Usability Testing with Users Who are on Your Site RIGHT NOW

Articles from the Nielsen Norman Group, or anyone associated with Jakob Nielsen are always interesting, insightful, and full of useful and objective information. 

Marieke McCloskey, a User Experience Specialist with the Nielsen Norman Group, provides a good article on usability testing, but with a twist: Test with users currently on your site.

Doing usability testing is often done at the start of the design of a new website, but drops to the back burner for more important and high priority tasks after site launch. But it should be performed on a regular basis and be part of an overall web/digital strategy to ensure your visitors can find what they're looking for, and of course, convert. The last thing we want to do is frustrate visitors. That's a bad reflection on your organization.

Running usability testing, in the traditional sense, requires gathering users and testing your site in a live, face-to-face meeting. This isn't always feasible or practical, and lets face it, this process can be costly in terms of setup and time.

Marieky McCloskey provides an excellent step-by-step approach to usability testing with users who are on your site right now through a popup window invite using ethnio and then GoToMeeting.

This process saves time, money, and the best part is that you're testing with users who are on your site because of interest in your products, services or content. I don't think you have better testing subjects.

Read about the process on the Neilsen Norman Group website: http://goo.gl/vpuhCA

Most important "webmaster" videos from Matt Cutts

So I've put "webmaster" in quotes because first, I think it's so outdated, and second it doesn't accurately reflect today's person who manages a website. Mainly because it's no longer one person who manages the technical, marketing, content, social media, etc, etc. of an organization's digital presence; although this person needs to have some level of involvement in it all. And besides, the title can be construed as gender specific, don't you think? Again, another reason why it needs to be changed to something that more accurately reflects the position and is gender neutral.

Ok, that was quite the digression.

As you may or may not know, @mattcutts provides "webmasters" with helpful videos. They are a great source to help stay on top of what is going on and changes that need to be made to a website to stay relevant with search engine.

Pete Prestipino at Website Magazine puts the top 12 in an article. http://goo.gl/idzZoh

K, P, and Is, OH MY!

If you're getting started with KPIs for your website traffic, it's good to have an idea of where to start. Now, it's important to note that not all KPIs are created equal, nor should they be. Most KPIs from organization to organization are different and based on the organization's needs and it's products or services. However, there are some good baseline KPIs that can be used to get going.

This article from @DaveSnyder points out some very useful KPIs and determining their value. goo.gl/48ax61

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cross-Channel User Experience: Making it Seamless

When it comes to usability, we need to strive for a seamless user experience from device to device, from device to physical world, and from physical world to device. Providing this level of continuity allows for a better user experience and may provide a competitive advantage.

During the decision making phase, the last thing we want to do is disrupt the thought process or sidetrack the user. Many users will move from device to device (e.g., mobile device to laptop) or device to physical location (e.g., tablet to a physical store),  and making the transition seamless will be more engaging and provide for a better overall user experience; and hopefully ensuring the conversion or sale.

I couldn't agree more with an article from Janelle Estes from the Nielsen Norman Group. Consistency from one channel to another is key. We want to give the user the information they need, but make it as simple as possible and eliminate unnecessary steps along the way.

This needs to be a serious consideration if you're converting your website to responsive web design or  developing a mobile app.

Read more on this from the Nielsen Norman Group website as they provide some excellent real world examples.

http://www.nngroup.com/articles/seamless-cross-channel/

10 Surprising Social Media Stats

Came across a good read from +Belle Beth Cooper on the current status of social media. If you work at a university, this article addresses not only prospective and current students, but also older alumni. But whatever your industry, this article provides some good insight as to how you should be thinking about social media right now. Now, I'm always leery about stats, but I think these are a pretty good representation of where we stand today with social media demographics and access.

If you've been trying to get the powers-that-be to understand the need for more resources for social media engagement, this is a good one to pass along.

http://goo.gl/8AtoQV

Think Human!

We've all been hearing about the changes that Google's Hummingbird algorithm has made with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I think the jury is still out with whether keyword matches will still help rankings. Let's face it, if people are typing in a search phrase into Google, you still want that search phrase to be on your page because when the human sees the phrase, the human will know your content is relevant to them.  It's more important than ever to think human when creating your content, not just search engines.

Alesia Krush @alesiakrush published an infographic on Search Engine Journal to give her take on the Hummingbird. It is a good read. http://goo.gl/oUz2MR

Meta Descriptions. Here's the scoop

Came across this article today from Pete Prestipino at Website Magazine that includes a video from Matt Cutts on the proper use of Meta Descriptions. http://goo.gl/VrkJ4x


Create unique meta descriptions for main content pages, never duplicate meta descriptions, and if you leave meta descriptions blank, Google will generate the associated text in the SERPs for you.

Also, when you create your meta descriptions, consider using keywords based on that page so that when users search on those keywords, those words will be bold in the SERP hopefully giving you a higher probability of click through.