Website Owner's Manual

Chapter 6. User-centric design

In this chapter

The profit and loss of usability

• Understanding perceived losses from user testing
• Understanding the real profit of user testing
  • Quick detection of problems
  • Increased user satisfaction
  • Reduced support costs
  • Increased efficiency

Bargain-basement usability

• Testing a little but often
  • Why “often” matters
  • When to test
• Watching out for decreasing returns
• Recruiting loosely

Run an effective test session

• Being prepared
• Understanding the role of facilitator
  • Who should facilitate user testing?
  • The facilitator’s responsibilities
• Working from a script

Fix the problems

• Filtering out background noise
• Prioritizing and reporting

Throughout the first five chapters of this book, I’ve mentioned ...