business objectives meet user expectations
TRANSCRIPT
Business Objectives Meet User Expectations
Cheryl Myers
Nina Amato
Source: https://xkcd.com/773/
Who is CHEST?
Who is Cheryl?
• Director of UX, Mobile and Web
• Manage team which supports the website and marketing
technology
• Team includes Web Manager, Product Owners and contract web
designers.
• Have worked in web, digital marketing, UX, and application
development in both Marketing and IT.
Fun fact: My husband and I, being empty nesters, just moved from
Chicago to a small farmstead on the coast in Michigan.
Who is Brightfind?
Who is Nina?
• User Experience Designer
• Conducts research and designs experiences
• Research methods:
– Surveys
– Focus Groups
– Interviews
– Web Analytics
– Card Sorts
– Usability Testing
Fun fact:
My initials are NA. I need to include my middle initial when I initial contracts or else it looks like I’m saying “not applicable.”
Evolution
Not Revolution
Saying 'Yes' made a mess
Pick from safe choices
• Identified standard components
• Established a pattern library
• Adopted a framework
• Implement measurement toolset
False Consensus Effect
When people overestimate how
many people share our
understanding, opinions, or
preferences.
Usability Testing
• Test your revenue
generators.
• Ask testers to “think out
loud” and share their
thought process with you.
• Do not give away any hints
about how to accomplish a
task.
• Wait until the test is
complete to follow up and
ask questions.
Aligning User Needs
With
Business Goals
Define Goals
• Cross-divisional
exercises facilitate
communication of
goals from different
divisions in the
organization.
Cross-divisional teams
• Content owners
• Strategic stakeholders
• Executive Leadership
Cross-divisional exercises
Focus Groups & Interviews Help Build Personas
• Focus groups & interviews fill in gaps with personas.
• They tell us the “why.”
• Sometimes constituents make off-handed comments that tell us so much about what they need.
• Focus groups and interviews give us the opportunity to press further and find out more about these topics.
Focus Groups
• 6-10 people per group.
• Four groups are ideal. It’s the level of
saturation.
• Focus groups should be between 1-2 hours
long.
• Ask participants to sign a consent form if
you’re going to record the audio.
Focus Groups: How To Hear From Everyone
• You need to moderate alpha personalities and you need to
encourage shy participants to speak.
• We recommend this high tech tool:
Interviews
• Try to interview 3+ people per persona.
• Interviews should be an hour long.
• Dig deeper. Ask for a back story.
• Ask participants to sign a consent form if
you’re going to record the audio.
Constituents Appreciate Being Heard.
"I think the most important thing is that you guys
are looking for feedback. Or that these guys are
looking for feedback from you. That’s an
indication that they’re trying to build a better
system. I think most
people would appreciate that they’re doing
that. Because they’re not just saying 'you get
what you get.’ They’re trying to review and
improve."
Questions to Ask in Surveys
• Ask filtering questions such as:
– How often do you visit the website (daily,
weekly, monthly, yearly, rarely).
– How would you classify yourself (profession
or other criteria)
• We can filter the survey responses using
these criteria.
Questions to Ask in Surveys
• Rate the following content as either:
– Highly valuable
– Somewhat valuable
– Not valuable
– I didn’t know this existed
• Use the filtering questions to help filter these results. Look at
answers from those who visit the website daily and weekly.
Which content did they rank as most valuable? Then look at
answers from people who visit rarely. Which content did they not
know existed? If there is cross-over, that content may be a
candidate for the homepage.
1. Don’t overburden your users with surveys.
Especially pop-ups!
2. Have some go-to survey questions and don't bend
on adding random questions.
3. Think about potential outcomes and ensure your
survey results are actionable
Card Sorts
• Optimal Sort: www.optimalworkshop.com
• 50-100 participants
Card Sorts: The Similarity Matrix
Card Sorts: The Standardization Grid
The False Consensus Effect in Website Navigation
Measuring Aesthetics
• Who we are
• Who we aren’t
• Who we’d like to beStakeholders
• 5-second Test
• Part of a pop-up surveyConstituents
Microsoft Desirability Toolkit
Immediate Actionable Items
Set up Google analytics.
• Configure it to track the search terms entered into your
search box.
• Use Search Console to determine the terms people are
searching for to get to your site.
Check Google Trends for potential keywords.
https://trends.google.com/trends/.
Type the secondary level of your website navigation into
Excel. Choose 30 items from this list for your card sort.
• www.optimalworkshop.com allows a free card sort of up
to 30 items.
Immediate Actionable Items
Create a survey for your constituents.
• Create a free account on Hotjar.com or Surveymonkey.com
• Include filtering questions
• Ask participants to categorize your website content as: highly
valuable, somewhat valuable, not valuable, and “I didn’t know
this existed.”
Plan a cross-divisional exercise at your organization.
• Mix your teams to include people from different departments.
• Listen to the conversations around prioritization of content
• Assign content to personas, and organize your sitemap
• Buy some facilitation books and plan some workshops.
All life is an experiment.
The more experiments you make
the better.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Business Objectives Meet User Expectations
Cheryl Myers
Nina Amato