Soliciting Web site user feedback. Posting online surveys. E-mailing listservs. Pulling together focus groups. Is this the long and the short of the plan for guaging the effectiveness of your Web site?
If so, you will be rewarded with a wide scattershot of commentary, much of which is neither accurate nor usable.
In fact, implementing this ilk of "user feedback" can be detrimental to your site's health.
Think about it. If you were overseeing the construction a classroom building, would you conduct focus groups and surveys to determine what materials should be used, where the doors and stairways should go, how strong the load-bearing walls should be?
No? You would rely on qualified architects?
Then why on earth would you open the door for individuals who have no understanding of how the Web works to step in and have a direct hand in your site design?
When this type of free-form user feedback enters the site design process, it sets certain machinery into motion that is difficult to manage or to stop:
There is a better way. To get truly useful feedback, you must conduct usability studies.
Conducting a usability study does not have to be a difficult or complex. You do not need to set up a bank of video cameras, purchase expensive software, or wade through stacks of data. You also don't need to employ a great raft of subjects. Remember, all users of your site have much in common, so, even if your resources are limited to conducting only three or four studies during a design or evaluation process, you will be far better off than investing time in the scattershot approach.
What precisely is a usability study? Follow these references to learn more:
If so, you will be rewarded with a wide scattershot of commentary, much of which is neither accurate nor usable.
always crashing in the same car: recurring mistakes and misuses of the web
Think about it. If you were overseeing the construction a classroom building, would you conduct focus groups and surveys to determine what materials should be used, where the doors and stairways should go, how strong the load-bearing walls should be?
No? You would rely on qualified architects?
Then why on earth would you open the door for individuals who have no understanding of how the Web works to step in and have a direct hand in your site design?
When this type of free-form user feedback enters the site design process, it sets certain machinery into motion that is difficult to manage or to stop:
- You now have a deluge of recommendations, few if any of which have come from individuals knowledgeable of the Web. You must now wade through these, looking for what is sensible and usable. And figure out what to do with the rest.
- The more disruptively opinionated of your users - and all Web sites have these - now have the expectation that they can step in and change the course of your Web site by popping off a few comments.
There is a better way. To get truly useful feedback, you must conduct usability studies.
Conducting a usability study does not have to be a difficult or complex. You do not need to set up a bank of video cameras, purchase expensive software, or wade through stacks of data. You also don't need to employ a great raft of subjects. Remember, all users of your site have much in common, so, even if your resources are limited to conducting only three or four studies during a design or evaluation process, you will be far better off than investing time in the scattershot approach.
What precisely is a usability study? Follow these references to learn more: