The Future of Usability Testing /  by Cory

hfi_logo.jpgHuman Factors International is broadcasting a free webcast on the Future of Usability Testing on Thursday, September 21st at 3:30 pm ET. Co-hosts: Dr. Susan Weinschenk & Dr. Kath Straub, Human Factors International

Download free whitepaper and connect to webcast at: http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/webcasts.asp

Susan and Kath will explore new innovations in usability testing and share the research behind them. Learn which techniques will fit your needs best. Topics include:

- Remote testing - Automated testing - Mixed-fidelity prototypes - Testing more than one design at a time - Alternatives to the usual think-aloud technique - Eye-tracking

The Webcast concludes with a live Q&A session, where you can submit questions and have them answered on-the-air.

New Analytics Startup - Crazy Egg - Review /  by Cory

Crazy Egg, launched just a couple of weeks ago, offers website analytics that include heatmaps (similar to Click Density). Crazy Egg allows you to:

  • Test different versions of a page to see which works better
  • Discover which ad placement gives the best results
  • Find out which design encourages visitors to click deeper
  • Learn which content leads to improved sales

Their product offers several different ways to look at the click data...

The Overlay View overlays expand/collapse icons over your website next to each link. When you expand them it shows you the percentage of overall clicks and the actual number (personally I'd want to see this information up front instead of having to expand them all):

Overlay View

The List View gives you a basic list of clicks grouped by link and orders them by most popular (being able to change the sort would be a nice to have):

List View

The Heat Map View shows you where people clicked and highlights more concentrated areas by using oranges and reds:

Heatmap View

Their free service allows you to track up to 4 pages as long as your visits (to those 4 pages) are under 4,000 per month. After that prices range from $20 to $100 per month depending on the plan.

No need to pay for good site analytics /  by Cory

When it comes to figuring out where the problem areas of your website are from a usability perspective, analytics can give you very good clues (if not data-driven answers) as to which pages are the culprit. With good website analytics you can:

  • Compare user behavior from one design vs. a new design (A/B testing) by analyzing:
    • Exit Rates
    • Conversion Rate
    • Where users go after they land on the page
  • Optimize your top entry pages so that they make sense as an entry page to your users
  • Analyze top exit pages for possible usability issues

I've had experience using several of the most expensive analytics suites out there (Web Trends Professional/Corporate, Omniture, etc...).

Thanks to Google Analytics, paying top dollar for your analytics is a waste of money and soon to be a thing of the past. Its completely free, offers everything (and more) that your pricey analytics suites offer, and its even easy to use! :)

Implementing google analytics is as easy as adding few lines of javascript to every page you want to track(similar to the way you do it using Web Trends, only easier).

If you use google adwords, its fully integrated into analytics and will show you the return on your keyword investment.

All in all, its a very good product and I would not make any major site decisions without it. Stop paying and go google :) Google analytics resources:

Click Density offers heat maps of user clicks /  by Cory

cd.jpgClickDensity, launched in July 2006, is the first to publicly offer Heat Mapping of user clicks. This allows any website to track every click that a user makes on their website, and view a visual overlay (called a heat map) of where those clicks where on the page. With this data you can quickly see the effectiveness of a design, measure click trails, and much more.

Implementation is a snap, you just add a couple of lines of javascript to the bottom of every page you want to track. That's it! The service looks very impressive at an affordable price.

Every website looking to gain insight on user behavior should look into this.

Design Flaw of the Trash Can /  by Cory

We've all been there...you're the only one around, the kitchen trash has started smelling foul and even that little ball of foil you need to throw away just wont fit in the already jam-packed trashcan (or is it just me?). You try to pull the trash bag out of the trash can, wrapping your legs around the can to get some leverage, grunting and sliding around, you spend 10 minutes just freeing the bag from the can. This is the design flaw of the trash can.

I have a simple solution...poke some air holes at the bottom of the trashcan! This allows air to flow into the bottom where the frustrating suction occurs.

Perhaps "taking out the trash" wont be such a chore now :)