Measuring Usability

Christina Inge

D4D Boston 2011

Your Visitors Are Telling You Something People don’t send emails complaining about

usability Absent formal usability studies, visitors’ online

behavior is the main indicator that your site has usability issues

Poor usability means fewer conversions (actions you wish visitors to take, such as purchasing, signing up, downloading content)

People get “lost” on your site, don’t know what actions to take, get confused among too many choices, walk away

Don’t Do This:

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Even Your GA Dashboard Has Valuable Data

Context Context = Meaning

Every metric only has meaning in the context of: Norms of field/industry Norms for your customers Metrics can vary widely in what’s OK depending on

industry: Bounce rate Visitor loyalty Recency

Content Overview: A Rich Source of Usability Data

Are People Going Where They Should Go?

Navigation

Are People Getting Stuck Somewhere?

When You’re Doing eCommerce

Usability

Is Usability the Issue? Don’t jump to conclusions A lot of factors influence conversions:

Source Time of day Seasonality Price/offers Etc

That said, if you think you have a usability problem, you probably do

Getting Closer to the Usability Answers On-site analytics Visit recordings Testing of Usability Elements

Limit Options

Clear Path

Usability is (somewhat) Contextual Acceptable

level of nav options can be high when people expect high number of choices: News eCommerc

e Services Education

News

eCommerce/Shopping

Services

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