Identifying mistakes early saves money
It’s the New Year and although we are seeing the demise of some old well-loved retailers such as Jessops and HMV, ecommerce sites that have exciting offerings such as social e-tailers are replacing them.
By Lee Duddell at What Users Do
If you are considering launching a new digital enterprise, depending on the stage you are at, do not ignore users’ feedback. This can occur at several different development stages.
A. The Top 5 Reasons to test at Wireframe and Concept Stage:
1. Save money on development by identifying user struggle as you build and not when it’s too expensive to change at the end of your project
2. Understand if your bright idea is understood by users, even with a flat Home Page image
3. Test your journey assumptions with users as you build
4. Focus the team on what works, as opposed to what “looks nice”
5. Put senior management “back in their box” by deflecting their hunch based views on how something should work with real user insight
b. The Top 5 Reasons to test at pre-Live:
1. Get greater confidence as you approach launch that users really will use what you’ve built
2. Quickly spot the issues you all missed because you’re too close to the project
3. Refine your promotional emails and campaign based on users’ perceptions (and not Marketing’s hunches)
4. Save developer time and money by making the refinements on pre-live that you usually only make when it’s in the wild
5. Identify and fix performance issues from real usage that automated tools can not simulate
c. At Live:
1. Stop relying on customer service to report issues and capture them even before they’re reported
2. Remove the guesswork from any changes that GA or your web stats package is reporting
3. Inform your MVT tests by basing your hypothesis on user feedback, not your hunches
4. Save time by prioritising your snag list based upon real user issues and not what your Manager thinks is important
5. Motivate the project team by showing them the positive impact they’ve had on your users’ experience.
D. Ongoing:
1. Compete more effectively by continually benchmark your site against key competitors
2. React faster to environmental changes that don’t come to light until it’s too late (or the HelpDesk Manager submits their report)
3. Inform your ongoing MVT programme by removing the guesswork of which hypothesis to test and base your tests on user insight
4. Get behind the “Why?” of GA and pro-actively address issues like “Why is this page not performing?”
5. Let users determine your next round of enhancements based upon what they do and think and not your own hunches
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