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Part Two: Conducting a Website Review
2007-08-22 20:51:00
Website reviews, also called “heuristic evaluations” or “site reviews” are quick and inexpensive ways to see what is working and what isn't on your site. When we conduct website reviews, we want to be sure that we do the following: Attempt to accomplish actual user goals. Following the principles of our research methodology, we to try to have consumers complete goals that are specific to the business purpose of your site — such as how to apply for a loan online, where to find relevant contact information or purchasing a product to see how the e-commerce flow works. Avoid confusing consumer goals with business goals like up/cross-selling or branding.  Your customers don’t arrive at your website and say to themselves, “boy, I’d like to have a very positive online brand experience today.”  Instead, they use your site and try to accomplish their goals.  Making sure you're testing for that scenario is key. Look for obvious or potential user experienc...
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Evaluating User Needs: Best Practices for Websites
2007-08-14 13:00:00
Part one: Take a look at your behavioral aspects of your customers on your site. You need to really mine your site's web analytics package as it's the first step for understanding where visitors go on your existing site, and what they do when they get there.  If you or your site designer do not currently utilize a web analytics solution, you need to do so immediately.  Analytics are the keys to determining the "how" people use your site. There are many off the shelf packages you can use.  Webtrends.com is one.  You can use Google Analytics for free.  Even though the Google analytics package is simplistic and very basic, it will provide you with supplementary data that is very helpful.  We've recently tested it on Solavista.com and found that it works well given the price, but it is limited in scope.  Mining your analytics data often brings up questions that pose more questions for future site reviews. While analytics only tell you ...
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Highlight Privacy and Security Policies Online
2007-08-13 14:00:00
A Forrester research study conducted last year surmised that upwards of 60% of online consumers say that having a very clear and present privacy policy when interacting with websites is an important feature.  Knowing this, web sites should make it a key objective to include links to both their privacy and security policies on nearly every page.  Especially pages where user and/or secure information is being asked for. The policies, as a best practice, should tell consumers how data in general, is obtained, housed (if applicable) and used.  Policies should also provide consumers with the ability to have control how data about them is used.  There are many good examples of websites that provide clear and ever present policies.  See, CNN.com as an example.  They provide not only clear directions, but explain in detail why the information is collected along with links to their privacy policies and practices. This is one area of a website that you comple...
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What's Your Website's Point?
2007-08-09 22:47:00
We recently had a customer of our ask us to review his site.  We did this and the consumer panel concluded that the problematic area with his site was, to quote a respondent "the site has no point."  This made us think. Perhaps one of the simplest and core evaluations you can do on your own is to take any (or every) page on your site and evaluate it with that simple question, "what is this page's point?"  There are other ways to ask simple question to help you find site direction: What's in this for the customers (current and prospective)?Does this page make sense?Do I know what they do/sell?Is it clear what a customer is to do next?Can the customer find what he/she needs or wants next?If they leave this page immediately, would they know what we do? Asking these types of simple questions may appear to be, well, too simplistic.  But the reality is that your customers want easy answers when they come to your site.  Ask yourself the sim...
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Solavista Research Panel Delivers 1.5 Million Users
2007-08-02 05:40:00
For Immediate Release Scottsdale,  Arizona (August 1, 2007) - Solavista has increased its database of internet research participants from 15,000 to 1.5 million by linking resources with new strategic partners. Solavista provides website usability research and testing services. “We now have access to 1.5 million consumers who have signed up to review websites and respond to usability research studies,” says Brad Loebbaka, Solavista Director of Marketing and Operations. “The scope of our panel allows us to precisely target demographic and psychographic niches for our customers.” Solavista’s usability testing service allows any business or individual to user test its website, online promotions, landing pages and ecommerce pages for a minimal cost and high-value return. Solavista’s VistaMeasure report user-rates web pages on 24 critical usability factors, helping customers improve their user experience. “With our increased database of internet users and...
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