Usability Testing: The easy way!

Usability testing is something that can really put your website over the top.  You work out the kinks throughout the project, and thus leave fewer things to change at the end.  It is impossible to make a great site without some form of usability testing.  I mean really; after a month of working on a project you can’t see all the mistakes.

The obvious way to perform usability testing is to physically sit someone down at a computer, and give them some tasks to achieve with your website.  See how easily or difficult those tasks are for the user, and make notes about their reactions.  Most people don’t like being placed in this scenario, so the easiest way to get people to do this is paying them a little bit, offering some freebies, etc…  Really paying your testers now will save you from damage control later on.

The following are common excuses I hear companies make when asked about usability testing:

1. Lack of Time – other design, programming aspects are more important
2. Money – really now!  Wouldn’t you save money in the end knowing you got things right the first time?
3. Lack of Expertise – Well all you need to do is get someone in front of a computer and watch their every move.  How they scan… what they click… and many others.  Detecting crucial usability errors isn’t rocket science!
4. No Usability Lab – again, you don’t need anything fancy.  Sit someone at the computer and record their thoughts, and reactions.  You don’t need fancy video equipment, and analysis software.

I will end off by introducing a online web application that can help you do the above from the comfort of your own chair.  ClickTale is a free service that records videos of users on your website.  It is extremely easy to use as all you need is to embed some JavaScript like any analytics service.  You get 400 recorded pages for free, and can upgrade to 1,200 for $9 / month.

Now you really have no excuse not to test the usability of your site!

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Tags: usability

Written by Brenley Dueck