Bringing visitors to your website

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Bringing visitors to your website and
keeping them there

• What makes a website usable?
• Usability of common website features
• How to help people find your site
• Optimizing your site for Search Engines

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Successful Websites
The formula for website success is B V C
L Where B amount of business done by the
site V unique visitors coming to the site C
conversion rate (the percentage of visitors who
become customers) note that the concept of
conversion applies not only to ecommerce sites,
but to any site where there is something you want
users to do L loyalty rate (the degree to
which customers return for repeat business)
From http//www.useit.com/alertbox/roi.htmlJak
ob Nielsen's Alertbox, January 22, 2008
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Usability Basics
Usability refers to the extent to which a
product can be used by specified users to achieve
specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency
and satisfaction in a specified context of user.
- ISO 9241-11http//www.usability.gov/basics/what
usa.html
What makes you want to use or not use a
website?

• Speed
• Can I find what I want?
• Error-free experience
• Does it work in my browser?
• Dont bombard me!

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Speed
You have only a few seconds to grab a visitors
attention and keep them on your site.

• Keep the page clean
• No clutter
• Use efficient design techniques, e.g. tables
• Help the user complete the task, e.g. auto fill
  locations based on zip
• Link your logo or header to your home page
• Set images to 72 dpi and resize example
• Warn the user if something will take awhile
  example

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Can I find what I want?
Research by User Interface Engineering, Inc.,
shows that people cannot find the information
they seek on Web sites about 60 percent of the
time. This can lead to wasted time, reduced
productivity, increased frustration, and loss of
repeat visits and money. http//www.usability.gov
/basics/whyusa.html

• Put important information on the home page
  example
• Make basic information available throughout the
  site, e.g. contact form
• Include a site map on your site example
• Use consistent, logical navigation example
• Allow movement directly between areas of site

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Presentation Tips for Good Usability

• Long pages
• Tabs / Collapsible Regions example
• Anchor links at the top of the page
• Panels example
• Limit the number of top level menu items
• Make sure pages print well
• Keep good color contrast (more later)
• Allow for flexible text sizing example

From the old to the new
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Accessibility

• About 20 of people have a disability
• Program for all types of disability
• Visual - Blindness, low vision, color-blindness
• Hearing use captioning on videos
• Movement - Inability to use a mouse, slow
  response time
• Minimize scrolling or mouse movement, e.g. Back
  to Top
• Warn users of timed events
• Cognitive - Learning disabilities, inability to
  remember or focus on large amounts of information
• Accessibility is not difficult to program into a
  site!

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Gamequarium.com as it would appear to a person
with 20/25 vision, 40 years old with color
blindness
See live site
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Accessibility report for Gamequarium.comThe
system reported 410 errors and 3 warnings when
tested for accessibility compliance.
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Speed bumps and Pot Holes

• Handling Errors
• First avoid the errors! Test, test, test
• Help users recover from errors - Provide contact
  information for help
• Forms
• Can international users fill out the form?
• Are required fields well-marked?
• Are the fields long enough?
• Give feedback to the user after submission
• Be clear about what is or is not added on, e.g.
  opt-in vs opt-out

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Shopping Online

• Use categories that make sense
• Provide good descriptions and pictures
• Provide similar or related item links
• Be clear about shipping charges
• Allow shoppers to check out as a guest
• Make it clear if shoppers are agreeing to any
  other terms, for example, theyll now receive a
  newsletter
• Make pages with sensitive information secure
• Test your payment system all the way through real
  transactions
• Be sure the system recovers well from predictable
  circumstances, e.g. bad credit card entry,
  payment system maintenance, out-of-stock items

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Overall Strategy

• K.I.S.S.
• More isnt always better
• Format information for screen reading
• Use Bullets Links
• Break up blocks of text
• Be a resource
• People will come back if your site is easy to
  use, has fresh content and gives them what they
  need
• Provide links to other sites that offer similar
  or complementary content (and get them to do the
  same)
• Dont appear on this list. . . www.webpagesthatsuc
  k.com/

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So youve built it Will they come?

• How do people find you?
• Put your site address on all print media, e.g.
  business cards, flyers, ads
• Offer specials or coupons on your site to bring
  people back
• Remember the pieces
• Loyalty Make your visitors want to come back
• Conversion Make your site turn visitors into
  customers, donors members
• Expand your base Attract new visitors

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What do you need to know?
Questions on Usability?