Aug 23 2010
Usability testing is an often overlooked component of web design. In fact, more often than not, it's skipped entirely, much to the detriment of a website's users. And because it is skipped, it's no wonder when business owners start wondering why their site isn't getting results or why they get so many phone calls on how to find stuff on their site.
I'll be the first to readily admit that usability testing can be overkill for some sites. But when a site starts to incorporate features that are supposed to help customers find key information, or help consumers buy a product and checkout quickly, usability testing can be the difference between fielding complaints and support questions to raking in increased profits.
Steve Krug, and those of us that have read his book on usability, would say usability doesn't have to be this long, drawn-out phase performed by a bunch of marketing guys in lab coats. It can be informal so long as you're doing it. Not doing it simply means you're taking guesses and making assumptions about how someone will use your site. While some assumptions may seem reasonable, they're just that assumptions. And guesses based on our own experiences and expectations, rather than hard data. Usability testing not only tells you how a person will actually use your site, but what the key problem (or problems) really is.
Take this example for instance. We worked on a site that required search functionality. Seems simple enough right? Well, the previous site had search functionality. Yet the company continued to get customers saying, "I can't find anything!"
For budgetary and time reasons (both of which are weak reasons in my opinion), this particular client chose to leave out any kind of usability testing. So, both the stakeholders and those of us working on the site's design/development were left to making guesses on how detailed the search function should be, where it should be place, what wording it should have, etc. And these guesses were based on our own experiences (or those of friends and family that we'd been told about), as well as assumptions on what we believed to be true about certain user groups.
By guessing and making assumptions on the search feature we only worked to treat the symptom rather than fix the problem. Had real (and simple, low-cost) usability testing been done, we would have had a much better foundation from which to enhance the search feature.
Usability testing doesn't have to be time- or resource-consuming. But even the time and money spent on basic usability testing can save you a lot of headaches and lost revenue down the road. Not convinced? Give this some thought: the time you spend on customer support because something on your site isn't designed as well as it could be, could be better spent improving your product or service and bringing in more revenue.