"Consumers shopping online have tunnel vision", says Phil Terry, CEO of Creative Good Inc., a strategic customer-experience consultancy. A consumer most likely isn't taking in the delightful colors on the background of the home page or the pleasing combination of type fonts.
Rather, he's trying to find and purchase a product.
So when creating a usability testing strategy, online marketers need to focus on making it easy for visitors to find the merchandise they're looking for and ensuring that they can complete the purchasing process—not agonizing about what color the buttons should be.
A slight mind-shift, but an important one: it's the difference between focusing solely on the tactical (button color) and focusing on the strategic (overall experience that might or might not include button color).
Try these three tactics to help decide which elements to test:
Tactic #1. Observe customers
By observing a customer using your product or service online you'll learn what falls within the customer's tunnel vision, and what they don't care about. This doesn't have to be a formal process—call a neighbor or relative and watch over their shoulder while they shop.
You may discover, for example, "that the owner's manual that no one reads after a purchase can be useful /before /a purchase, or that photos of both an open and closed gift box are important," explains Phil.
Tactic #2. Observe yourself
Watch yourself in your next interaction online—but make sure you're wearing your "customer hat" rather than your "business hat." What are hot-button issues that make or break your experience? Is navigation simple? Are forms too long? Does the site recognize your log-in name? Any areas where you feel frustrated or hit a break in the process are areas worthy of testing.
Tactic #3. Define customer tasks
When you're very clear about what actions you want visitors to take on your site, it becomes easy to identify the areas where testing will have an impact. Trying to increase subscriptions? Test form length and style. Want to improve average order value? Test cross-selling and up-selling.
Using these three tactics, we bet you'll find some or all of the following areas ripe for testing:
By testing elements such as these, rather than dozens of details that probably won't make or break a sale, companies can improve conversions by 40-150% in key operating metrics, Phil says.