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Posts Tagged ‘website analytics’

The Five Elements of User Experience Management

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

If you have ever heard User First speak you know that we consistently use the term “User Experience Management” when we talk about being more user centric. It’s not a word we created nor is it just a buzz buzzword around our office. User Experience Management is a way of thinking that encompasses everything we do. You might be asking “but what is it”? We welcome you to read our multi-phase approach and understand our process.

1). Analytical DNA

Information is vital in today’s online market. Website analytics can help support paid pay click initiative, monitor site performance, or optimize email campaigns. We know that whatever you use data for it should first be trusted information and second be able to tell a story. With every single project we first dive into the data ecosystem and help clients realize the value of their online customer intelligence. These insights provide visibility into your customer touch-point on your website to improve website performance.

2). Testing, Testing, 1-2-3

One of the smartest ways to make design improvements is by letting the customer be at the helm of the design. Landing page optimization is all about finding the right combination of elements that enhance the user experience. We get a good grasp on testing the right elements and start fine tuning top landing pages. By discovering how customers interact with your website we are able then to conclude questions that will guide an online intercept survey or a usability test.

3). Hearing it from them

We believe that the stories people tell about what they do and how they do it contain information vital to designing good interfaces. Whether doing usability test leveraging eye-tracking or simply asking the receptionist to download a PDF, getting feedback lets us create visual designs and websites that solve user’s problems.

4). Building Stories

Any design and development improvement that we make is based on the findings and insights from customer’s feedback and behavioral patterns. But before one design is drafted or is wireframe created we use storyboards to layout and organize users activities and to stimulate different thinking. These steps ensure that we generate the most usable and engaging website.

5). Passion

Our desk might be a bit of a mess and we might argue at time about using flash, but we are passionate about creating effective and memorable user experiences.

If you had any questions about user experience management or had any experiences getting your team to become more user centric please let me know. You can also find us on twitter at UserFirst

Tags: User Experience, user experience management, ux design and development, website analytics
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

Onsite Behavioral Targeting: Friend or Foe?

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Recently a friend ask me what my thoughts were on using onsite behavioral targeting and if I would recommend it to my clients. I told them, to be honest I have only tracked and monitored the results for a massive eCommerce website. Not having enough knowledge about onsite behavioral targeting I couldn’t make any recommendations to my clients because I know what works for one website might not work for another. The question got me thinking and reading more about what behavioral targeting was. I found that there were credited articles for it and against. I thought I would share my research findings and hopefully the material will help you make the decision.

First let’s define onsite behavioral targeting: it is simply personalizing the experience for your visitor by serving ads that are most relevant to them. The theory is that by presenting each individual user with a personalized optimal experience, it will increase their likelihood of taking the desired action. Most platforms are built with data compiled from clickstream data and IP information or cookies.

There is a saying in the ad community which is “start where your audience is”. Onsite behavioral targeting can greatly benefit an organization’s online marketing program and Forrester Research reported this emerging category as the #1 area for planned investment. The ability to reach at an individual user-level with the right messaging with minimal human interaction is one the highest reward but other features of the platform are:

Improved acquisition spend
When visitors are engaging with your site, their actions and behaviors are captured and incorporated into the persona profiles
Real time data mining, reporting and analysis
The automation of optimization
Relevant content will always be king

A recent study from researchers at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of California Berkeley School of Law and the Annenberg Public Policy Center reports that most internet users don’t want tailored advertisements. When Americans are informed of three common ways that marketers gather data about people in order to tailor ads, even higher percentages— between 73% and 86%—say they would not want such advertising. Other than Private Privacy issues here are some other factors to consider:

Some organizations have not fully created and implemented their persona’s online
Most effective for organizations that have sufficient size / scale to provide a return on the required investment
Implementing a behavioral targeting program can be difficult (may need extra resources)
Requires human intervention to update creative, offers, and modify business rules

So after reading about onsite behavioral targeting would I recommend it to my clients? The jury is still out on this one. I only say that because I can’t stop thinking about Jakob Nielsen report on banner blindness. It states that if users are looking for a snippet of information on a page or are engrossed in content, they won’t be distracted by the ads on the side. I sort of agree but does your website use behavioral targeting tactics for ad banners? If so please let me know what your experiences have been!

You can find us on Twitter and reply there as well: UserFirst

Tags: Behavioral Targeting, User Experience, website analytics
Posted in Marketing | 1 Comment »

Keeping up with the Joneses, a Website Redesign Story

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Summary: If you’re tired of your website’s design and you think you NEED a redesign remember that users spend 5 hours a year looking at a website at best. Successful user interfaces are designed to improve functionality of the familar design and evolve the user experience. Taking a cue from Amazon, incremental changes to the website’s design just might be the best approach.

Lately, we have had people requesting information on eye-tracking for their latest website redesign. At first glance I thought it was great that companies were getting customers involved. Then I started thinking about what brought on the redesign project, and as analyst I wondered if these companies have set strategic goals that will not only measure the cost of doing the redesign but successful measure user’s satisfaction (example KPI: decrease cost per new customer by 5%).

I have seen and heard of many website redesigns that unfortunately were trying to “Keep up with the Joneses”, embarking on a website redesign only to keep up with the competitors. I think this happens more often than not. If five out of your six competitors have made their website look better, fresher, and more au courant then I am pretty sure a request for a redesign will be coming soon. This “me too” syndrome can simply come from being over exposed to the website and feel like the website design is dated and tired. I recently read Jakob Nielsen’s post on Fresh vs. Familiar Redesign (a must read in my opinion), he mentions that the number of “exposure hours” usually starts the redesign off on the wrong foot.

When embarking a redesign project people often forgot about the two most important things:

1). How will this help the user’s key usability attributes (learnability, efficiency, and satisfaction)
Users usually spend no more than 2-3 minutes on a website and at best spend five hours a year looking at a website. When visiting websites or using applications, they don’t spend their time analyzing or admiring the design. They focus their attention on the task. Changing the design purely to “stay fresh” vs design that enhances usability results in expensive changes that, after all is said and done, don’t really help the business.

2). How will the company’s KPI’s (key performance indicators) be redefined for success
The analytics team and the design team may still work in silos, but to justify a redesign these teams should open their doors to discuss the purpose of a redesign and clearly define how it will help increase business goals. Understanding the current state of your website’s web traffic data and feedback from users will help you monitor the success of a new site architecture, navigation, and/or design.

When it comes to redesign, being au courant isn’t always better. Major overhauls often generate a lot of resistance and can even upset your most fervent users. That’s why some major brands on the web, such as Amazon, don’t redesign their websites anymore. In contrast, they make incremental improvements that create designs that really pay off for the organization (most changes can be implemented quickly by your team and cost less). In the short-term the design gets done, but the team ends up doing it all over again months down the road.

Where Experiences Come First

Sure, people make a snap judgment about a website based on its look and feel, but keep your KPI’s in mind. If your user satisfaction ratio is up then establishing a new site design might not be worth the cost. However, if a major redesign is on the horizon suggest usability or eye-tracking testing on wireframes or prototypes. These tests can help reduce the need for risky major re-launches. Simply focus on the areas that need improvement.
User First loves hearing about your experiences. Please let us know if you are planning a website redesign or have gone through one recently!

Other insightful posts that I found on website redesign:
Seth Godin Blog: Things to ask before you redo your website
Grokdotcom Blog: Website Redesign Roundup
User Interface Engineering Blog: Thinking in the Right Terms- 7 Components for a Successful Website Redesign

Tags: usability, website analytics, website redesign
Posted in Marketing | 2 Comments »