How to: Testing Your Website Usability

The best websites are those that visitors find easy to use. The more easily a visitor can navigate through different pages of your website, the better its effectiveness. Your website usability is important to get your visitors to take action, especially when that action converts them into customers. Your website usability is a critical part of its design. As a small business owner or startup, you want to constantly test your website usability to ensure that it is converting well and getting users to do your intended conversion. 

Here's how to do so.

Start With Your Goals in Mind

You need to get clear on the actions you want visitors to take when they're on your website. Do you want them to schedule appointments, join your email list, book a discovery call, or make a purchase? Your goals for your website are the parameters for testing its usability and determining whether a test is successful or not. A part of this is to ensure that your website is easy to navigate, readable, and attractive.  It is critical that your website speed is up to the mark and that it looks great across all devices (what is referred to as mobile responsiveness). Aside from getting them to take action, users should find it easy to perform any task on your website. 

Choose a Test Method

Now that you are clear on what you want your website to achieve, it's time to choose a method for testing its usability. To choose the right test for your website, you also need to ask yourself why visitors are on your site in the first place. There are many usability test methods you can choose from. Regardless of your budget, you'll find one that suits your business. The most common usability tests include task analysis, card sorting, and eye tracking.

Task Analysis Usability Test

Task analysis usability test allows you to determine the steps users follow to take your desired action. Through this test you can determine the progression from visiting your website to completing the task you have in mind. That task is the goal you identified for your website such as scheduling appointments, booking calls, joining an email list, downloading a lead magnet, signing up for a free trial, making a purchase, and so on. Your goal should be broken down into steps for the user. The task analysis test will allow you to see how efficiently your website currently takes users through the process. The fewer steps there are, the better your conversion rates would be. If you have a limited budget, you can try the Lucidchart tool to help you with your task analysis usability testing.

Card Sorting Usability Test

This usability test is both easy and fast. It explores how well users understand your site by involving them directly in the testing process. Card sorting usability test involves you creating cards that users group into categories. It could be an open, closed or hybrid sorting process. In the open sorting method, the user determines the categories to which they group the test. In the closed method, you determine the categories using your goals or the metrics you created for the test. Each card stands for a web page or a step and the grouping shows clearly how your visitors move between your website pages, and the actions they take to accomplish your predetermined website goals. The card sorting method is great because users sort the cards depending on how they use your site, not how you want them to use it. It quickly shows you what you need to change.

Eye-tracking Usability Test

The eye-tracking test is similar to heatmapping. It is used to determine what visitors are looking at when they are on your site as well as what they are clicking on and in which order. With the eye-tracking test, you can follow a visitor's actions on your website while they are happening.

When testing your website usability, you may want to explore different audiences. If you have more than one kind of ideal customer then you have to experiment with different demographics to ensure you're getting the best from your test. When you're through with your testing, you should put the information to use in making your website function better. Testing your website usability should be a continuous process to ensure that you are never leaving money on the table.