Suze Bragg

7 Types of Usability Testing for Your Web Site
May 21, 2007

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Conducting usability testing on your web site complements your market research analysis. How your customers use your site, where they drop off, what they're reading, what links they're clicking on are all types of questions you'll find out with your usability studies. There are 7 types of online research tools you can perform.

First, begin with preparation. What are you getting yourself into? Second, there are 2 ways to gather this information: formally through a group of customers or from your site metrics report. I recommend using both methods to get the best overview.

The formal names are:

1. Quantitative Task Completion Analysis: can customers walk through your entire site without too many steps (4 is optimal) when shopping, finding a product, etc.?
2. Qualitative Task Completion Analysis: what is tripping them up and what can you improve?
3. Benchmark Competitive Comparisons: how well do customers perceive the use of your site and how do they perceive it compared to your competitors?
4. In-depth Competitive Comparisons: how does your site function and look in comparison to your competitors? Do the images load quickly, is your site attractive, can people find you, what makes them want to use your site instead of someone else's? What can you improve?
5. Site Exit Analysis: at what page are people leaving your site (making it to your homepage and not diving in any deeper?) and why?
6. Page Usage Analysis: what pages are they viewing, how long are they staying, and where are they coming from?
7. Customer Demographics:
   • what are their ages?
   • how many are female vs male?
   • what are their occupations?
   • what experience do they have shopping online?
   • what products do they already own?

     Other fun testing options:

     eye tracking
     Poynter Online (climbing inside the users' heads to see what they see)

      

Posted by Suze Bragg on May 21, 2007 | Comments (0)