biaza customer-centric websites by paul randall

Making your site the cat’s whiskers!

Paul Randall @paulrandall

Who am I? - Senior UX Architect at Evosite

- 10 years online design and development experience

- Make things easier for people to use

- Improve and optimise user experiences

- Cat lover!

Creating exceptional digitalexperiences for 11 years

Evosite have helped hundreds of organisations improve their eCommerce websites and digital products.

Established in 2005

Talented team of 25

Over 250 active clients

700+ web solutions delivered

Multi award winning agency

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What does a cup look like?

So, what makes a cup a cup?

What makes a cup a cup?

● Stem or handle?

● Saucer?

● Depth:width ratio?

● Tapered?

● Paper, plastic, glass, china?

Cup, mug or bowl?

We base designs on our own perceptions of the world.

hoveringartdirectors.tumblr.com

What does a cup look like?

What does a cup need to do?

What does a cup need to do?

● Retain hot or cold liquid

● Be able to drink from

● Used once or multiple times

● Recyclable...

Key business metrics

● Sales revenue

● Profit and loss

● Gross margin

● Cost of customer acquisition

● Customer loyalty and retention

● Operating productivity/costs

Primary website goals

● Ticket sales

● Gift sales

● Donations

● Traffic

● Sources

● Bounce rate

Secondary website goals

● Clicking a button

● Watching a video

● Browsing the navigation

● Searching

● Viewing opening times

● Signing up to newsletter

● Form errors

● Social shares

● Content interaction

● Checking availability

● Length of time on site

● Number of pages viewed

Your website is your most valuable employee...

Give your site a performance review

Why are the visitors here?

Let them reach their end goal

No visitors are the same, but they can be alike

User groups

● Primary

○ Attraction visitors

■ Word of mouth, new experiences

■ Holidaymakers

■ Social conscience

● Secondary

○ Corporate bookings or school trips

● Tertiary

○ Press and media

○ Work experience

○ Private hire / filming

@harrybr

@harrybr

Information needs - Holidaymakers

“What can I see”

“How much can I see on one day?”

“When is it open?”

“What does it cost for my family?”

“Are there any discounts?”

“Is there a special event on soon?”

“Can I still visit on a rainy day?”

“Are there any snakes? I hate snakes!”

“What can I learn?”

“Is it suitable for small children?”

“How do I get there?”

“Is parking free?”

“Is there disabled access?”

“What else is local to the attraction?”

“How close it is to other landmarks?”

Post-visit During

Information needs - Holidaymakers

Pre-visit

6 months 3 months 1 month

“What can I see”

“What can I learn?”

“Is it suitable for small children?”

“Is there disabled access?”

“Are there any snakes? I hate snakes!”

“What else is local to the attraction?”

“How close it is to other landmarks?”

“How much can I see on one day?”

“What does it cost for my family?”

“Is there a special event on soon?”

“Are there any discounts?”

“When is it open?”

“Can I still visit on a rainy day?”

“How do I get there?”

“Is parking free?”

Observing users in their natural habitat

How to run a usability study

1. Create a task script

2. Get 5-8 people to run through the task

3. Watch their videos back

4. Make notes of pain-points or suggestions

5. Collate the evidence and highlight key findings

whatusersdo.com/evosite

What you can discover...

● Visitors missing content

○ Can’t find a link in navigation

○ Search didn’t return results

○ Blocks of text hiding key info

○ Content ‘hidden’ in accordions

○ ‘Skimmers’ not reading text

○ Questions they had not answered

● Development bugs

○ Missing/broken links

○ Broken functionality

○ Browser inconsistencies

● Annoying behaviours

○ Livechat pop-ups

○ Exit-intent overlays

Other ways to inspect in detail

bit.ly/bounceratereport

High traffic, with high drop off

Beat your own targets

DesktopMobileScroll maps

Mouse movements

5.10 secs

13.26 secs

4.27 secs (with 25% re-filling this field*)

5.62 secs

6 out of 7 people opted out

Form interaction

* Refilling this field appears to be due to the business field autocompleting once they have clicked away.

“Creativity is the last legal unfair advantage over the competition”

Dave Trott

5,008

511,108

801,115

Make insights easy to digest

Usability is an impartial voice

● Measure what matters

○ Track key events and interactions

● Identify poorly performing pages and understand user behaviour

○ Analytics segmentation, heatmaps, scrollmaps and page interactions

○ Usability studies

● Test and measure variations

○ Be creative! Define the problem and the possible solution

○ Always refer to your website goals

A (repeatable) recipe for measurable improvements

whatusersdo.com/evosite

Paul Randall @paulrandall

paul.randall@evosite.co.uk

Thank you for your time