Much have already been said about website usability, especially about process of creating perfect browsing experience for users. In case you’ve already used each and every method you found to be appropriate, time to make use of usability trackers. Those are manhandled tools (mostly) that test all aspects of your website.
Why do you need usability testing?
Jared Spool knows the answer to this question, his most prominent testing projects was later called 300 million button. It was like this...there was some online store...the store master wanted to improve conversion and increase sales but nothing worked, so he called Jared Spool and miracle happened. The site was carefully checked and only one thing was changed. The Register button in the checkout was replaced with Continue thus allowing users who don’t want to register by stuff without obtrusive registration. Right above the continue button they’ve places following message.
"You do not need to create an account to make purchases on our site. Simply click Continue to proceed to checkout. To make your future purchases even faster, you can create an account during checkout."
Cool, huh?
If you’re running online store have you considered the possibility that one single button can set you apart from weighty profits? With usability testing tools researchers can spend a fraction of the cost to obtain results that are close to the traditional usability testing facility results that may cost thousands. And just as significant, results can now be gathered and analyzed in a matter of an hour.
Please be advised
Of course, just because testing tools are available at a fraction of a cost it doesn’t mean that anyone can and should use the tool. As with most other tools, the analysis and the recommendations about what to do are based on the report's expertise. As with other professionals such as dentists or doctors, it’s the knowledge that comes with training and years of experience that guides the hand that uses the tool.
So here are five most impressive usability trackers that will drive unprecedented usability to your website/store/blog.
Concept Feedback is designed as a way to gather input and feedback from experts about new designs for marketing or advertising purposes. Concept Feedback community of experts is available free of charge. It works quite simply, you submit your concept to the expert community, and reviewers provide their suggestions, recommendations and input about your design.
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Optimal Workshop Chalkmark
Chalkmark provides a means of sharing an image with a user to gather feedback on where the user would click to perform a task. From a usability testing perspective, this is the same concept as a reverse card sort, which means the terminology and navigation are tested to ensure users know where to go to accomplish a task.
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ClickTale is a paid hosted service that tracks user keystrokes, mouse clicks and moves, and the time it takes for users to move around a web page. Single user sessions are saved as a movie with a large round circle around the user’s cursor so it’s easier to see.
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CrazyEgg is a popular click tracking usability tool which has the ability to display large number of interesting data based on clicks. These data displays include heatmaps of the more popular locations of clicks on a page, lists and overlays.
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The principle of Feng-GUI resolves around their belief that human eye movement can be replicated based on variable on the page, along with typical actions the average human makes.
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Today usability testing can be conducted easily & quickly without expensive facility charges that used to be required. Because of the great variety of usability tools, researchers have unprecedented opportunities to evaluate, analyze and make recommendations for website improvements. This benefits the website owners, the usability researcher and the users, which is truly a win.
SPEAK UP! I bet you're kinda obsessed (in a good sense) with your website's usability. Share your experience, what do you think about usability trackers? If you ever used them please tell us if they were useful for you or not. This info would be useful for website owners who are in doubt whether to use usability trackers or not.