Ten tips for affordable usability testing

Building an ecommerce website is a complex process involving multiple disciplines. Business owners, developers, designers, operations managers, and marketing managers all have a say in how a site should operate, but how often do companies consult with their customers?

Letting the end users contribute to the project through user testing before the launch can help stave off potential problems that those involved too closely in the site might never notice. And it need not be a painful disruption to the project. Here are a few tips for involving users in the design process:

1) Accept that you can’t build the perfect site without involving your users. Inexperienced designers and developers often shy away from testing in case the users don’t like their ideas and leave them exposed in front of their clients. A good site is built for the users, not just the business, so make sure everyone puts his ego into check and focuses on the customer. The best sites in the world have big user-testing budgets, so don’t expect to launch a great site without some feedback.

2) Test early. Don’t wait until you have a working site to begin receiving feedback. Rough designs are good enough to obtain early responses to such questions as

* What do you think this site sells?

* Where would you click to find a [product name here]?

* How would you get back to the home page/product listing/search results?

3) Test often. This sounds like a project management nightmare, as testing invariably results in change. But feedback from real users often results in less complexity in the final site, so early testing can actually reduce the scope of the project rather than expand it. Remember, it is certainly easier to cope with change before a site is set live than afterward.

4) It’s better to test badly than not at all. Well-run testing facilities come with professional moderators, two-way screens to observe tests as they happen, and good-quality video recording. These are undoubtedly going to give you a better result than DIY approaches, but don’t let the cost put you off doing any testing at all. Some friends, rewarded with beer and pizza, sat around a laptop in the office in the evening is a better test than no test at all.

5) Six users is enough. User testing is not research, so “statistically significant” is not your issue. Put six people in front of your website. If one struggles, consider ways of adapting the site; if two or three struggle, definitely make the necessary changes.

6) Use the right criteria in finding test subjects. Marketing managers tend to obsess about demographics such as age or income, but behaviours are usually more important. For instance,

* How much are your site visitors likely to know about your industry?

* How often do they shop online?

* How many hours a day do they spend on the internet?

Get a spread of responses to each of these questions and consider each user’s actions with his level of knowledge in mind. A less experienced shopper who stumbles but gets there in the end is less of an issue than a regular shopper having the same degree of difficulty using your site.

7) Watch, don’t guide. Try to get an independent party, rather than someone directly involved with the site, to sit with the user in the test. This person will be less eager to guide the user round the site and “prove” how easy it is to use.

8) Keep tests short. Two or three tasks is enough—for example, have the user find and buy a product, look for sizing and fit information for a product, and check on the status of a previous order. It’s tiring work, and don’t underestimate the amount of notes and video that each testing round creates.

9) Don’t expect your users to give you the answers. User testing is not an opportunity to get the user to solve the problems with your site; it’s a chance for him to show you where the problems lie. Your team will still have to resolve the issues—and then you’ll try the proposed improvements out on other users to obtain additional feedback.

10) Testing never ends. Never consider your site to be finished. Shoppers are coming into contact with new online tools and experiences all the time, and it’s important to see how well you are keeping up with the competition and ironing out creases that are, hopefully, smaller and smaller. As your online business grows, changes that were once not worthwhile will start to be able to pay for themselves as more and more people visit your site. Improving conversion rates almost always brings back better returns than generating more traffic, so when times are tight, make sure you are looking after the users you already have.

Stephen Pratley is managing director of ecommerce specialist Shine Marketing.