Summer Musings on Websites

Ok, summer is halfway over! I hope you've had some vacation time to relax. Summer is also a great time to think big and muse on how you want to improve your website. Here are 5 important things to consider:

1) An easy to update website is essential. I like Wordpress, tolerate Drupal, and dislike Joomla. But really, I can't figure out why more non-profits and companies aren't on Squarespace. Its platform is so much easier, looks great, and saves money. Squarespace didn't pay me to say that. If your website isn't very complicated, I would move it to Squarespace or another similar platform. Save the development headache and focus on the content. 

2) Website accessibility better get prioritized. Winn Dixie was sued for not having an accessible website recently. The blind customer won the case in June. Some design/development firm sure blew it. Next time they'll think about the 19% of folks with a disability in the US. You should too. Start with this guide to learn how to make your site more accessible. I'm working on improving mine this summer. 

3) Values show up on your website. Whether you are aware of them or not, your values are reflected in your behavior, your communication, and your website. Do you value efficiency, honesty, relationships...or something else? What are your values anyway?  How are they showing up on your website? My co-author and I discuss values extensively in our book Don't Be a Zombie: How to Refocus your Company’s Identity for More Authentic Communication. Using your values is the key to authentic and consistent communication. 

4) Copying doesn't work. It makes for websites that look too similar. It's easy to look at competing companies or blogs and think, "Oooh, we should do that too." If you find yourself saying something like that, STOP. It's a terrible idea. Instead, you can see what the competition is doing so you can do something different. Seth Godin talks about this in probably half of his 25+  books.

5) The best website book still remains the same. If you haven't read Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug, you are probably violating basic UX rules with your website. This means losing customers and readers. And don't depend on expertise of others. I know many designers and developers who violate basic UX rules all the time. Don't make people leave your website in frustration.

So that's what's on my mind. Do you agree or disagree with me? And what are you thinking about this summer? 

Join Me at the edUI Conference!

If you create or work with websites in any way, the upcoming edUI Conference is a great value for professional learning. It's happening next month in lovely Charlottesville, Virginia. A batch of terrific speakers will cover topics including UX, UI, social media and more. I'll be teaching a workshop on guerrilla usability testing with Julie Grundy of Duke University. We also teach the Intro to UX Class for Girl Develop It RDU. Join us! Register here.

What is UX, anyway?

I've gotten a lot of calls in the last six months about user experience (UX). They often go like this:

There is a lot of confusion around about UX among people in other industries.

In my classes and talks, I use this definition from Jacob Nielsen and Don Norman:

UX “encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products.”

People working in the UX profession aim to design that end-user experience deliberately. There's no doubt that you users will have some type of experience. Make it great or bear the consequences.

The process of UX design starts with user research. It continues with interactive user testing and feedback. UX is not an extra ingredient you chuck into your website or app at the end of the design process to make a superior product. UX involves users throughout the design process. This ideally results in a user-friendly design that adds value to people's lives.

UX design is NOT:

• adding visual polish at the end of the design - asking users what they want - working off of "hunches" or intuitions of stakeholders

There are many places to learn more about UX.

If you are a professional moving into the field, you can check out events at User Experience Professional Association chapters all over the world.

If you are a business owner trying to learn about UX, start by reading Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug. It's a five-hour read that will help you make smarter design decisions.

Currently great UX on websites and apps is a competitive advantage. That will change at some point, and it will become standard. Don't be left behind!

If you have questions about UX, get in touch with me here or on twitter @melissa_egg.

Usability Review of a Small Business Website (Video Included)

If you aren't paying attention to usability and user experience, your business may be doomed. Currently great UX is a competitive advantage in the small business world. This advantage will be lost as more business owners realize they must meet their customers' desires, needs and expectations of the company website.

Small business websites can benefit from a professional usability review to craft a better user experience for their potential customers. While nothing replaces actual user testing, usability professionals can point to problems with a website quickly and offer suggestions to improve UX.

What is a usability review?

A usability review is an evaluation of a website, app or other user interface by a usability professional to see whether common usability best practices are being followed. A usability review is thorough and evaluates more parts of a user interface than one usability test usually can. This may lead to finding a greater number of problems. However, because usability reviews are conducted by just one person, they cannot discover all the usability issues of a user interface.

What are the benefits of a usability review?

Usability reviews:

• Offer quick feedback on an interface as they can be conducted in 1 - 2 days
• Are often less expensive and time-consuming than user testing
• Result in a prioritized list of usability problems as well as potential solutions

How much do they cost?

The cost for a usability review varies widely and certainly depends on the complexity of the website. I've seen some listed for $300 and others for $30,000. The less expensive ones are conducted by firms who would like your business, e.g. they want to do a website redesign. I suspect in most cases you'd be better off using an independent professional who just focuses on usability. However, many small business websites can spend $3,000 or less to get significant ROI. Usability issues are contributing factors in abandoned shopping carts and exit rates on websites.

How is a usability review done?

Here's a short example of the beginning of a usability review I recently conducted for a small business client recently. I'm talking aloud during this video so you can hear what I'm thinking. This is a small website so it only took me about an hour to review it and a couple of hours to write up a report with recommendations for the business owner.

What's next?

Next I'll be conducting usability tests with participants to explore what I saw as potential problems. However, I'll also be certain to bring an open mind because it's very typical to be surprised by users during testing. Sometimes what I you expect might be a problem isn't one, but another issue will pop up you hadn't considered. There is truly no substitute for testing users and watching what they do at your website. But a usability review is a good start for many small businesses who need to improve UX.

What can you do now to improve the user experience on your website?  What kind of help do you need?

"Website Design with UX in Mind" Slides from DMFB 2015

Website Design with UX in Mind from Melissa Eggleston