…
How many design / develop websites for clients?
Know their website’s goals?
Are they successful?
Do you care?

Frankly my dear …
I don’t give a damn!(about website visitors)

Build it, and…

…they MAY not come.

WHY?
Test?
Analyze?
Improve?

Usability
vs.
User Experience

Usability
Once key to creating successful websites
Many sites now “get” usability
Somewhat assumed, expected

User Experience
Spin-off from usability.
Focus not on can they …… focus now on will they

Usability
The ability to use something
Requires little mental effort
Few mistakes , easily recoverable
Can do more, faster
Learnable, intuitive

User Experience
The desire to use something
Create happiness, good feeling about using something

Jared Spool — User Interface Engineering

Jared Spool — User Interface Engineering
Usability
Customer visits a large electronic retailer’s website looking for a digital camera.
Quickly finds the desired camera, puts it in the cart, and pays for it using the same day option to pick it up at the store
User Experience
Customer arrives at store and after being unable to locate where to pick up online purchases, goes to the customer service desk
After 10-minute wait, is told in the wrong place, needs to find another desk labeled “Online Receiving.”
Clerk who can’t wait for shift to end, sighs & says camera is out of stock.
Can buy a different camera, but needs to call 800 number to credit her original online purchase.
She ends up leaving the store without a camera and a charge on her credit card she needs to resolve.

Noodle Restaurant
Originally saw restaurant mentioned on WTTW’s Check Please!
Looked good … had to go.
Visited restaurant, looking for carry out.
Looked for a menu, was told no carry out menu, go online.
Looked up restaurant’s website to view menu.
Website in Flash, Blackberry phone (early 2010), cannot view menu.
Left, never to return.

User Experience
Usability

Do you really know your web site’s audience?
What they’re looking for?
What they’re trying to do?
Their wants, needs, desires?

Don’t Test …
unless you
plan to act
JUST
DO
IT

WHEN
Now
Tomorrow
Continually (forever)

WHAT
Landing Pages“…a single web page that appears in response to clicking on an advertisement.”
— Wikipedia

WHAT
Landing Pages“Any page that acts as an entrance / first impression to your content / web site / product.”
— Dennis Deacon

HOW
Web Site Analytics
Heatmaps
Scrollmaps
A/B Split Testing / Multi-Variant
Memory / Click Tests
Usability Testing

Differences
Qualitative
Quantitative
Web Analytics
Usability Testing
A/B Split Testing
Heatmaps
Scrollmaps
Memory Tests
Personal – Details
High Level – Big Picture

Web Site Analytics
Can highlight what & where
Cannot answer why
Cannot provide solutions

General Metrics
Cannot answer why

General Metrics
“Houston, we may have a problem…”
Cannot answer why

Meeting Expectations?

Content/Feature Usage

Goal Funnel Visualization

Heatmaps
Can show what elements on a page are clicked the most.
Might show elements that get the most attention, most persuasive

Scrollmaps
Can show what portions of the page are viewed
Specifically, how far down the page before people stop scrolling

A/B Split Testing
B
A
Provides Quantitative Results (i.e. how much, how many, which one)
Tests two or more versions of pages with small/large differences
Does not address Why or How
Up-front preparation, then no maintenance

Google Website Optimizer makes A/B Split Testing Easy
B
A
What’s the original page
Variation page #1, #2, etc.
Goal page
Insert Javascript into pages, verify, then turn test on.
…wait…

Can test a landing page’s first impressions
Can test if priority / emphasis is placed on the right element
Can test intuitiveness of navigation, content panels, etc.

Things to remember when creating
memory / click tests…
Focus the initial instructions on the specific task
Limit the testing to something specific (easily accomplished within five seconds)
Post-test questions should be limited to the focused observation at hand.
Try to ask on observations, not quiz

Usability Testing
Obtains users thought process; answers Why and How
Immediate results
Time consuming
Resources intensive (manual)
Can be costly

Usability Testing
When?
What?
Who?
How?

Usability Testing
When?
Now
The earlier the better
Don’t wait for final designs, or build phase.Test earlier, sketches on napkins is ok.
Test often, frequently, continually

Usability Testing
What?
Your site…
Tasks that lead to existing goals
Other people’s sites
Sketches
Wireframes
High-fidelity Designs (Photoshop)
Working prototypes

Usability Testing
How?
First, make sure the tester understands that they are not being tested, the website is.
The tester needs to think out loud as they use the website / perform tasks
If possible, record the session, so that you can focus on the moment, not taking notes.
Do not lead the tester.
Anyone can test. However, designers/developers who designed/developed the site / application are less effective due to subjective thinking, coercion

Usability Testing
Usability test Demonstration

Case Study — The Button
Major eCommerce website
Web form
Encountered after clicking Check Out button ……before entering their payment info.
Email:
Password:
Log In
Register
Forgot Password?

Business owner thought form helpful
Repeat customers could purchase faster
First time customers wouldn’t mind, for the benefit of making future purchases easier
Right?
Wrong!

Testing showed…
First time consumers…
Resented having to register “I'm not here to enter into a relationship. I just want to buy something.”
Couldn’t remember if they had shopped or registered before. Became very frustrated when each email and password combination failed.
Felt mistrust, thinking the requested information was only to market to them in the future. Some even felt an invasion of privacy.

Testing showed…
Repeat consumers…
Couldn’t remember the email address or password they used. They’d try/guess several times. Some even requested a password reset/new password, but couldn’t remember the correct email address in the system.

System analysis uncovered …
45% of all customers had multiple registrations
160,000 password reset requests per day
75% of these people never tried to complete the purchase once requested
The form, intended to make shopping easier, prevented sales - a lot of sales.

The Fix…
Email:
Password:
Log In
Continue
Forgot Password?
You do not need to create an account to make purchases on our site. Simply click Continue to proceed to checkout. To make your future purchases even faster, you can create an account during checkout.
OK

The Impact …
45% increase in customer purchases
Increase in first month purchases: $15,000,000
Increase in first year purchases: $300,000,000

Resources
Web Analytics
Google Analytics
Web Site Measurement Hacks (Book) — O’Reilly
Actionable Web Analytics (Book) — Sybex
Always Be Testing (Book) — Sybex
Heatmaps / Scrollmaps
CrazyEgg.com
A/B Split Testing
Ultimate Guide To A/B Testing — bit.ly/8X2fLk
fivesecondtest.com
clueapp.com
theclicktest.com

Resources (cont.)
Usability Testing
Don’t Make Me Think (Book) — Krug
Rocket Surgery Made Easy (Book) — Krug
Companion website — sensible.com/rsme.html
User Experience
User Interface Engineering — uie.com
$300 Million Button — uie.com/articles/three_hund_million_button
19 Lessons from United Airlines on How To Build A Crappy Survey — bit.ly/fwl99W
User Experience Remastered (Book) — Wilson

Thanks for
putting up with me!
dennisdeacon.com

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Gaining Insight for Website Improvement

by Dennis Deacon on Oct 11, 2011

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