User Testing – Always Be Testing

Let’s say you are getting ready to launch a new website. Your marketing team loves the web design and your IT team is thrilled with the security and efficiency. So is your website ready to take off? Maybe…maybe not. What about taking that quantum leap and testing your site with your intended audience, your customers?

Understanding how visitors navigate your site is critical in creating the most effective site possible. Having a site that that is user-friendly and leads visitors to conversions should be the goal of any website. User testing (UX) is a fundamental component of the web development process.

Usability Testing

User testing allows you to see how real people navigate your site, while hearing their comments at the same time. This provides insight into how to improve your site by identifying positive and negative aspects of your site, including features on your site that may be confusing to visitors. This service will tell you what is working on your website and what is not from a visitor’s perspective. This can lead to additional functionality or features that may be beneficial to add to your website. It can also lead to simpler navigation that takes some features away. The bottom line is that your website becomes more relevant to your visitors.

An investment in user testing, if managed properly, will return value far beyond its cost. It may be in the form of hundreds of saved development and design hours, or improvements in conversion rates, and subsequent increases in revenue and profit. Remember website testing is an ongoing process, but when done effectively it will drive your efforts and help visitors realize a greater satisfaction with your website.

The Net Impact employs usability testing as part of our analytics methodology in order to construct complete online marketing strategies. Contact The Net Impact today to learn how we can help you find the most effective way to make your website visitors take action.