No Question Too Dumb

kimkrauseberg  
Published under: Learning New Things, Web Design

I interviewed an old friend who reminded me of the tagline for an online community I once owned and ran for twenty years. Our tagline was “There is no such thing as a dumb question.”

The people that found themselves joining the community were natural born self learners who did not hesitate to share their knowledge with others.

I built my first website in 1995. Thanks to several mentors who believed in me, I developed confidence and was inspired to keep trying new things. I taught myself how to animate images but required help when it came to handcoding nested tables in HTML pages.

I taught myself website promotion techniques, which later became known as search engine optimization (SEO). Whatever I was unclear about I knew where to find teachers, most of whom I remain friends with to this day.

Donna Cavalier came to my online community as a member, then became a moderator and finally one of the technical administrators, which were necessary as the forums grew and required better software. She was one of my most trusted advisors, not only because of her technical skills, but because she never made me feel dumb for needing help.

One of the reasons I started this new blog is because I needed to return to a time in my life where learning was fun and sharing knowledge wasn’t about competition or ego.

As a self starter and endless research maniac, I can spend hours trying to teach myself something new. I learned a very long ago that people who know what you want to know are often happy to teach you, without judgement.

I do enough of the self critical analyzing mumbo jumbo as it is. This video is my first time ever conducting an interview using Zoom. I’ve conducted interviews before, and been interviewed, but this was my first step into using Zoom as the platform.

I pulled the file into my Camtasia so that I could edit it and add an intro and exit credits and a few other fun things. Later, when I wanted to make more accessible, I tried to teach myself transcription but ended up learning how to create subtitles and uploading the edited text.

I gained more knowledge by doing and a newfound empathy for those whose job it is to make sure our words are available to those who like or require the assistance.

Zoom Interview with Kim Krause Berg and Donna Cavalier

Why Do I Need a Usability Site Audit?

kimkrauseberg  
Published under: Web Design

If you have ever used a website and become frustrated with it, you know first hand why a usability site audit is necessary. And, because there are so many websites that are difficult to use, you may not be surprised to learn it was never tested to begin with.

Every website has a short shelf life.

During the 1990’s when website design was in the exploratory stages the common mantra was “build it and they will come”. They did because there was no other place to go and if you were lucky to be the first website, you could get away with imperfections. This is no longer the case.

For the past 20 years web designers, programmers and marketers have watched how people search for and interact with web pages. We learned that everyone wants in. That means making web pages accessible regardless of age, handicap, or device. Competition brought on brand challenges. Where there were once hundreds of thousands of directories and search engines, today Google dominates the search engine space; so much so that when they declared they wanted to index only mobile-ready web pages, everybody ran back to the drawing board for redesigns.

With each new programming language comes new opportunities for developers.

We are long past HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. There are so many ways to build a web site or internet application that picking one requires serious consideration.

Small businesses with tiny budgets learn the harsh realities of web site ownership in a playing field where companies with more money can pay for better built web sites that rank well in search engines and perform well for their visitors.

It is website performance for people that counts most of all.

We know from years of studies in human factors and neurosciences that when someone arrives at a web page or mobile application, for example, their need must be met in under 5 seconds. The most basic need is “Do they have what I came for?” If that question requires page scrolling, clicking links, browsing menus and searching for content, that experience has to be pain free and effortless.

Companies are sometimes less informed about their target market.

They have a limited perspective, ideas based on hope, and they rarely ever consider human behavior, special needs, country cultural differences, or thought to watch anyone use their website in various environments.

Usability website testing should be set up and ready to go during the development stage and after the site goes live.

It should be part of ongoing maintenance during the life of the website property. There are web design standards and guidelines established by the World Wide Web Consortium that provide unity and cohesiveness for the Internet experience, but those standards are constantly re-visited and revised.   In several countries, including the US and UK, there are laws pertaining to doing business online with special needs people. There is a lack of knowledge of what a special needs user is. The definition includes people who wear corrective eye wear, are ADD or ADHD, are colorblind and those who use special computer devices that do not come with a mouse.

Certain countries do not use desktop or lap top computers. Their populations rely on cell phones. Language, terminology and grammar are not universally understood. This makes the role of an information architect vitally important for web design and digital marketing.

A website usability audit should be performed when:

  1. The data indicates traffic declined after a redesign.
  2. The data indicates traffic bounces after landing on the site.
  3. Revenue is not meeting expectations.
  4. Revenue tanked.
  5. Pages rank well but conversions are poor.
  6. There was a redesign and all hell broke loose after that.
  7. The site is a few years old and no longer meeting user or business expectations.
  8. A professional SEO insists that one is needed to provide support for their marketing strategies.
  9. The site was never tested to begin with.

A usability site audit helps to determine the success or failure of the website users’ experience.

You should be concerned if your website is not tested by an expert in the usability field.

Companies are not hiring the right website designers.  It takes a team of people to build, test, maintain and promote a website. One person can not do it all, despite every possible attempt by people to do it this way. A graphic designer is not a performance engineer. An SEO is not an accessibility specialist.  A user interface designer is not a data analyst.  Someone needs to be trained in programming, mobile design, information architecture, human behavior, persuasive design, functional testing and content writing.

The smart website owner leaves nothing to chance. Their investment must be competitive. A usability audit may result in a strong recommendation to redesign the website. An official report with documented findings provides proof and actionable recommendations, mockups, sketches, resources and data to be used for the new design. It may recommend user testing, mobile device testing, accessibility testing, performance testing and search engine optimization enhancements.

What Do I Need in My Website Usability Audit?

A full website audit for a large website may be expensive when performed by trained usability specialists. If a site owner has a good idea where an issue is located, that area can be the focus. Sometimes the audit is to test for mobile user experience only. What is not recommended is when a site has a global target market and an ecommerce section, and the site owner wants under 5 pages audited.  Those 5 pages will not represent the performance or user experience of an enterprise website that targets customers from many countries. They can be, however, proof of concept or examples of a larger audit or used for discussions with stakeholders who may need convincing that a full site audit is warranted.

What is The Value of Getting a Website Usability Audit?

Your brand. Your reputation. Sales. Conversions. Search engine rankings. Your customers’ satisfaction.  You value those things. It makes sense to do whatever it takes to properly support them.

A website audit and site testing are worth the investment if you want your online business to be successful and risk-free for a long time.