When was the last time that you conducted a usability test of your website? When you’re busy creating new content, building backlinks, and optimizing your site for higher search rankings, it’s easy to overlook something as simple as a usability test. Unfortunately, though, this can result in a poor user experience while hurting your site’s sales and conversions in the process.
What is a Usability Test?
Usability testing lives up to its namesake by gauging a website’s ability to perform its intended function or functions. Whether you realize it or not, your website is tested on a daily basis. Each time a user visits your website and makes a purchase, he or she is essentially testing it. But the bad news is that you normally don’t have access to this data — not in the traditional sense, at least. This is why it’s a good idea to conduct an actual usability test.
By conducting a dedicated usability test of your website on a regular basis, you can identify a wide range of errors and problems, some of which include the following:
- Long load times
- Compatibility errors with different web browsers or devices
- Broken links
- Failed confirmation emails
- Typos and grammatical mistakes in copy
- Poor web design
- Ineffective call-to-action (CTA) placement
- Products not being added to shopping cart
- And much, much more…
How to Conduct a Usability Test
There are several different ways to conduct a usability test for your website, one of which is to outsource the task to a professional company. Once you’ve found someone to perform the test, you’ll need to explain the objectives. If you run an e-commerce website, for instance, you may ask the tester to find a particular product, add the product to his or her shopping cart, and proceed with the checkout. You should then observe the tester during this process, checking to see if he or she encounters any difficulties. Did the tester find the product in a reasonable amount of time? Was the product added to the shopping cart? Where did the tester’s cursor go to on the website during these steps (hint: use Heatmaps to identify cursor movements)? These are just a few of the many questions that you should try to answer when conducting a usability test for your website.
To recap, usability testing refers to a series of test in which a visitor attempts to follow through with a website’s checkout/conversion process. It’s used to reveal a wide variety of problems, ranging from basic typos to broken links and compatibility errors. Hopefully, this will give you a better understanding of usability tests and how they are performed.
