To make it really simple, usability is about knowing your users and what they want and need. It is about improving their experience.
Who doesn’t want that? Don’t we all want to serve our clients better?!
However, you may have seen talk of usability testing and how you have to do all these focus groups and do research in a big fancy lab.
Most small businesses do not have the time or money for that!
And yet, you still can incorporate practices from usability research in order to make your small business website better.
3 Possibilities for Small-Scale Usability Research for your Small Business Website:
1) If you have a booth at a fair or an open house, provide access to your website and observe . . . where do people struggle? Write down some notes so that you can fix those trouble spots.
2) Ask some of your favorite customers for feedback. This could be a survey or just casually asking them for feedback. Anything helps! Some useful questions to ask:
- Can you find what you need quickly?
- Are you satisfied with this website?
- What frustrates you?
- Do you have any suggestions for improvement?
3) Look at your numbers in Google Analytics. You can see where people are dropping off and then fix the problems.
Remember, it is OK to keep it small – you really only need to test with 5 users!
Don’t have time for any research right now? Keep in mind these important usability principles and make any changes needed on your website:
- You only have a few seconds before a user will click away – is it clear what the website is about & how it will help them?
- You need a good call to action such as call now, sign up here, etc.
- You need easy, consistent navigation (which requires good organization & clear labeling).
- You need easy, clear contact information.
- Keep in mind people use mobile devices & things need to work well there as well as on the desktop.
- Speed is important.
Resources to Learn More
- Lots of information here at usability.gov.
- Classic book: Don’t Make Me Think.
- Optimal Workshop (card sorting), start for free.
- Crazy Egg (heat map).
- UsabilityHub, start for free.
Want help from me? Contact me here.