Website usability services to support the design process
Website usability is an aspiration for many organisations that have designed, or had designed, a digital property. At UX24/7 we believe that the design of websites and the testing of website usability should be separate activities performed by separate organisations. Only then can it be ensured that the analysis and recommendations are completely objective and not compromised by prejudice or bias.
UX24/7 doesn’t provide design services. We have plenty of creative capability and not offering design services shouldn’t be confused with lacking capability or creativity. In fact the reverse is true for if we are to support a designer and enable them to be free to innovate and experiment we need to be creative in the way we find solutions when users experience problems. Our goal as usability practitioners should be to facilitate the creative process whilst ensuring that website usability is achieved or maintained.
Here are five ways we can get closer to the designer:
- Make sure the designer knows we don’t do design and so are not a threat
- Be clear that we are not bringing opinions we are bringing the results of user testing
- Invest time to understand what the designer is trying to achieve and what their goals are
- Put recommendations in a commercial context so that potential impact is understood
- Say ‘yes’ more than we say ‘no’ whilst still ensuring website usability.
Website Usability Services
Three of our website usability services that support the design process are:
Expert Review
What it is: an expert review service where an Accredited Practitioner reviews all or part of a digital interface in order to provide recommendations based on best practice and a score for indexing the user experience
Pros: quick, low cost, targeted
Cons: no user involvement so Accredited Practitioner needs a good relationship with the designer
Lab Usability Testing
What it is: usability testing with real users in a lab environment. One to one, moderated sessions lasting about 1 hour using tasks and scenarios to guide users
Pros: real user interactions, very targeted, designer can observe
Cons: take time to run due to recruitment, limited by session time
Online Research
What it is: online task based testing with a representative sample of users typically recruited from a panel and numbering upward of 200.
Pros: quantitative results, can include research questions, great for multiple geographies
Cons: expensive due to number of respondents, un-moderated, designer involvement is minimal
If you would like to find out more about how UX24/7 can free up your design team to be the creative geniuses they want to be and still know your website usability will be top notch then get in touch.
