Heed this advice to avoid typical pitfalls

I think Danish physicist Niels Bohr said it best: “An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.” Having planned, analyzed and reported on over 700 user test sessions, and made lots of mistakes in the process, I certainly meet this definition. But, by reading and heeding my advice here, you won’t have to repeat the same mistakes I made - and you’ll hop a few steps up the user test (UT) learning curve.

1. Write a rock-solid test script

Ever watched a movie that had lots of great actors in but turned out to be terrible? (I certainly have!) Then you know the importance of a well-written and edited script. That’s especially true for user tests and doubly true for unmoderated user tests, which comprise…

It’s important to follow best practices when presenting your user tests findings to your stakeholders and colleagues. Here’s how to do this.

You’ve done all the logistical work — creating user profiles, recruiting representative users, running your test, and collecting reams of data. Now it’s time to share what you’ve learned. But, unless you want to make peoples’ eyes gloss over, you’ll need to make sure your ‘insights’ report really resonates with your audience. Accomplish this by following these five guidelines and you’ll soon grow your influence in your organization.

1. Provide key background information

Before you present your findings, be sure to ‘set the stage’. Summarize things like: What site/app/product was tested. Why it was tested (your study goals). Who participated in the test (the users). How it was tested (the methodology). Without this context, and especially the ‘why’ explanation, your audience may not pay attention to what you say next. Only then, after you…

Whether you’re new to Conversion Rate Optimization or a seasoned pro, you need a solid CRO programme to take your digital marketing career to the next level

Done a lot of split or multivariate tests, or various other CRO activities, but not achieving the quantum conversion lifts you’d hoped for? If so, you need to read SmartInsights’ new and improved Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Programme Briefing!  

While still providing foundational advice on these topics:

Creating a data driven organization Estimating the ROI of your CRO projects Using the latest and greatest customer research tools Incorporating both big tests and smaller optimizations into your systematic testing

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Our updated CRO…

Chart of the day: Usability testing budgets have increased in 2016 compared with 2015, in an early-2017 study by Usertesting.com

Budgets are either increasing or staying the same for most respondents, budgets are only decreasing for such a small amount of respondents. This shows businesses value usability testing and the benefits user experience research brings. For industries such as market research, who are seeing reductions in budget, it's a pleasure to see user research budgets increase.   Most respondents also indicated that a change in attitude or simply no change/ no reason was leading to the budget change. The study also found that the majority of respondents have no fixed budget (40%) for usability testing. Source: UserTesting.com  Sample: 2,238 professionals across a number of industries who are in some way involved in user research Recommended resource: Digital Experience Mangement Toolkit …

Hidden navigation menus, such as hamburger menus negatively affect discoverability, increase task time and perceived difficulty of the tasks.

Quantitative user testing studies aren't as common as qualitative studies in the world of User Experience Research, but this brilliant study by Nielsen Norman Group (NNG) with 179 participants found that hidden menus, such as hamburger menus led to worse discoverability on both desktop and mobile devices.   Methodology The study by NNG used remote unmoderated testing, which involves users recording their screen and voice at home, whilst working through instructions. Six live websites were tested across desktop and mobile, including three types of navigation: Hidden navigation: where the main navigation is placed under an icon (e.g. hamburger) and the user is required to click or hover over the icon to display the navigation Visible navigation: main navigation shown clearly in a navigation bar Combo navigation: a combination…

When businesses use eye tracking data to help them design their website they could be missing vital information about their web visitors

Eye tracking studies are undoubtedly useful. Let’s get that fact out-of-the-way first. These specialist studies show exactly where people look on web pages and as a result web designers can ensure that specific elements are positioned for maximum visibility. But are these studies as valuable as they might seem? In this article I shall explain why eye tracking studies have limitations which companies should consider when they are building their websites. What you’ll discover in this article is: How eye tracking works What eye tracking tells you What eye tracking does not tell you The major flaw with eye tracking Filling in the gaps of eye tracking The place of eye tracking in marketing

How eye tracking works

Eye tracking can be performed in various ways, but generally small cameras track the movement of the pupils as…

Using eyetracking to assess the 3Ws of your landing pages

Imagine that you are at a reception in a massive hotel ballroom, and Barack Obama is the guest of honor. You desperately want to speak with him about a brilliant idea, but know that you will only have a few seconds to catch his attention before he is whisked away by his security detail. So, what do you do? Flash your accreditations and references? Dress up in a clown costume and perform your rendition of the robot? Launch into a slam-poetry version of your master’s thesis? These tactics to get attention may seem improbable, but they are precisely the kinds of mistakes in building a landing page that we see at Eyequant all the time. Landing pages are designed to give the user a branded and actionable gateway into an online offer. Without stretching our poetic muscles too far, a…

An introduction to user testing reviewing 3 options from Skoda to Porsche to Rolls-Royce?

No matter whether you work for your yourself, within a start-up business with 1 member of staff or you work at a multi-national blue-chip corporation, understanding your customers is one of the key ingredients to making your business and proposition work. From lead generation and e-commerce websites to web applications and intranets, user testing is one of the most powerful, insightful and actionable techniques you can use. You move beyond thinking of your website/app/intranet from your own perspective to seeing how people who aren"€™t involved in your business browse, experience and interact with it. From my experience user testing should very much be on the agenda for all businesses, for a number of reasons explained within this article. Critically, where user testing used to be considered an expensive, luxury service for only big businesses, new tools and techniques have…

This year, I've heard from quite a few companies and agencies recommending What Users Do for improving their sites and services. I was intrigued by the relatively low cost compared to traditional usability services, so thought it would be useful to share some background on the service. Smart Insights are independent of companies providing tools to improve digital marketing, but are keen to share ideas of the options available and what people think of them - see for example our post reviewing website user feedback tool options. So, please share your experience on similar usability services. Thanks. Over now to Lee Duddell of What Users Do. Here are my questions...

1 What is whatusersdo? Which types of sites/pages does it work best for?

whatusersdo makes it easy for website owners to improve User Experience by observing real people using their…