Inner Circle Media

If you have a website or you sell your own software, you are probably familiar with the terms “usability testing” or “user testing.” But there’s a good chance that you haven’t embarked on testing your website or software in a meaningful way with actual users because user testing seems like such a complex and overwhelming task.

When you think about doing user testing, do you cringe? Do you imagine all the hours and effort, it would take to design the test? And then you’d have to carry out the test with so many participants who will likely feel uncomfortable about performing the test in front of you! Plus, then you’d have to spend time compiling the results and trying to draw conclusions about what to change on the site or software.

And oh gosh, what about all the time it will take to find the right software? And how much does that software cost anyway?

So many questions and worries! Well fret no longer – we assure you, it is not Rocket Surgery!

In his book “Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems,” Steve Krug calms the fears of all those who are intimidated by user testing. If you aren’t much into reading or just need a quick overview to convince you it’s worthwhile, here you go. Krug’s 6 “maxims” included in his book are…

1. “A morning a month, that’s all we ask.” User testing doesn’t have to take up oodles of time. There is no need to test with 10 people and then spend an entire day analyzing the results of those tests and deciding what you’re going to change. In one single morning you can do 3 user tests and then debrief with your team over lunch. Don’t spend more time that you actually have to!

2. “Start earlier than you think makes sense.” You don’t have to wait until the website is completely finished to start testing. In fact, it’s best to start testing in the beginning design stages because it’s often easier to make changes then. If users don’t respond well to the use of hot pink as your background color, it’s good to know sooner rather than later because you can more easily change a Photoshop file than a coded website. Those initial design tests can be ever easier with resources such as Krug’s “Five Second Test.”

3. “Recruit loosely and grade on a curve.” Don’t get so caught up with finding the “right” users to test your site or designs. Be flexible on the type of user you’re recruiting. If your target audience is familiar with technical terms required for understanding some of the content on your site, but a test participant doesn’t know that jargon, it’s okay. You can note that the test subject doesn’t understand some of the words, but you don’t have to change all of the terminology. You are just making sure that the user can navigate the site, understands where to go and what to do.

4. “Make it a spectator sport.” You should not be doing all of this alone! Get others in your organization involved. Invite anyone and everyone in your organization to be observers for the test. The more eyes watching what users are doing, the more diverse and comprehensive your observations will be. The requirements for participation as an observer are as follows: attend all user tests, attend the debrief meeting, enjoy the snacks in the observation room during the test and submit your lunch order for the debrief meeting in a timely fashion. That doesn’t sound so bad, right?!

5. “Focus ruthlessly on a small number of the most important problems.” The odds are that your users are going to be perturbed by lots of different things on the website, but the truth is, you can’t fix everything. So, focus on fixing the top 3 most important items, as decided on at the debrief meeting. These things should give you the most bang for your buck in improvements, and also not take up the most time. After you make those 3 most important improvements, you can test the site again to see if any other big complaints come up.

6. “When fixing problems, always do the least you can do.” Make the smallest change possible that will make a difference in the user experience. If a user was having trouble spotting the “Sign up for our e-newsletter” button, you don’t necessarily have to move the button and recode the template. Instead, change the color, add a graphic, and/or make the font larger. Often little changes make a huge difference.

So there you have it, a quick and easy overview of User Testing and the book “Rocket Surgery Made Easy”. User testing will help you as a web designer/developer/ project manager create better websites for clients. And if you’re a potential client thinking about a new website project, talk with your project manager about a possible user test or two. It will only help create a better website for you. Now… get to testing!

“Form follows function – that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”  – Frank Lloyd Wright

Here’s a great blog post explaining that good design focuses on meeting the needs of the user not just decoration and aesthetics. Many highly successful websites today (Google, Craig’s List, Apple) have few aesthetic embellishments. So are these utilitarian sites really “undesigned”? Or are they fulfilling users’ needs in by quickly providing easily readable information?

The author (Yaron Schoen) astutely argues that these sites are actually successful because they are “based on the essence of design” – they are uncluttered, easy to read, and full of white space which makes for an enjoyable reading experience. Schoen says, “This is good design, not undesigned. What may seem obvious for our print counter parts, we web folk (especially myself) are finally starting to understand what content design truly means and I think we should embrace this as a better evolution of web design.”

While it may look easy, it’s no simple task to plan and design websites that simply and quickly present information to users. Most websites you see today include unnecessary details, too much information, poor organization, and decorative ornamentation that decreases usability, confuses users, and negatively impacts the business success of the site.

When web teams focus first on meeting the user’s most pressing needs, then they can create a comprehensive and cohesive plan for a website where every element has an obvious purpose. Navigation, layout, and content (copy, graphics, etc) should steer users to readily get the information they are seeking and quickly accomplish tasks on the site. During design reviews with the web team and client, it’s important to keep asking “how does each element in this mock-up enhance the user experience and direct the user through the website?” If the element is just a decoration without a purpose, then it’s not necessary and probably shouldn’t be there. In this way, form will enable function, and the end result will accomplish its intended purpose.

Drupal is an open source content management platform. As a free open-source software package, Drupal is distributed under the GPL (“GNU General Public License”) and is maintained and developed by a community of thousands of users and developers. At present there are millions of websites (7.19 million as of 19 July, 2010) that are powered by Drupal.

When clients ask our team at Inner Circle Media , “Who else uses Drupal?” here’s what we say…

• The Whitehouse
• Foreign Affairs
• The BBC uses Drupal
• Die Zeit (major German newspaper)
• Die Welt (another major German newspaper)
• The Cable News Network (CNN)
• Amnesty International
• Greenpeace
• The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation(NATO)
• The United Nations
• IBM recommends Drupal
• Fast Company
• America Online (AOL)
• Sun Microsystems
• Novell
• Yahoo!
• Harvard University
• Fedex
• Forbes
• Warner Bros
• 20th Century Fox
• MacWorld
• RackSpace (major web hosting provider)
• Sony Music
• Universal Music
• Led Zeppelin
• Electronic Arts (Game producer)
• Metallica
• REM
• Pink
• Rock Band (XBox game)
• Avril Lavigne
• J-Lo
• Britney Spears
• Tori Amos
• The Grateful Dead
• Ozzy Osbourne
• Even Barbie® manufacturer Mattel use Drupal

And that’s just the start of the list! Many of our own clients use Drupal too – including the University of Michigan School of Nursing, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, and Rick Snyder for Michigan.

Cameron Chapman wrote a great article about usability (the way people interact with and respond to websites) on the website Six Revisions. Through eye-tracking studies, website analytics, and user surveys, researchers tested many usability “rules” and standards that have persisted for over a decade. This article explains that while some “rules” are just common sense, others that we take for granted (i.e. the 3 click limit) are disproved when tested with actual users. Here are the sometimes surprising findings of the research:

1. Ditch the 3-Click Rule: Research shows that users will click as many times as necessary to find the information they are seeking as long as your website doesn’t frustrate the heck out of them. As long as your site is easy to use and logically organized, users don’t worry about the number of clicks it takes to accomplish what they came to your site to do.

2. Arrange Important Content in a F Shaped Pattern: In a test with over 230 participants, Dr. Jakob Nielsen’s eye tracking study from 2006 showed that website users scan web content in an F-shaped pattern. Other studies have shown similar findings – users scan your website starting in the upper left corner, then reading across and down. It’s important to point out that study participants likely came from countries where their language is written from left to right, and so reading patterns have been long established.

3. People Hate Waiting For Your Website to Load: Surprise! If you make people wait, they won’t stick around. For every second it takes pages on your site to load, user are that much more likely to be dissatisfied and leave your site.

4. People Don’t Like to Read Big Blocks of Dense Copy – They Like to Skim: Here’s another shocker. People actually read only about 28% of the copy on your website, so you better make sure they see what you want them to see. Use big headers, bold text, and bullets for important messages and instructions for what you want users to do next.

5. People Don’t Mind Scrolling! Long ago webbies said that your important stuff should be “above the fold” (a term borrowed from newspapers). Nowadays website users have become accustomed to scrolling past the fold and don’t seem to mind it at all. Furthermore, users are more likely to scroll and actually respond better to websites when the content isn’t crammed into the vertical space at the top of the page.

6. Arrange Your Layout Based on How Users Read: This tip is directly related to #2 above. You should layout important design components (navigation, copy, etc.) based on how your users read. In countries where users read left to right, put the important stuff on the left; the opposite is true in countries where users read right to left.

7. Use Ample White Space and Margins: Users have less reading comprehension when your website copy is densely packed in a wide column. If you want users to actually understand your content and respond favorably to your website, make sure to use margins around your text.

8. Little Things Sometimes Mean A LOT to Users: Pay attention to the details. Wording, color, and obvious buttons all matter a lot to busy website users. Check your site’s usage statistics to find out where users are getting hung up and leaving the site. Then make improvements to those pages.

9. Don’t Rely On the Search Function Alone: This study shows that seventy percent of users prefer to navigate first, then use the search function if necessary, so make sure your content is intuitively organized so users can easily navigate. After you’ve ensured that layout, navigation, and content organization are effectively considered, then work on your search function.

10. Your Homepage is NOT the Be-All End-All: As search engines and social media sites evolve, it’s becoming less likely that users will enter your site through the homepage and more likely that they’ll search for a term that takes them to one of the interior pages of your site. Therefore, make sure it’s easy for users to quickly comprehend what your site is about and how to navigate from any page of your site. Furthermore, use landing pages for your advertising, communications, and social media efforts, so you can readily direct users to take action on your site.

Everyone seems to be asking the Magic 8-Ball these days, “Should I pay for online advertising?” The Magic 8-Ball is giving all sorts of answers ranging from “Signs point to yes” to “My sources say no.”  Does it make sense for your company to pay for Google Adwords or placement in other search engines? Take this quiz to find out.

1. Do you sell your products directly online via an e-commerce / online store?
   
2. Is your product or service new to the market?
   
3. Is your product or service easily searchable by people in your target market? For example, “Brighton remodeling company” is an easily searchable term; “Ethical Assurance Engineering Consultant” or “Unrefined Idea Specialist” are probably not logical, intuitive searchable terms.
   
4. Do your prospective and current customers already look for products or services like yours online?
   
5. Are you in a hurry to get placement in the search engines?
   
6. Are you willing to invest at least several hundred dollars a month to online advertising?
   
7. Does your website currently get listed on page one of Google for your top search terms?

If you answered YES to any of questions 1 through 6, then you should definitely consider paying for Google Adwords and placement in other search engines. If you also answered YES to question 7, then you should be strategic about what search terms you target in your Adwords campaigns. For example, if you already rank at the top of page one of Google for “Ann Arbor mechanic,” then you could use Adwords to target other more widely searched terms like “Ann Arbor auto repair“ or “Michigan car maintenance.”

Question 3 is a tricky one. If you answered, NO then you believe that your product or service is obscure, difficult to define, or not immediately thought of by your target audience. This means you might have a marketing problem, and before you commit your hard earned money to any type of advertising (online or offline) you need to clearly define your target market’s needs and the ways your products or services meet those needs. Then you need to write marketing messages that help your prospective customers immediately understand what your product or service can do for them.

The good news is obscure products or services (or those with a very targeted niche market) can actually benefit greatly from using Google Adwords. For example, a new trend in exercise is AcroYoga (it’s a combination of acrobatics and yoga, and I’ve heard from participants that is fun but hardcore!). While “acroyoga” is currently a very obscure term, AcroYoga franchises could benefit from Google Adwords by targeting broader search terms like “fitness classes,” “yoga strength training,” and “power yoga.”

As business owners, you hear a lot hype about marketing your products and services on the Internet. Experts tell you to “Improve your website. Launch a blog. Build a gigantic mailing list….” The trouble is the marketing information and advice provided online is often directed at companies who sell products and services that are sold exclusively through the internet.

But if you are like the vast majority of service-based companies, your services are delivered by interacting directly with your clients (in person or at least on the phone), so promoting your professional services is NOT the same as promoting a retail product or a service provided only online (i.e. website hosting).

Here are 4 internet marketing myths that could be misleading to service-based companies:

Myth #1— You must have an awesometastic, cool, interactive website.

Reality: You must have a website that clearly defines your service and explains how you help your customers alleviate their problems. Don’t even think about hiring a web development firm until you are clear about who your target customer is, what their pressing needs are, and how you can meet those needs. Design matters, but only so far as your website should look better than your competitors. Content matters MOST. If your content (copy, images, videos, articles, case studies, etc.) is personable, engaging, and speaks to the needs of your audience, they will begin to feel connected to you (and hopefully take the next step of contacting you).

Myth #2—More traffic means more revenues.

Reality: More traffic means only that more people are visiting your site each month. It does not mean that those people are taking any action on your site (reading your blog, filling out your contact form) or ever coming back to the site again. Before you spend money with search engine marketing firms, online advertising, or pay-per-click listings, make sure that your website attracts those people who actually need your services. And be sure that once they get there, they are logically guided toward specific actions.

If you’re wondering if your website compels users to do the things you want them to do, Google Analytics has a great tracking tool called “Site Overlay” where you can see an actual overlay on your own website to see what percentage of users are clicking each link on each page.

If you don’t have Google Analytics to measure your website’s performance, you could do your own user test or survey where you ask some of your customers to critique your website, carry out specific tasks, and provide feedback. The big question should be – “Based on my website, do I look like a credible expert you’d like to do business with?” If they answer YES, then pat yourself on the back. If they answer NO, then improvements must be made!

Myth #3—Build a gigantic mailing list.

Reality: A large mailing list is valuable, but only as long as the people on the list are qualified buyers, current customers, or referral partners. More people are likely to join your list (through your website or by receiving your e-newsletter from a friend or colleague) if you offer them insightful information, incentives, or coupons.

Myth #4—Killer copy will make people buy from you.

Reality: You are selling a service. You are not selling a ShamWow (the chamois, towel, and sponge all in one!). Hype might sell products, but TRUST sells service-based companies and professional consultants. Your website should bolster own brand by showing how you listen to clients, advise them with thoughtfulness and care, and provide exactly the services that meet their needs. If need be, hire a good writer to help you communicate what sets you apart.

Before you post one more thing on Facebook, Tweet on Twitter, or update your LinkedIn profile, ask yourself this – what’s my comprehensive marketing strategy? If you’re not sure why you’re on the web, how do you know if your efforts are successful? Just being there isn’t necessarily going to improve your business. In fact, without a strategy, your scatter shot approach and multiple online personalities could annoy, aggravate, or even scare away prospects, clients, press contacts, and potential business partners.

It seems people are in such a frenzy these days to jump on the online social media band wagon that they forget about marketing basics – who needs your product/service? And how will you reach those people?

Social media should be just a part of your overall marketing/communications plan. It should NOT replace your other efforts (advertising, press, media, website, etc.) Nor should the tools be used in standalone ways – i.e. you build a following on Twitter, but do nothing to reach out via email marketing, blogs, Facebook, etc.

As you create your strategy, consider your audience:

• Who are you trying to reach?
• What are they already doing online?
• Where are they finding out about you?
• Do they use online social networking tools?
• Are they talking about you online? What are they saying?
• What do you want your target audience to do – connect with you, repost your tweets, call you, email you, buy your stuff?

Now consider what tools and/or initiatives you already have in place. Which tactics do you use? Which ones work well for your audience? How could you make better use of these tools?

• Website
• Blogs (yours and others’)
• E-newsletter
• Personal
  

On Saturday night (March 14th), Catherine Hayes and I were featured on WJR’s Internet Advisor, a Detroit radio show that’s been on the air for 11 years on News/Talk 760 AM. For those wondering – no, we did not get to meet Mitch Albom, but we had a great time talking with Gary Baker (local leader, technology expert and entrepreneur), Foster Braun (with that name and that voice, he was destined to be a radio star), and Ed Rudel (computer support guru).

During the show, Catherine and I covered the basics of website development – from content to design to search engine optimization. We were interviewed during the first hour of the show. Listen to the podcast here. We’re looking forward to doing more shows in the future.

It was really fun to visit the gorgeous, historic Fisher Building and watch the sun set over Detroit. I’d encourage all of you to visit downtown Detroit again. We had an awesome dinner at Mosaic in Greektown, and the city was bustling with event goers (at all the local theaters and event venues), and party goers (the St Patty’s Day crowd was in full force).

In 2009 BIG fonts are still all the rage!

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Since it’s January 2009, it seems the trendy thing to do is to talk about web design trends for the coming year (and you know how I like to be oh-so trendy). Smashing Magazine put out a good list of the top 10 trends for 2009 (they’ll expand the list in the coming months and present some color trends too). The list of trends provides good fodder for web designers in need of inspiration; however, I found that most of the “trends” have been around for the past few years and became increasingly popular in 2008. So technically, these aren’t new or upcoming

On occasion we have a client who asks, “If one website is good for my business, then doesn’t it stand to reason that 2, 3, 4 or more sites would be even better?” The answer is “MAYBE – It all depends on your audience.”If you serve just one audience, then one website is probably all you need.

If you serve multiple audiences, you should first determine – are their information needs different enough to warrant separate websites? If yes, then perhaps you should have multiple websites geared specifically at each audience.

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For the sake of example, here’s a story…

Imagine you sell goats. For the past 20 years your target audience has been people who buy your goats for milk production. You’ve had a website for the past 6 years that promotes your goats’ abilities to make prolific amounts of tasty, nutritious milk.

Then you get a phone call one day. Someone visited your website and wants to know if your goats are good grazers. You say, “Why sure, our goats are good grazers. They eat just about anything, but they prefer to eat the finest clover hay which makes their milk taste ever-so-sweet.”

And the caller says, “Oh no, I don’t want your goats for milk production. I started a new company called Rent-A-Goat Services. We’re looking for friendly goats to use as an efficient, holistic, environmentally healthy approach to weed control. It sounds like your goats wouldn’t be good for this since they’ve been spoiled on the finest clover hay. I’ll call someone else. Toodle-loo.”

Initially, you are surprised, but because you are such a brilliant entrepreneur, you recognize a new market for your goats. Immediately you call your favorite web design company and get started on a new website that promotes your goats as the world’s most voracious weed eaters. Six months later you’ve sold more goats than the previous five years combined. You decide to establish a company called, “Hungry Goat Staffing Services.” A year later you are the preferred goat provider to Rent-A-Goat Services all over the country. Two years later you decide to sell your goat staffing company and move to Tuscany to learn Italian, drink good Chianti, and perfect your Mostaccioli recipe.

You get the picture? If you decide you need more than one website, keep these things in mind:

1. Multiple sites can be good for your search engine ranking - because you can cross link between sites and because you’ll have multiple search engine listings.

2. Managing multiple sites can be time-consuming. Don’t spread yourself to thin. If you can’t handle the maintenance of several sites, then just stick with one.

3. Don’t cannibalize from your other sites. If you set up two or three sites that market the same product, they may compete for visitors and may not help you increase market share.

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By the way, Rent-A-Goat is the real deal. We don’t make this stuff up!

There really are Rent-A-Goat services sprouting up around the country. Here’s a link to one in San Francisco City Crazing.

For small lawns and those hard to reach places…

… consider baby pigmy goats. They’re cute, bouncy, always hungry, and many people will think they’re just strange looking cats – which means you can keep them in your backyard in Ann Arbor. Perhaps they’ll become friends with your flock of urban chickens.