Stand-up comedians sometimes spend years working on a set. They spend time in smaller venues working out material. What jokes get the biggest laughs? How long should I pause before hitting the punchline? Sometimes you think something is funny, but it doesn’t work for an audience. Trial and error live on stage is the craft of our modern day jesters. This process also works for your organization’s digital experiences. Involving end-users in your design and development process will save you from an embarrassing flop when you are on the big stage.
Try to Focus
Effective design and digital experiences start with an intuitive understanding of the audience. But intuition is not always enough. Because users will be attracted to sites they like and avoid websites they don’t, you must provide a site that works well for your users and not just for you or your executives. For decades ad agencies have used focus groups to gauge the public’s reactions to campaign concepts, brand competition, and product names. Some of these same principles are applied in a newer type of focus group called Usability or User Testing.
Who’s In Charge Here?
There are many lessons to be learned when your end-users begin to interface with your design. Suffice to say, the project’s goal is never to build something complicated or confusing to use, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t unintentionally doing just that. When an end-user engages with your digital experience for the first time, they come from a completely different state-of-mind than the experts in charge of creating the experience. Form and function are often the focus for developers and designers, but users are there for input. If they find what they are looking for quickly, they will stick around and possibly convert. If they don’t, they are going to be left confused, disappointed, and irritated.
Testing. Testing. 1, 2, 3.
User testing, unlike its older cousin the focus group, can a relatively quick and cost-efficient process. There are many effective, third-party user-testing services. These services are typically reasonably priced and allow customization of your user audience during your test. Your test results come back as a video of the users and the onscreen action as a user navigates and narrates their way through your page. The client can also create questions for the user to answer as they navigate the page, like How easy is the navigation to use? What is the purpose of this website? Or Would you use this product/service? Be prepared for brutal honesty and some compelling insights. It’s helpful to have some video editing ability to narrow down the feedback into a single highlight video to be used as an executive summary. I like using third party services when possible because the testers are unbiased, meet specific criteria as identified by the client, and are paid for their service.
Other Testing Methods
While third party testing is a great way to procure feedback from users, sometimes your budget doesn’t have room for this type of expense. Just because your budget is tight does not mean you shouldn’t test. Social media is an excellent resource for inexpensive user testing. Depending on your demographic, Facebook quizzes and Twitter surveys are fantastic ways to garner user input with an added side-effect of potentially creating more clout for your business. Your testers must be impartial. I’ve been a part of many internal website audits, and while this step is equally important, this feedback almost always comes from a source that does not represent the intended audience.
In Summary
What you don’t know can hurt you. It’s critical to open a feedback loop on your digital experiences with real end-users. This process will guarantee the best possible experience for your intended audience.
Happy Holidays and stay tuned as we countdown the 12 Days of UXMas!
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