A good user experience is the same as good customer service. It’s fundamental to the success of your business. You need to ensure your site is treating your customers well, just as you would expect of any other representative of the company. In this article, we’ll consider several ways to uncover problems that your site visitors encounter, as well as approaches to fixing these issues.

I recently told a friend about some ideas I heard during a brief website design seminar. He commented that it seemed like really elementary stuff. Indeed, it was. But the elementary stuff needs restating from time to time. It’s important to address basic issues before getting carried away playing with slick new features or major redesigns. The fact of the matter is that many sites don’t have the basics down — and it could be costing them business.

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The Maritime Museum’s research credentials and educational programs are second to none. Nautical books, seafaring music, and fine maritime art can be found in the Museum Store. Local residents and international tourists alike find visiting the museum to be an engaging day of discovery and learning. But the old Web site wasn’t communicating the experience well. This is a place where history and technology still live – not some manufactured presentation asking us to imagine how things once were. We wanted the new site to let visitors feel wind and salt spray. It needed to give a sense of the motion and power inherent in these ships that helped build California and the West.

Our discovery interviews revealed a diverse and growing organization with a broad range of needs. The old site was at least flexible, and was updated frequently by museum staff. There was a huge array of valuable content, but the museum was not being shown to its fullest potential. It was difficult for potential visitors to easily discover the variety of unique experiences available, from classes in celestial navigation to multi-day sailing adventures aboard tall ships. The new site retains the flexibility, while showing the excitement of directly experiencing a variety of historic vessels.

The site has more audiences than just museum visitors. Hundreds of dedicated volunteers and supporters keep the museum afloat. Literally. There are no buildings. The entire museum, even the offices, is aboard its collection of ships. The new Web site had to enable museum staff to communicate with their crews, the media, donors, other maritime museums, and historians. Now it can vividly convey the sense of pride and belonging these volunteers and supporters feel for their museum.

We’re very proud and happy to have been entrusted with this opportunity to help the Maritime Museum of San Diego communicate its world-class status, and we look forward to watching the museum’s continued development and success, supported by the new www.sdmaritime.org site.

So maybe you found a few little broken things (and if you did, good job!), but your site seems to be doing OK. If there were any big problems you’d have noticed them, right? Isn’t is obvious to everyone, that your “Neat-o Stuff” button leads to the store where you sell your products?

Nope. You are the last person in the world you should rely on here. You’ve been on the job too long. You already know your way around. However awkward or confusing things may be, they will seem familiar and natural to you. You’re fired. Time to hire some new blood.

Well, OK, you’re not fired. We still need you. Your new job is to sit quietly and take notes. And order pizza.

One of the most valuable things you can do is to watch new people try to use your Web site. Don’t worry! It’s easy, fun, and there’s enormous value in it when you consider what a bad user experience could be doing to your bottom line. Simply find someone who is pretty much like your customers, and ask them if they would let you observe while they use your Web site.

That’s where the pizza comes in. Bribery. “Hey, would you mind stopping by for a few minutes at lunch and trying out my Web site? I’ll buy the pizza!” Potential recruits at the office could include people who don’t report to you or work on your projects, new employees or temps (who don’t already know everything), or someone you just met on the elevator. For testing off-site, consider your family, neighbors, or friends. It helps if they are outgoing, arrogant, and have a bad attitude. You don’t need to hear “well, gosh, your site is real nice. It looks just fine, dear.”

We’re not talking about elaborate, scientific testing here. You are looking for problems like “huh… I don’t see any prices for anything” or “what on earth does this weird symbol mean?” Assure your recruits that any problems they experience are to be blamed on poor site design, not on them. Start them off with a little nudge in the right direction, like “pretend you are looking for a new desk for your office, and you need it delivered.” Then sit back and take notes. Let them struggle, without jumping in to help (this is really hard to do, when you know exactly where they should click). Notice (and take notes!) when they have trouble. Keep them talking. Ask them from time to time to keep sharing what they are thinking. Don’t give them the answers (unless they get hopelessly stuck).

You will probably be amazed at the things you thought were crystal clear, and yet users will miss seeing them, won’t understand what they are, or will attempt to use them in ways that never occurred to you. This kind of informal testing can be a real eye-opener.

Yes, more focused, professionally-designed tests, run by trained moderators, and recorded for detailed analysis are very worthwhile. But this baling twine and duct tape approach is valuable, too, and can help you quickly find things that are not working well for your customers. So order that pizza, grab your note pad, and round up your first recruit. Let us know what you find, in the comments, below.

You’re going to use one or more features of your own Web site. Look for anything that would confuse, annoy, or frustrate your customers. When we review sites we find the most amazing things: broken links, typos, confusing instructions, etc. It isn’t hard to find these things, but most companies don’t actively go looking for them.

You don’t have to be a Web design or development pro to do this. In fact, it’s better if you are not. Your site should be easy for regular folks to use, right? And don’t worry if you’re distracted by the game, you’ve had a beer or two, and the kids are tossing a football in the house – actual customers have to deal with those things when they visit your site, too. If you can find (and then fix) even a few areas where your site could do a better job, think of how many more customers will be happy with their visit!

Ready? Try one of these exercises on your own Web site, and take notes as you go:

• Sign up for your own email newsletter.
• Download a brochure or manual.
• Search for information using words normal people might use.
• Actually place an order for your product.
• Request information via your Contact form.
• Try anything else your site offers. Watch a video, download a podcast, send a greeting card…

Is it easy? Do you get a clear confirmation message? Are you told what to expect next? Does the newsletter, brochure, or product arrive as expected? Do you get helpful search results? Does someone get back to you with answers?

Any one of these tasks could reveal opportunities to make your site work better for your customers, and for your business, all from just a few minutes of easy work.

Another great thing to do is to watch while someone else tries to do these things. Next time we’ll tackle that one. Have a great weekend!

Until a few weeks ago I had a blog on one of my personal sites. The latest post was over a year old. I just didn’t get around to it, and it was too much of a chore. But recently I discovered a fun alternative: Tumblr.

It’s a very simple, easy-to-use, fun (and free!) blog-scrapbook-sharing kind of thing. You can post text, photos/videos (from your phone, even), audio, Web links, quotes, and chat sessions. More stream-of-consciousness than a classic blog, and less ephemeral than Twitter. In fact, Twitter.com uses it for their own Twitter Status page!

It took me less than a minute to sign up and get started. This is the kind of user experience people mean when they talk about not just usability, but delight. Glee, even.

I’ll probably put my new Tumblelog on my own site, just to play with it. Get your own, then post the link in the comments here. And sorry to ruin your weekend… You were probably planning to go outdoors or something.

It seems appropriate that I heard about this blog post via Jim Durbin’s Twitter post this morning.

Follow me on Twitter, or friend me on Facebook!
Linda

In her article, Ms. Jarrett offers some books about writing clearly. (I’ll add my favorite, “Why business people speak like idiots.“)

She discusses the similarities between good technical writing, and good usability. I have long held that there is no distinction – or at least no clear line where one stops and the other starts. The goal of each is to make things clear, easy, and empowering for the reader, application user, or site visitor. Use language, images, and concepts that are appropriate for the audience. Anticipate questions and provide answers. A Web app or site can have the most sensible flow possible, but if the steps or pages are labeled in a cryptic or overly-stylized way, people might well end up being very confused when trying to use it.

The designer/writer may have created something brilliant and elegant, and they know exactly what they meant by it, but that counts for nothing. Others have to “get it” – that’s the only measure that counts in communication.

One point Caroline Jarrett didn’t quite touch on, is usability testing for content. Just as we test applications and Web sites to be sure people use them easily, we should test instructions, online help, and getting-started guides, to be sure they support the reader as we would hope. ]]> http://www.reddoor.biz/good-copy-is-good-usability/feed/ 1 http://www.reddoor.biz/papa-johns-hits-1-billion-in-online-sales/ http://www.reddoor.biz/papa-johns-hits-1-billion-in-online-sales/#comments Thu, 08 May 2008 15:55:00 +0000 Linda Eskin http://lippman.reddoor.biz/rpark/reddoorbuzz_com/?p=2299 Yes, that’s billion, with a “b”.

According to this article on CNN.com: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/biztech/05/08/papa.johns.ap/index.html, “In the past seven years, Louisville-based Papa John’s International Inc. has made a lot of dough from online ordering — more than $1 billion to be exact.”

“Since launching its Web-based ordering in 2001, Papa John’s said it has invested more than $15 million in online ordering technology. Customers can place online orders up to 21 days in advance. Another function lets consumers repeat their most recent orders with just one click.”

According to the article, Papa John’s online sales have been growing at more than 50% per year. Online orders and orders via text messaging (introduced last year) now make up 20% of their sales.

The article also discusses Domino’s Pizza Tracker, where customers can check the up-to-the-minute status of their pizza. How fun!

Pizza Hut’s online orders have reportedly grown six-fold in the past 3 years.

Great, I wasn’t hungry… Now I want a pizza…

The other day I dreamed up a simple backyard project I wanted to do. I went to the Web site of a popular national home/garden supply store (you know who) to get the answer to a seemingly simple question: “How much do 8” x 8” x 16” concrete blocks cost?”

I happen to know this company sells concrete blocks, because I see them in warehouses when I visit the stores, but “Do you sell them?” might be a question some site visitors would have, too.

So I entered “concrete block” in the search field, and clicked the button. This is the online equivalent of walking right up to the Customer Service desk at the front, and asking, essentially “do you sell concrete blocks, and how much do they cost?” But the search results, amazingly, included no concrete blocks of any size or shape. Not pavers, or caps, no full-size or half-size blocks, adobe-look, dry stack… nope. Just glass blocks. 3 pages of glass blocks. 31 products related to glass blocks, a masonry saw blade, and some kind of resin-based paver tile.

Here’s how I see this kind of gross incompetence from a Web site’s search feature: I just walked up to the customer service desk at a big construction supply business, asked about concrete blocks, and got a blank stare and a bunch of irrelevant suggestions (“How about these lovely glass blocks?”).

If you run a business, would you put up with staff who treated customers that way? Of course not. If your front-line customer service people can’t provide basic answers to simple, common, easily-foreseeable questions, like “How much are concrete blocks,” you obviously either hired the wrong people, or you need to train them.

If your site’s search feature can’t provide reasonable results to simple queries, maybe it’s not the right search technology, or maybe you haven’t “trained” it right. Be sure your search feature can handle misspelled product names, for instance, and that it “knows” drywall and sheetrock are the same thing. This requires some customizing and configuring. But just like training new employees so they can represent your company well, it’s a wise investment, and well worth your time.

If you want to have some fun, try searching for “bricks” at the same site. One of the results is a LaCie “Brick” Desktop Hard Drive, but no actual red, clay, building-material bricks.