A short presentation I gave at an internal meeting to get our team on board with the idea of performing usability tests on our web applications as part of the requirements gathering process.

2. Web Analytics Everything our users do on a web site or web application can be tracked See what people are actually clicking on and how long they are on a page View charts & graphs displaying these activities See the “cold hard facts” about how their site or application is being used

3. Usability Testing Web analytics shows us “what” and “when”, this tells us “why” Testers speak aloud while performing pre-determined tasks Moderators ask objective questions to gain more insight Team members can anonymously observe their product’s successes and failures

4. What can we do with this? Update the UI elements (i.e. are radio buttons better than a drop-down menu?) Enhance visual cues to highlight missed call to action (bigger button, more white space, etc.) Suppress information or functionalities that get little use, and showcase the most used

5. What would it take to implement Free web analytics packages exist for Microsoft IIS, however it does require extra processing power and storage space. Effective usability testing can be conducted with as few as 3 testers; with additional anonymous observation strongly encouraged Analysis of these findings would take approximately 10 hours.

6. What’s in it for me? Fix exactly what frustrates the actual users, with both objective and subjective data If primary stakeholders watch usability testing; problems come to life with startling clarity Cuts across political arguments and focuses the organization on boosting efficiency by providing a delightful slice of user experience

7. Review What is web analytics What is usability testing What can we do with the results What would it take to implement What’s in it for me?