web usability
Web usability is the difference between your visitors sticking around long enough to see what your purpose is; or bouncing away frustrated, never to return. Users have short attention spans; frustrate them and their gone... fast! Your website must be more than easy on the eyes, it must be self explanatory and unknowingly call on the user's instinctual nature when it comes to navigating through your site.
Good website usability has the power to:
- Keep visitors on your site by clearly giving them what they came for
- Create trust and inform quickly and easily
- Promote helpful customer interaction by supporting the user
- Reduce costs like customer inquiries which saves time and maximizes profits
- Maximize the acquisition of sales, leads and other conversions
The big question is... How user friendly is your website?
When it's your website, most of the time you don't. Bombshell Media provides the following Web Usability services to help you identify where improvement in web usability lies.
Usability Audits:
You're too close to your project to view it objectively so the only way to make sure your website is user friendly is to embark on a rigorous third-party usability audit. We can identify where users become confused enough to stray and we will suggest changes that will keep your visitors on your web site longer such as:
- Image and Branding
- Navigation & Website Architecture
- Page Layout / Design
- Sales Pitch & Conversion Funnel
- Persuasive Sales Copywriting
- Usability of Online Forms and Shopping Carts
- Technical testing of processes including shopping carts
User Testing:
Gone are the times of relying on creative hunches to design or improve your website and sales process. A/B and multivariate testing is the art of testing one or many web page elements against another, collecting test data and making informed marketing and design decisions based on successful user behavior. Sounds more complicated than it is. Imagine - knowing what is currently working in your sales process and improving upon it instead of unknowingly throwing away potential sales and starting over again from scratch. Bombshell Media provides A/B and multivariate testing services using Google Website Optimizer and Omniture's Test and Target
A/B Testing:
The definition of A/B Testing is essentially developing two versions of the same page with each page being presented to a different user group. As a testing example - the difference between the pages could be that each page shows a different headline. We would test these pages with two different user groups and use web analytic data to define which page performed better. For example we would look at how long the visitors stay on the page, did they carry on and sign up for a newsletter or go to the check out and make a purchase? All of these factors will play a part in our test results.
This test can be performed more than once; refining the test pages incrementally and testing again for best results provide absolute certainty in user behavior data.
Multivariate Testing:
Another type of user testing is Multivariate Testing. This is based on the idea that all elements of a web page work together to create the user experience and that changing any number of these elements can help produce a combination that will improve user experience and possibly lead or sales conversion.
What should you test?
- Website sales copy - test service / product descriptions
- Registration forms - test versions with more or less questions
- Formatting - test the formatting of the copy, bullet points, bolding and font
- Privacy & Policies - test to see if these create trust or just create clutter
- Ecommerce sites - test product photos, descriptions, promotional discounts, incentives and product or service prices
- Calls to action - test your sales pitch wording and what your submit buttons say
What to Expect from User Testing:
Before we start testing we'll work to identify your business goals, timelines and requirements.
- We'll establish a baseline of data of the most important areas of customer interaction
- Review and see how users interact with your website
- Identify areas that need improvement
- Propose a recommended testing methodology
- Define and develop testing elements and alternate pages (or help your design team do this)
- Launch and conduct the test ensuring accurate testing results for historic significance and archiving
- Present testing results with recommendations for change and improvement
After running a test the user data will report which combination of elements are successful and which ones are not. Web design changes are made based on successful numbers and we'll then publish the successful testing version of what we've created. It is important to remember that it is possible to test pretty much any part of your website including but not limited to home pages, landing pages, check-out funnels and whatever you feel needs improvement.
We use A/B and multivariate testing for Landing Page Optimization and Conversion Funnel Analysis.
Landing Page Optimization:
A Landing page is the first page your visitor lands on when visiting your website. This could essentially be any of the pages of your website. However when we define a landing page we mean pages that were specifically designed to receive a segment of traffic including but not limited to paid advertising or email related website traffic.
This means that you control where your traffic comes from and that there is a specific action you wish your controlled traffic to take (buy a product, sign up for a newsletter etc.)
A good landing page will provide a customized experience for the visitor and will:
- Have a customized sales pitch
- Acknowledge where visitors have come from and who they are
- Inform visitors they've arrived at the right place
- Be persuasive, build momentum & keep the user focused on why they came
- Funnel visitors to the destination you desire
- Persuade and compel visitors to take action
Landing Page Optimization is a combination of page layout, design and persuasive copywriting melded together to create the perfect sales pitch. When we work with you to optimize your landing pages you can expect:
- More sales and lead conversion
- Lower customer acquisition costs
- Maximum ROI
Conversion Funnel Analysis:
A conversion funnel begins with the sales pitch and ends with the confirmation message after the user completes your desired action. Usually a lead, sale or any other acquisition takes several steps to complete. A user must fill out a form, confirm information, fill in credit card information, shipping information and receive confirmation to close the sale.
It's our job to help you keep those prospects on your site until they convert to customers. It's no doubt you will loose some customers along the way, but we'll help you minimize that number by looking at your conversion funnel, your check out process and simplifying it to maximize leads registrations and sales and minimize losses.
