Monday, October 10, 2005
A set of fresh eyes and not so fresh thoughts
While discussing with a client today about how I was tweaking his site to improve conversions (converting visitors to purchasers), his newest employee walked into the office. I decided to take advantage of the situation by asking him to do a little searching on the site so I could see the site through his eyes and get an idea of any places that could slow visitors' progress toward a sale.
It quickly became apparent that he was having trouble finding his way to the product catalog. It was located in the ribbon bar; he was looking in the side bar and tuning out the ribbon bar completely.
Good to know and something to deal with in tweaking the site. Unfortunately, having discovered a problem, he took it upon himself to tell me how to "fix" it. "Maybe you can put the link in inch tall letters—red letters—on a green background. And make each letter flash—kinda like a wave! That would get people's attention!"
I agree that all that probably would get people's attention. But it would probably move them also to make a hasty and desperate click on their Back button before vertigo set in.
Getting ill-conceived advice is one of the chances you take when you ask someone to navigate your site. But it's worth it. It's been a while since I last watched someone navigate that site, and I got a much better idea of where the hang ups were that could get in the way of a potential sale.
Sometimes you have to swallow hard when your testers take it upon themselves to give you advice, but you can't afford to let ego get in the way of improving your site. Look at the reality of how people are navigating it. View their successes and struggles with an open mind and a willingness to change even the things you're most proud of in the site if changing them will help visitors work their way through to a sale.
After all, it's about achieving your goals, not about stroking your ego.
Jeff
While discussing with a client today about how I was tweaking his site to improve conversions (converting visitors to purchasers), his newest employee walked into the office. I decided to take advantage of the situation by asking him to do a little searching on the site so I could see the site through his eyes and get an idea of any places that could slow visitors' progress toward a sale.
It quickly became apparent that he was having trouble finding his way to the product catalog. It was located in the ribbon bar; he was looking in the side bar and tuning out the ribbon bar completely.
Good to know and something to deal with in tweaking the site. Unfortunately, having discovered a problem, he took it upon himself to tell me how to "fix" it. "Maybe you can put the link in inch tall letters—red letters—on a green background. And make each letter flash—kinda like a wave! That would get people's attention!"
I agree that all that probably would get people's attention. But it would probably move them also to make a hasty and desperate click on their Back button before vertigo set in.
Getting ill-conceived advice is one of the chances you take when you ask someone to navigate your site. But it's worth it. It's been a while since I last watched someone navigate that site, and I got a much better idea of where the hang ups were that could get in the way of a potential sale.
Sometimes you have to swallow hard when your testers take it upon themselves to give you advice, but you can't afford to let ego get in the way of improving your site. Look at the reality of how people are navigating it. View their successes and struggles with an open mind and a willingness to change even the things you're most proud of in the site if changing them will help visitors work their way through to a sale.
After all, it's about achieving your goals, not about stroking your ego.
Jeff
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