How to understand how people use your site to improve it to drive conversions that work.

1. Making your site the
cat’s whiskers!
Paul Randall
@paulrandall

2. Who am I?
- Senior UX Architect at Evosite
- 10 years online design and development experience
- Make things easier for people to use
- Improve and optimise user experiences
- Cat lover!

3. Creating exceptional digital
experiences for 11 years
Evosite have helped hundreds of organisations improve their
eCommerce websites and digital products.
Established in 2005
Talented team of 25
Over 250 active clients
700+ web solutions delivered
Multi award winning agency
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5. What does a cup
look like?

7. So, what makes a
cup a cup?

8. What makes a cup a cup?
● Stem or handle?
● Saucer?
● Depth:width ratio?
● Tapered?
● Paper, plastic, glass, china?

9. Cup, mug or
bowl?

11. We base designs on
our own perceptions
of the world.

14. hoveringartdirectors.tumblr.com

15. What does a cup
look like?
What does a cup
need to do?

16. What does a cup need to do?
● Retain hot or cold liquid
● Be able to drink from
● Used once or multiple times
● Recyclable...

17. Key business metrics
● Sales revenue
● Profit and loss
● Gross margin
● Cost of customer acquisition
● Customer loyalty and retention
● Operating productivity/costs

18. Primary website goals
● Ticket sales
● Gift sales
● Donations
● Traffic
● Sources
● Bounce rate

19. Secondary website goals
● Clicking a button
● Watching a video
● Browsing the navigation
● Searching
● Viewing opening times
● Signing up to newsletter
● Form errors
● Social shares
● Content interaction
● Checking availability
● Length of time on site
● Number of pages viewed

20. Your website is your
most valuable
employee...

21. Give your site a performance review

22. Why are the visitors here?

23. Let them reach their end goal

24. No visitors are the same, but they can be alike

25. User groups
● Primary
○ Attraction visitors
■ Word of mouth, new experiences
■ Holidaymakers
■ Social conscience
● Secondary
○ Corporate bookings or school trips
● Tertiary
○ Press and media
○ Work experience
○ Private hire / filming

26. @harrybr

27. @harrybr

28. Information needs - Holidaymakers
“What can I see”
“How much can I see on one day?”
“When is it open?”
“What does it cost for my family?”
“Are there any discounts?”
“Is there a special event on soon?”
“Can I still visit on a rainy day?”
“Are there any snakes? I hate snakes!”
“What can I learn?”
“Is it suitable for small children?”
“How do I get there?”
“Is parking free?”
“Is there disabled access?”
“What else is local to the attraction?”
“How close it is to other landmarks?”

29. Post-visitDuring
Information needs - Holidaymakers
Pre-visit
6 months 3 months 1 month
“What can I see”
“What can I learn?”
“Is it suitable for small
children?”
“Is there disabled
access?”
“Are there any snakes? I
hate snakes!”
“What else is local to the
attraction?”
“How close it is to other
landmarks?”
“How much can I see on
one day?”
“What does it cost for my
family?”
“Is there a special event
on soon?”
“Are there any
discounts?”
“When is it open?”
“Can I still visit on a
rainy day?”
“How do I get there?”
“Is parking free?”

30. Observing users in their natural habitat

31. How to run a usability study
1. Create a task script
2. Get 5-8 people to run through the task
3. Watch their videos back
4. Make notes of pain-points or suggestions
5. Collate the evidence and highlight key findings

32. whatusersdo.com/evosite

33. What you can discover...
● Visitors missing content
○ Can’t find a link in navigation
○ Search didn’t return results
○ Blocks of text hiding key info
○ Content ‘hidden’ in accordions
○ ‘Skimmers’ not reading text
○ Questions they had not answered
● Development bugs
○ Missing/broken links
○ Broken functionality
○ Browser inconsistencies
● Annoying behaviours
○ Livechat pop-ups
○ Exit-intent overlays

34. Other ways to inspect in detail

35. bit.ly/bounceratereport

36. High traffic, with high drop off

37. Beat your own targets

38. DesktopMobileScroll maps

39. Mouse movements

40. 5.10 secs
13.26 secs
4.27 secs (with 25% re-filling this field*)
5.62 secs
6 out of 7 people opted out
Form interaction
* Refilling this field appears to be due to the business field
autocompleting once they have clicked away.

42. “Creativity is the last legal unfair
advantage over the competition”
Dave Trott

43. 5,008

44. 511,108

45. 801,115

50. Make insights easy to digest

51. Usability is an impartial voice

53. ● Measure what matters
○ Track key events and interactions
● Identify poorly performing pages and understand user behaviour
○ Analytics segmentation, heatmaps, scrollmaps and page interactions
○ Usability studies
● Test and measure variations
○ Be creative! Define the problem and the possible solution
○ Always refer to your website goals
A (repeatable) recipe for measurable improvements

54. whatusersdo.com/evosite

55. Paul Randall
@paulrandall
paul.randall@evosite.co.uk
Thank you for
your time