Ep. 12 - Websites: Testing and User Experience with Alex O'Neal

Hi there folks! Creatives Meet Business is an event and podcast series based out of Austin, Texas for creatives of ALL disciplines to get from zero to one in thinking of themselves as business owners (in the creative sector). This episode features Alex O'Neal, an Austin-based UX Consultant with UXtraordinary and Instructor at General Assembly Austin. She shares so so much about testing, metrics, analytics and more. Alex begins with the reasons WHY we test and moves into metrics and analytics. She also walks us through a great alternative to AB tests for smaller sites - before and after snapshots. One of the coolest we things we learned about was POP - Prototyping on Paper (check it out, it's awesome). Without further adieu, here's Alex... 0:00 to 3:18 - Ashland Opening Remarks and Intro of Alex O'Neal 3:20 to 5:12 - Why Do We Test? Two big questions of User Experience Who is on the other end of the screen? What are they doing? 5:15 to 7:59 - Analytics for Websites Some hosting services offer their own metrics Conversion - Does the customer do what you wanted them to do Device (Desktop or Phone) Used to Visit Site Google Analytics - free service - uses a snippet of code that you embed on pages of your site Exit - someone comes to site, looks around at a few pages and then leaves Bounce rate - lands on site and doesn't explore other pages (not applicable with one page sites) 8:00 to 9:05 - Behave.org Formerly whichtestwon They gather tests from large and small companies from all over the world and organize them by type of page (homepage, landing page, e-newsletter, etc) and vertical (type of industry or field) They provide AB tests and analysis on which test worked and why 9:06 to 10:53 - Before and After Snapshots When AB tests aren't an option, use before and after snapshots Two versions of a page (original and new version you want to test) Measure metrics for a specific period of time - Sunday through Saturday (for example) Make the changes you're interested in testing and measure during the same time frame (Sunday through Saturday, for example) Be mindful of federal holidays when selecting time frames to review Transformation test - testing two very different looks and feels, helps with things like testing a site refresh 10:54 to 13:34 - Example of Importance of Metrics and Analytics 13:35 to 17:05 - User Testing or Usability Testing Essentially you're putting a potential user in front of your site with a goal It's very important to set tasks and goals Ex. Ask them "Where would you go to sign up for an event?" Jakob Nielsen suggests that when getting a group together for user testing no more than 6 people are needed. They'll find 90% of the issues on the website Paper sketches - Prototyping on Paper (POP) 17:06 to 18:42 - Ashland Closing Remarks Wanting to learn more about metrics? Here's a bit of bonus content - 11 Analytics That Are Actionable. If you like what you hear, share the podcast with your friends, rate and review. To stay in the loop - follow us on Twitter, Facebook or subscribe to the newsletter. We'll be sticking around the world of websites for a few weeks and have some pros that we can't wait to introduce you to. Stay tuned for more! Thanks! Ashland, Creatives Meet Business