Do you track how users react to your site?
Image: FlickrCC
When was the last time you sat down with someone and watched them surf around your website?
If you haven’t ever done this, you definitely should! You’ll gain a valuable insight into how people react to what you take for granted.
Last week I did some testing for a client with some fifteen / sixteen year olds – her target audience.
I learned a lot. For example:
- none of the teens new what RSS was
- none of them could identify the RSS icon
- 80% of teens thought RSS was “cool” once it was explained to them
- 70% of teens navigated the site by clicking back to the homepage before delving deeper
- 95% couldn’t remember what the homepage sidebar said
It was also interesting to hear what they had to say about the language used in the sites we looked at. Most of the teens were very sensitive to cheesy marketing and picked up very quickly on how politically correct each site was “trying to hard” to be. Boys reacted strongly to any text that used “she” where “s/he” could also have been used.
The teens were also very critical of the photographic images used across the sites, wary of what they regarded as “staged” or “posed” images designed to appeal to their tastes.
I learned so much by sitting down and walking through these sites with a group of teens one-on-one that I came away with a very different idea of what my client was succeeding and failing at communicating, as well as an insight into how teens react to the web.
Of course, an exercise like this takes time –even with a group of 10 or 12 participants. And you have to be wary that small groups may give misleading information.
Still, I can see that every (small) businesses can potentially benefit from this kind of venture. It gives you so much information about the communicative strategies that you’re (consciously or unconsciously) using.
When was the last time you watched someone visit your website? What did you learn?
Related posts:
- Your Website Needs a Focus Group
- Twitter’s Hot – But Nurture Your Website
- The Digital Media Habits of Swedish Teens
- Johnny Spence on How to Start a Business Website
- You Don’t Control Your Communication Channels
Jon Buscall - Communications Consultant
I'm an available-for-hire online communications consultant based out of Stockholm, Sweden.
What I do:- Online Marketing and Communications Strategy
- Speaking
- Teaching
- Training
- Write stuff: articles, blogs, brochures, copywriting, presentations, the works!
Contact me today to set up a free consultation to discuss how I can help your business succeed online.
