Test the usability of your website: let people perform tasks

byLoes

13.2K followers

9 years ago

HUGE HEADER (scroll down;)))

Have you ever watched someone surfing your website? A friend, your brother, sister or parents?

A usability test is a highly effective technique to find out how your website performs and how it can be better adapted to the visitors.

Every webmaster who is watching for the first time that people really use the site falls off his chair by what he sees: Very different than he expected, and yet so logical. He immediately sees major improvements.

Simple usability test: Put a stranger to your website behind your computer to surf your website and watch.

You do not need money for a professional usability test. You just need a couple of friends. To go a little further, you can give them simple tasks as:

• Subscribe and fill in the form on my website
• Find this product
• Where is the affiliate disclaimer
• What do the testimonials say
• How can you contact me

Let the people behind the site perform the tasks while thinking aloud. Let them search for specific information or perform actions, such as filling out a form. See what's going wrong and how the site can be improved. Ask questions if you do not immediately understand the test user behavior (without giving details on the website).

Ask them a few questions after the test:

• What was your first impression?
• What did you like most?
• What didn't you like at all?
• What stood out?
• How likely is it you will visit my website again?

When you do not have friends or family (sorry), you can make use of the free first impression user testing Get a Peek GET A PEEK service 3 times a month. They will email you a video with their findings.

I bet you will be surprised!

I tell you about one of my tests at Get a Peek.

He: opened the website. And said:"Whoow, that's a nice header
Me: (watching the video) Thank you!!
He: that's really a nice picture, and huge! Can I click home on it?
Me: No, you have to scroll down
He: When I click home, nothing happens?? But it is a great picture!
Me: Nooo scroll down!!
He: I can't see a menu, and what I can do here..fantastic header pic!
Me: SCROLL down you bonehead!!@!
He: That header is huge!
Me: SCOLL DOWN YOU IDIOT! (I could strangle this dude)
He: (Got the question, what stood out?) The header, beautiful picture and HUGE
Me: Arrghh@#%@

I can tell you, I have changed the header picture right away!