Our Blog

Learn usability testing from Apple

Usability testing is a vital part of any retail business both on the high street and online. So why is usability testing so rare. One reason is that many people consider it to be expensive and if you take the example of Apple it probably is. However it does not have to be. Apple joined the world of retail in May 2001 and now has 287 stores worldwide as of March 2010. However Apple did not jump into the world of retail blind and they knew their stores would be a success before the doors of the first store in Virginia even opened.

With no experience in retail how could they be so sure it would work?

First of all Apple brought in the leader in the retail world Mickey Drexler to fill the skills gap on their board. Then on the advice of Drexler they hired a warehouse where they built a prototype of the store they had designed on paper. They then brought in a test group and watched them interact and interviewed them to see which aspects of the store were the most popular. From the results they knocked down the first version and rebuilt a new store layout and re-tested. They did this several times until they were happy with the study and this final design was then used universally in all new Apple stores. The data they collected was invaluable and even the most bizarre questions in the interviews gave them the best ideas for the design. The famous genius bar came from the question “Tell us about the best service experience you have ever had”. With 90% of interviewees stating that it was in a hotel. Once you have booked your hotel they are not selling you anything except good service and the staff are all there to help you. Based on this answer Apple decided to set up their genius bar to mimic a bar in the hotel lobby but instead of selling alcohol their bar would be a source of information and advice to all their customers.

Your online business is no different to this we can study the movements of visitors to your website with Google analytics. You can ask your customers opinions with polls and surveys and with the WSI Inter-View service you can have real people browse your website, complete chosen goals or search online for your products. You can see exactly what they are doing and even hear them as they think out loud and give their opinion on your website.

In the last blog we talked a little about conversion in relation to Ecommerce websites however every website needs to convert in some way. Take Wikipedia for example they do not sell anything or even build up a database of users to email newsletters. So their main conversion goal is to get visitors to spend more time on their site by creating relevant and persuasive copy getting people to dive deeper into the site.

Increasing conversion is all about testing, tracking, measuring and understanding what visitors are doing on your site and Google analytics is a good place to start. Finding out where people are coming from and what they are doing once they get there. For example what images, buttons or links are people clicking on when they move between pages? If there is a set path or goal then monitoring what visitors are doing at each stage can be invaluable. By finding out why people are jumping out of the sales funnel at each stage you can tweak your pages to increase the conversions at each step in the sales process. Each small tweak will have a great impact on your bottom line and by constantly split testing and measuring you are always improving.

This is a huge month for the average e-commerce business expecting to take advantage of the traditional consumer spending spree over the holiday period, so we thought we would talk a little about ways to increase your conversion rates.

Firstly we will assume that you have what we would call an intermediate online shop (i.e. not a free platform) or preferably a bespoke ecommerce platform. I have never understood why some people risk their whole business on a cheap or free platform that will probably be more of a headache than it’s worth and will not allow your business to perform to its full potential. To me that is like one of the huge department stores saying “To cut costs lets just put this new store inside this old warehouse and instead of hiring experienced staff to sell our products lets just fill the place with temps”. Ok rant over lets look at some conversion techniques.

The basic principal is to make it as easy as possible for the visitor to find the product they are looking for and to buy it with as little effort as possible. So let’s start with the traffic source and in this example we will take Google as it usually dominates most peoples traffic referral sources. Let’s say your shop sells DVD’s people are not going to type in “DVD” into Google they are going to type in the film name so you need to be found for every film you stock. Whether you are found in the organic or the paid listings you need to ensure the description is persuasive and that when a visitor clicks the link they are taken to the page related to that item. The home page is no good as only a few people will bother to search through your site until they find the film they were originally looking for. This landing page needs to have a clear call to action and path for the visitor to follow. Once they have chosen to buy the item do not demand that they create an account and if this must be done make sure you only collect the information you need to be able to complete and deliver the order and if possible get them to sign up to a newsletter. At the point the customer has to enter payment details you need to make sure that it is painfully obvious your site is secure and show some testimonials so they can see that other customers have been satisfied with your products. Finally set up the auto responder to send them confirmation as soon as the order is placed. After delivery has taken place send the customer a feedback survey and keep them updated with your latest offers (if your system is good enough you can make these specific to each customer based on what they have previously ordered). Follow these basic steps and your conversion rate will increase dramatically. If you can not do this due to the limitations of your current platform then I suggest it is time that you seriously consider where you want to take your business.

In summary then

• Be found for each and every product you sell
• Send visitors to the landing page for the product they were looking for
• Have a clear call to action “Buy it now”
• Do not demand that they create an account
• Recommend other items that may be of interest
• Have the forms set up to only take the details you need to process and deliver the order
• Make sure they can clearly see your site is secure and your customers are satisfied
• Set up auto responders to give the customers confidence
• Follow up with feedback surveys

The Importance of multi-variant (A/B) testing online

Multi-variant testing also known as A/B testing or split testing is not quite as simple as it sounds. You can not just churn out two different landing pages, banner ads, paid search ads or whatever other call to action you want and expect to get instant results. Testing in this way must be treated like a scientific experiment with certain guidelines to allow you to accurately measure each design against the other. So many people think A/B testing is simply having two designs and seeing which gives the best return and keeping that one. It is so much more complicated. Warning: Time and patience will be required.

Rule 1: Set a baseline and stick to it.

Start by setting up your baseline (constant values) then design and optimise the two designs to suit. For simplicity we will discuss landing pages (LP’s) from now on. Decide on a timescale and make only one change at a time remember this takes time so do not make changes after only going live for an hour. Depending upon the client and LP’s in question I would recommend making a change every 4 hours at the very earliest but the less traffic you have the less often you should make a change in order to get a true reflection on the LP’s conversion rate. So for most a daily change is often good enough and for others weekly changes may even be required – see I told you it would take time.

Rule 2: One change at a time.

So the time has come to make a change and you no doubt have a list of ideas on what you want to change. The background colour, the headline, the copy, the banner ad, the position of the call to action and much more, but wait if you change them all then there is no way of telling which change increased or decreased the conversion rate of that LP.

Rule 3: Never assume a minor change will bring a minor result.

The smallest of changes can make a big difference to the conversions on the page. For example a change to the font or colour palette may seam minor but it can bring about big increases in conversion. Also the time of the day or the positions of the various buttons can have a huge impact both good and bad.

Rule 4: The scenario will also affect the conversion rate.

Conversion is also affected by the environment surrounding that LP. So for example if you are directing people to the landing page via an email or a paid search ad the wording of this element will have a huge effect on the conversion of the landing page in question. To clarify if you have the subject line of an email saying “free offer” and the landing page does not make this clear then conversions will decrease dramatically. In the same way the page following the landing page with the contact form may also decrease the conversion rate if it is too complicated or more information than the consumer feels happy to give you. These External scenarios either proceeding or following the LP’s will also have a huge impact on conversion and must be considered.

A/B testing will not only help you increase your conversion rates but will also help you understand what motivates your customers and moves them forward in the buying cycle.

Website design – Go for flash or go for cash