Usability studies need to be done frequently on websites to make sure that you are not leaving money on the table. That is why we recommend doing fast and dirty studies rather than big budget infrequent studies.

Unfortunately many of you forget to test email/landing page interfaces. Before you send out email send it to people in the office and let them follow the links and make sure everything works and makes sense.

If Google would have done that they would receive many more conversions with their Israeli Google Engage project.

Landing Page Usability Problem Google Missed

The email stated that the program “just launched in your area”. That gave me confidence to click through.

Google launches Google Engage in Israel

Unfortunately when I reached the landing page it stated that “we can accept US & CA applications only.”

Landing page makes it clear that Google forgot to do a usability test

I think that most Israelis would simply ignore it, as I did.

In the Israeli culture:
• It is a more egalitarian society with less respect for authority—even Google
• We realize that people make mistakes and that Google simply forgot to update the landing page.
• There is a “can do” attitude
• There is a tendency to test things

However in other societies I am sure many people will see the instructions that the form is just for Americans and Canadians and drop out of the funnel.

So when you do your usability tests on the email/landing page interface don’t forget to test people from different cultures. You will be surprised by the results!

Mobile phone access to websites is becoming more popular everyday. Although the percentage is still small, for some sites it is already significant. One of my clients’ sites has 14% of its visitors accessing through mobile devices.

Most people know that a mobile friendly site is important. Many websites have the standard tips. However there are additional issues that need to be considered.

• On the iPhone and other mobile phones accessing numbers necessitates extra work.
  • Think twice before adding numbers to URLs.
  • Also, on forms, if you don’t need fields with numbers leave them out.
• On the iPhone there is a key for .com. Therefore .com sites are easier to type in than .org, .net or other TLDs.
• Since typing on mobile phones is much slower than on a computer—keep visitors typing to a minimum:
  • Shorter URLs are better than longer ones
  • Use less fields on forms
  • Instead of open fields use drop down menus for choices or radio buttons where possible
• Give more prominence to linked phone numbers than emails. An email requires typing. It is much easier to click on a phone number and start talking.

Use common sense to make things easier on you mobile website visitors and you will see your conversions increase.

I didn’t plan on testing the Israeli ISOC website. All I wanted to do was sign up for a conference. I received an error message that I have to enter the system.

The problem is that there aren’t any instructions on how to do this.

Israel ISOC Internet site has serious usability issues

Unfortunately there is no phone number or other contact info available for me to sign up offline.

I am a resourceful website user and eventually found a tiny contact us link at the bottom of the page. It linked to a page with phone numbers. The automated answering machine didn’t give me good choices but luckily I found the right person.

She knew about the bug.

I can understand not having enough resources to fix a bug. But I can’t understand why they didn’t leave a more helpful message – with contact info so people can sign up offline.

Website Usability Test – Lessons Learned

• Always check your forms and try to break them.
• When a bug is found – immediately update error messages so people are not left high and dry
• Fix bug as soon as possible. If it is not worth it to fix the bug make sure your error message is effective.

An eye tracking study for AdSense ads by Tobii suggests that more information is remembered when it has a high contrast color. “Increased awareness can lead to higher recall of the ad, thereby, helping build the brand of advertiser which can increase clicks.”

This is a little confusing because if people are remembering the ad, presumably they will later come in directly – without clicking – since they won’t be looking at the ad anymore.

This result is seemingly contradicted by an eye tracking study from Jakob Nielsen. Their conclusion is that:
“Users almost never look at anything that looks like an advertisement, whether or not it’s actually an ad.”

That would suggest that blending into the site is better than having a high contrasting color. It is true that the first study was referring to memory and not what people look at, but if they don’t look at the ad, it will reduce the chances of recall.

Sample ads Google uses as examples. Note that none of them would blend into a typical website.

So what are our recommendations? Test!

Your circumstances can be different than a particular study or a general trend. We recently tested ads which blend in against ads which have more contrast. Surprisingly, the ads which had more contrast did much better with clickthroughs.

Since we are one of the 1st companies to use this new, affordable eye tracking solution, I thought I would share some of the results. During our usability testing studies we ask users to tell us what catches their eye first. However, this is a subjective response.

That’s where eye tracking comes in. GazeHawk has figured out how to use webcams to track the eye and create a heat map. This is a much cheaper solution than using specialty equipment.

For our test, we asked for female users because of the nature of the site we were testing. GazeHawk warned us that they could not promise any demographics at this point but we decided to take our chances.

In the end we received both males and females—and there was a big difference in what they looked at. If your website is skewed to a specific demographic you may want to wait until they can offer tester segmentation.

This composite heat map shows that people focused on the center of the site. We have blurred the map to protect our client’s privacy.

Here are some highlights of our test:

• The eye tracking confirmed what we thought would get the most attention. What was surprising was how extreme this was. Other elements were hardly looked at. A heat map like this can go a long way to convincing clients what people look at
• The other surprise was the amount of attention our small flash slide show attracted. Conventional wisdom says that flash is usually ignored. It could be that our site is exceptional because there is a small amount of text which continues from slide to slide
• We were puzzled when we saw that many people fixated on the left side – but there was nothing there. When we checked on the live site we realized that for some reason the heat map was missing the side menu. The menu location is the bright area on the heat map above.

GazeHawk was great to work with:

• The tests came back a little later than promised but I would chalk that up to startup pains
• Their website should have more information. Many people don’t know all the subtleties of reading eye tracking heat maps and they can come to the wrong conclusions
• They included brief feedback from the testers. That is a nice addition

Eye tracking is one more tool to use in conjunction with usability testing and web analytics. It would be more useful if eye tracking was combined with a task. Hopefully, that option will be available soon.

The other day I was watching a TV show on Pink Floyd: The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon

David Gilmour, one of the band members, said something that made me want to jump up and say: Do a usability study!

He was very proud of the album but seemed to be a little bit sad that he would never have the experience of hearing it for the first time (a result of being involved in the album creation).

Abridged version of: Pink Floyd: The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon

This is why we do usability studies. The people in a company see their web site all the time and don’t have the ability to see their website objectively. Listening and watching people see and use a website for the first time is an eye opening experience for them.

So even though Pink Floyd band members could not have the experience of listening to their album for the 1st time they can have the next best thing: Listen to the album with a person who has never heard it and ask them to verbalize what they are thinking.

Maybe I should branch out and offer this service to bands so they can improve their albums before they are released. Do you think it will help?

In difficult economic times, conversion optimization becomes more important. Usability testing is the most important tool for increasing conversions in most cases. Make sure you are doing them frequently.

You will be surprised by reviewing this usability test. Since we can’t post tests we do for our clients, the following is an unsolicited review.

Here is what we found in out New York hotel Usability Test:

• There was so much stuff on the reservation page that you couldn’t see the form without scrolling.
• The popup window with more information could not be closed
• There was no link to a contact page on most pages on the website

Is it any wonder that people complain that there are not enough conversions?

The popup window on the right can’t be closed due to the fact that the close icon is hidden by the scroll bar. It also blocks the phone number on the top right so the average web user is stuck and the hotel succeeds in annoying the web site visitor.

More about usability testing >>

Most of our website usability testing continues through the last step of the shopping cart but we usually don’t actually buy the item. However in our last test, I decided to get my wife a present and had the item shipped to my office so I could surprise her.

I was pleasantly surprised when the present arrived the next day as I only requested regular delivery. However, when I opened the box my marketing instincts told me something was wrong. There was no promotional materials in the box—no catalog, no up selling, or cross selling.

Another lesson learned—usability testing should include actually ordering and receiving the item. I passed on the information to the company owner and of course she said, “You’re right—we will start including appropriate materials right away”. My wife, by the way, was very happy to get a new outfit.

Do you think I can write the expense off my taxes under usability testing?