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This post brought back some memories for me. Her advice is to have someone who is not familiar with your web site try to use it. Ask them to perform some simple tasks. Have them speak their thoughts as they try to accomplish some simple goals.
One of the most effective ways to get a wake-up call on the problems in your website is to watch someone actually use it. I can promise you’ll be surprised at where they go and the conclusions that they jump to. Make sure to take off your defensive armor because I have to tell you, this can be an uncomfortable exercise!
Read the entire article at:
http://www.lauraroeder.com/2010/07/trade-your-website/comment-page-1/#comment-3698
I used to work for a large video game company, building their marketing web sites. Some of their games were for kids. They had a test lab where they brought in subjects to test the video games, to make sure they worked and that people understood them.
It had a one way mirror along one wall, just like in the movies. They had trained professionals that did the testing. They knew not to lead or to help or make faces or call the test subjects idiots. They would ask them to accomplish simple tasks.
We built a site for teachers, so they brought in some teachers to use it. The teachers came one at a time and sat at a table next to the one way mirror. We could see them, the screen, and hear what they were saying. They were asked to speak as they tried to do the tasks.
Our entire web development team sat in awe as these people had trouble doing the simplest things! We were all seriously shocked. We wanted to scream, from behind the mirror “Just click that button! It’s right there!!!”.
I thought I understood user interfaces and web design until that experience. I was humbled. The whole web dev team approached design a different way after that.
You may think that your site makes sense and everything is easy to find. You won’t know anything until you watch someone else use it.
Just try not to yell at them when you do it.