…ask the major search engines
A client recently asked Umlungu to help them understand how visitors experienced a couple of websites. Even we were somewhat surprised at the results.
We’re not saying it, they are
Real people who live in the real world visit websites. We wanted to make sure our findings represented their experiences. So we designed the tasks to be as close as possible to how people use the web.
For example, when asked to find a person’s contact details, we asked them to do the task once by starting at Google, and once again at one of the websites under review.
What the tests told us
Search engines can:
- Be an efficient way for people to locate content on a website.
- Also be a very confusing way of navigating a website.
- Expose visitors to some relevant alternatives, for example visitors can see better prices, better quality, greater convenience and much more at a single glance.
In a nutshell, if there is some dirt (or polish) on a business, search engines will lay it out for all to see.
Need proof? Try this
- Choose a company that you have an account with. For example a clothing store, supermarket or cellphone company.
- Pretend (if you have to) that you have just received a ridiculously large invoice.
- Insert personal choice of expletive and reach for your preferred contact method. (Okay, okay, we know it’s the phone, but let’s pretend it’s the internet.)
- Fire up your favourite browser and look for the contact details of the company’s accounts department.
And experience it first hand
See what you got by following the steps above? Instead of (hopefully) finding the accounts department’s contact details, chances are you will also find:
- The odd press release
- Opinions from customers with similar issues
- The odd offer from competing companies
- A myriad of other results that may have a lot (or nothing) to do with what you were looking for
Following these links could take you to the right page on the right website, a wrong page on the right website or an entirely different website altogether.
Now contrast this with a situation where a visitor lands on the home page of a website and then tries to get hold of the accounts department.
A company’s ability to influence the experience of its website visitors depends heavily on how they enter the website.
How you can make sure Google works with you, not against you
Well for starters, do you know how much of your website traffic comes from search engines? Once you know this you can decide on how much emphasis you need to place on designing different paths through your website.
If you feel these paths are important then:
- Ensure you cater for many entry points to your website, and not just the home page.
- Do good search engine optimisation on these additional entry points, because you need the search engines to know they exist (talk to us about our search engine optimisation services).
- Optimise the communication, design and processes that flow from these pages.
- Monitor the pages and refine them over time.
Even if you don’t receive a lot of traffic from search engines, it may be valuable to stop thinking of your website as a self-contained whole, but rather as part of the deliciously entangled World Wide Web.
Get to know your website’s visitors. Talk to Umlungu.
Name: James Mbuli
Age: 27
Occupation: Chauffeur
Relationship: Single
Uses the internet for: His programming studies, blogging
When he doesn’t feel like studying, James often surfs the internet for hours. He now considers himself a bit of an expert, and has started a blog on general internet use.
When he got to your website, he described it as “hard to use”.
Make sure your website works – before James finds it
The problems James found could have been prevented with functional prototyping. These “sample sites” can be tested with users before it’s exposed to the criticism of general site visitors.
Umlungu does functional prototyping
A functional prototype is worth months of analysis and design time. We can provide functional, working interfaces to establish:
- usability,
- communication,
- effectiveness of design and
- technical decisions.
What this means to you
You save time and money by seeing how your finished product would function.
- Problems with usability are identified and eliminated before your website goes live.
- From here it’s just a hop, skip and a jump to getting the end product that really works – for you and your intended audience.
We fast-track success – our prototypes put into action what our competitors are still putting down on paper.
Prototyping is just one step in our process. Talk to us to help you decide the best course of action for your specific needs.
Name: Margaret Goldblatt
Age: 64
Occupation: Retired
Relationship status: Widow, one child, 2 grandchildren
Uses the internet for: Online shopping, checking Lotto results
Margaret has a lot of time on her hands and spends most of it surfing the internet.
Margaret feels she’s unique – as do all of your website’s visitors.
That’s why she was so upset that she couldn’t contact you through your website.
Let Margaret help build your website
The most important people to your website or interface are the people who use it. That’s why you need to find out who they are, and how they experience your site or interface.
Umlungu does user testing
Our user testing has proven to be extremely successful, because:
- We have developed tried and tested methods over the years.
- Our experience and knowledge of the digital world means we can match the right methods to the right problems.
- We use specialist software.
What this means to you
- You’ll find out exactly where your interface needs to be improved for better usability.
- You’ll know in no uncertain terms which development and design direction you should take – before you spend money on development.
User testing might not be the only solution for you. We prefer to offer you a unique solution. Contact us to talk about what you need.
We recently finished a project for the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) to help them understand the use of their websites (gov.za, info.gov.za and services.gov.za). We pointed out and interpreted the successes and failures of the websites and provided concrete, practical recommendations on how to move the websites forward.
The process on our part included expert analysis, competitor analysis, user testing, and the design of three functional prototypes as a suggestion for the way forward. We worked with Frances Gordon from Simplified, who evaluated the communication on the three sites.
We’re happy to say that the GCIS has given us immensely positive feedback. We wish them all the best in implementing the suggested changes to their sites.
Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?
Helped GCIS, along with Simplified, understand the successes and failures of the websites (gov.za, services.gov.za and info.gov.za) and provided concrete recommendations – including three functional prototypes – on how to move the websites forward.
