Here’s a small trick I use with online order forms that helps me to identify one of the problems a website may have. When contacted through one, I never ask for a business address or phone number right away. I don’t want to know what these are. As a website usability consultant, when I visit a client’s website for the first time, learning how to contact them is my first official task. If I can’t...
Articles in Usability
Is it Time to Reconsider Flash?
Not long ago I visited a website selling yurts and teepees and was immediately drawn to their photo slideshow located in the upper center of the home page. To learn more, I needed to scroll down to the content or locate a link to follow a task. Typically, the mere sight of Flash provokes a “warning, warning Will Robinson” like feeling in me because of past experiences with it. In this case, however, the product...
Interview With Gord Hotchkiss: The Master of User Behavior (Spring 09)
In understanding search user behavior, no one is a more respected voice than Gord Hotchkiss. He and the research team at Enquiro have built a solid reputation as the leading experts in understanding not only what happens on a search portal, but also why. Gord’s voracious personal curiosity extends into areas as diverse as neurology, psychology, genetics, sociology and anthropology, always with the goal of understanding why we do the things we do and what...
Input Type = Increasing Conversions of Forms
Anyone using the Internet to purchase products, subscribe to a newsletter, sign up for a service, or make contact with someone has a horror story to tell. We’ve come a long way in the last 10 years in understanding human-computer user behavior; however, the majority of websites are built using the site owner and/or web developer’s personal experiences and preferences. With form design, in particular, little thought is usually given to usability, much less for...
Your Blogging Happy Place and Usability
Congratulations! You have a blog. It has a catchy name. You’re amazed at the inbound traffic. The ads in your sidebar are paying your mortgage. People recognize you on the street. Next year, you plan to retire to a tropical island because your blog’s success is like winning the lottery. Or not. Focusing on the usability of your blog can help create a happy picture much like the one I’ve described (well, maybe not everyone...
Usability and SEO: Speed Dating Nirvana?
Imagine a search engine as the bouncer at your local bar, where potential customers spin around on bar stools waiting for the next big pickup line from a stranger. The search engine is figuring out what your site is about and where – even whether – it belongs. But how and what you – the stranger in this scenario – communicate will likely be the clincher to searchers. At the bar, someone might lean over...
Free Insider Knowledge from Yahoo!
I have expressed my concern with Yahoo’s Search Marketing platform more than once but this time, I have to send some praise over to Yahoo’s Developers’ Center. If you are a web developer (or a website conversion specialist or even just want to create a stronger customer experience so you’ll ideally make more money) you have to visit: http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns. This incredible resource is available for free and it spreads open the gates to Yahoo’s vast,...
Discussion: Your Blogging Happy Place and Usability
by Kim Krause Berg Focusing on the usability can help you achieve the goals you’ve set out for your blog. Like many endeavors, it all begins with a vision. You need to be clear no the purpose of your blog and what you want your readers to do there. You also need to be clear on the value you are planning to provide for your readers and figure out who is your target market. Once...
SES Update: Usability & SEO: 2 Wins For The Price of 1
Matthew Bailey with SiteLogic opened up the session on the intersection between usability and SEO. He reminded us that usability and SEO are two sides of the same coin: driving traffic to the site and getting them to do what you want them do. Basically, if they can’t find it, it’s not there (whether in search results or on the site). Bailey then outlined the various types of searchers, including the sharpshooter (specific), shotgun (general)...
Are You Creating a World-Class Customer Experience?
I have always been a huge evangelist for greater customer focus. Because of my experience in relationship management, system integration and customer satisfaction, I have learned first hand how technology designed without the customer in mind creates not only weak and forgettable experience but also poor economic results. I found an article recently that stated, “Eighty percent of companies believe they deliver a superior customer experience, but only 8 percent of their customers agree, says...
