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Your
Online Business: Usability Testing
When you are preparing to launch
your online business or store, it is important to get outsiders to do
a usability test on your website. Why is it so important? Because when
you are working on something to hard, it is very easy to overlook a mistake
or error that sticks out like a sore thumb to a new visitor.
When picking people to run
a usability test on your website, you should ideally choose people who
fit your target audience. If you sell flannel diapers, your testers should
be moms of babies. If you run a scrapbooking business, you should find
fellow scrapbookers to test your site.
What should they check for?
Here is a list of common things you should get your testers to check.
- Connection
- do the pages load quickly?
- are you waiting for
the server to connect to a new page?
- Graphics
- do the graphics suit
the site?
- do they load quickly?
- do graphics have alt
tags while loading?
- Site design & layout
- is the site easy to
navigate?
- does the design and
layout suit the type of business?
- Ordering & shopping
cart system
- is it easy to order?
- are shipping instructions
and policies readily available?
- is it easy to understand
how the shopping cart works?
- are payment options
easy to find?
- is it a secure ordering
server?
- Contact information
- if someone has questions,
can they easily contact you?
- Best & Worst
- the three best things
about the site
- the three worst things
about the site (and suggestions for change)
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