I found myself feeling sympathy for any and all of you who are creating or updating websites for "real, live" organizations or corporations. The evaluation of usability seems daunting enough under the most controlled circumstances. I'd love to hear from those who are doing larger websites for larger organizations. Were you able to witness real users in action as the articles suggest is necessary? How did you set this up? What were your numbers?
A second thought I had was related to Blockbuster Online. About 6 months ago, users began receiving e-mails offering a sneak-peek at the new format for Blockbuster's online services. It was only through this link that one could reach the newly formatted pages. At the time I thought it was odd, but in the context of usability, it makes perfect sense. Give your current users on opportunity to peruse the new format before you thrust it upon them. I'm not sure how much feedback they received from users, nor how much consideration their designers gave, but it does seem like the most logical way for companies with a significant Web presence to minimize the pain associated with change.
See you tomorrow,
Jake
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I work on campus and when NIU changed the website we asked some random students if they would be willing to come in to the office and spend some time checking out our new website and to give us feedback. We had about 8 students over a couple of weeks who had the time and gave us some feedback. We also had student workers in the office who did this for us. Their ideas were very helpful to us. We are lucky that our potential users are very accessible.
Blockbuster's sneak peek was such a clever way to get this usability data without going through the hassle of asking users to complete an evaluation. I agree that it was a smart move on their part, although I am also not sure how many people actually were interested in checking it out ahead of time. By the way, which would you choose: netflix or blockbuster online?
Post a Comment