There are several website usability methods that you can apply to help boost the user experience of your clients. The type of method you use will impact your results differently with any other approach applied. There are multiple approaches, which are in different categories, but with a sole aim of improving the user experience.
Top Website Usability Testing Methods to Use
• Survey
This is the easiest way to know your customers, what they do, what is best for them, what they buy and where they buy their items. All this is with an aim of understanding the users to the best of your ability. You can use internal and external contact lists to get a fair report on the clients. You can freely download a survey software, which will give you an easier task.
• Market Segmentation
Here, you will use the survey data to evaluate important facts. You will need to bring the list into one (the client), and look for the user experience and how each was or not satisfied.
• Competitive Scrutiny
Often times, a website will always have another website, product or brand that does the same thing. For that, you will need to have knowledge of the market and know the companies that deal with the same niche. Point out the similar features, and what the users like in the websites. You can carry out an interview to understand what the clients appreciate most.
After understanding your users/clients, you will need to use a different method of usability to boost the user experience more.
The Design and Development
You will need to consider the way your interface will appear in the favor of satisfying the users. The methods in this category include:
• WireFraming
You will need to sketch the key aspects of the interface using such programs like PowerPoint, Visio, or on a piece of paper. That will help you to comprehend the functions and flow of the interface as well as pointing out the chances for enhancing it. You can take the design and present it to prospective stakeholders.
• Prototyping
Here, you will spice up some fidelity levels on your designs in order to test them early enough and more frequently. This method helps you to review the design and decide if it is the most ideal method to use. You can find some tools for prototyping meant for non-coders, which can spin sketches and images into a complete website that is hosted and screens that are clickable.
Testing and Assessment Methods
You will determine how the interface will be organized by using the following methods.
• Card Sorting
This is one of the usability testing methods that will help you determine how you will name your screens, functions and conceptual ideas. You will also decide how you will group them accordingly. Rather than making a speculation, you should let users categorize them into groups and after that, you will name the groups.
• Free Testing
You will need to test your prototype and wireframes navigation using a summarized taxonomy. This can be done by letting the users to locate the items within the navigation.
• First Click Testing
It would be discouraging for users to take a wrong route and end up where they did not intend to be. For that reason, you must know where your users do first when they visit your platform.
• Heuristic Evaluations
In this method, you will point out issues prior to presenting them to the clients. You could use some methods of inspection such as HE, which will help you uncover about 33% of the problems faced by users. It is advised to have not less than 2 evaluators that are aware of the principles of HCI and the domain features. You should ensure the problem is fixed before the users experience it as they are using the interface.
The Deployment
After having almost everything in place, you will need to see how you will implement the interface to the users. The usability methods of this category include the following:
• Benchmark Study
You will need to know how functional your software or website is by getting some users to try using it. You will gather enough resources and use loyalty intervals in order to have an efficient benchmark. You can use questionnaires after every task and finally at the end of the entire scrutiny.
• Remote Usability Testing
You can also use a live website to interview user in the same way you did with benchmarking. Here, you can record the number of clicks and use the overall scrutiny to come up with a video that guides users on how to carry out a task even in your absence.
• Comparative Benchmark Study
Here you will evaluate how difficult it is to perform similar tasks on rival platforms. You can select users and use some strategies like time, completion rate and difficulty of the task. This will help you to point out the strong point and negativities of your website. Ideally, the best way of winning in the brand war with your competitors is to offer the same service in a different niche.
• The A/B Testing
You need to practically test and not just perceiving. When you have implemented your interface, the design and enhancements don’t stop there. Rather, you will need to come up with test copy, buttons, forms wild cards as well as prices.
• The Multivariate Testing
One of your usability testing methods should be based on one variable at a moment. This helps to fine-tune the website, nevertheless, it will consume more time if you are carrying out a lot of tests.
When you have everything tested, you will need to go back to the initial method, the Survey. You must understand if the users are recommending your platform or not. Do your users trust your website or product? Once you have your answers, you will be able to come up with a usable website that will benefit you and mostly the users.
The complete design of a website will need a detailed scrutiny in order to understand how the user rate your website or if they are satisfied. All these website usability testing methods will help you to have a structured and more usable website.
