6 Quick Projects to Improve Your User Experience

When we begin a conversation with an organization who has not worked with us previously, one of the first things out of their mouth is, “our website needs a redesign.”

But a full-blown, multi-month redesign project isn’t always the best way for an organization looking to swiftly increase their impact online. Often, there are alternative approaches to retooling an existing site and it can be difficult to know which efforts are worthwhile.

These following projects are inexpensive and effective ways to provide direction before diving into a big redesign project. They are focused on using evidence to drive decision making and making improvements rather than the random opinions from your staff or (shutter) board of directors.

These six projects can be completed in a handful of weeks (sometimes as little as a week) for relatively little expense. These are designed to hone in on the improvements that get you furthest, fastest.

(If you think that any of these projects suit your organization, please contact us!)

Project 1: Audience Update

Knowing who is using your website and and why they are coming is imperative for keeping your communications on target and running at peak efficiency. In as little as a week, we can help you validate or clarify current assumptions about your audience, help identify new audiences, and make sure that you are meeting the needs of the people you care most about.

Answers the questions:

• How has your audience grown or changed since your last analysis?
• What are your audience’s expectations now?
• How can you better meet your audience’s needs going forward?

This project includes:

• Site Feedback Analysis: 
  • Synthesize site feedback to get a sense of the frequent requests, complaints, and other areas of feedback
• Web Analytics Analysis
  • Review analytics such as keywords, devices, most popular pages, visitor paths, browser, operating system, screen resolution, language and other visitor details.
  • Evaluate referrals and additional traffic stats as needed.

For a richer understanding of your audience’s needs, this project is be best supplemented with one of these two additional tasks:

• Option 1: Focus Group/ Group Interview (1 hour session)
• Option 2: Online Survey
  • 10-15 targeted questions to up to 20 respondents
  • Raw data to be exported to spreadsheet

The outcome of this project would be updated Audience Personas and strategic recommendations that help guide site improvements, prioritize new features, or decide whether a larger initiative is required.

An example of the Audience Personas we created for the EPA's Greenhouse Gas Data Tool

Project 2: Mobile Jump Start

More and more of your target audiences are using tablets and smart phones to access your website. By 2013, mobile will overtake PCs for worldwide access.When your mobile users arrive, will they be able to find what they want, or will they leave frustrated? In this project, we look closely at your site's current analytics to see how much of your traffic is coming through mobile devices and whether those audiences are staying or going. To enhance those findings, we’ll also talk directly to your visitors through an online survey to validate why they are or are not using mobile devices with your site. Additionally, to help you prepare to upgrade, Forum One can perform usability and technical audits to find your sites mobile strengths and weaknesses and determine the level of effort it will take to upgrade.

Answers the questions:

• Do I need to go mobile?
• How well does my current site perform on tablets and smartphones?
• How quickly can I get my site ready for mobile platforms?

This project includes:

• Web Analytics Analysis (Mobile Focus)
• Evaluate mobile usage through site analytics.
• Online Survey
• 10-15 targeted questions to up to 20 respondents.
• Raw data can be exported to spreadsheet

Optional tasks for deeper understanding:

• Option 1: Expert Usability Audit (Mobile Focus): Critique the site using the mobile heuristic worksheet.
• Option 2: Technical Audit (Mobile Focus)
  Evaluate current technical implementation and its ability to be retrofitted for responsive design.

This project culminates in a “Mobility Findings Report” that gives you the specific direction needed to take your content mobile.

Project 3: Usability & Accessibility Audit

How effective is your website? Can your audience accomplish everything they need to do? Forum One can apply its extensive experience designing websites to help you ensure that yours is working to its full potential and complies with all government-mandated accessibility requirements.

Answers the questions: 

• Is my site accessible to the widest possible audience?
• Are there any problems in my site that we aren’t seeing?

This project includes:

• Expert Usability Audit (Heuristic Evaluation)
• Expert review of site against usability best practices.
• Raw data provided in a spreadsheet.
• Optional: Accessibility Audit
• Expert analysis of sites compliance with accessibility best practices.
• This project concludes with an actionable Usability & Accessibility Report.

Project 4: Focused Usability Testing

What happens when live users encounter your site? Do they exalt with glee or recoil in horror? In this project we will observe real users to determine whether they are leaving your site satisfied and with their tasks accomplished. For example, we could evaluate your interactive map to determine whether it is easy to use and provides the information your users seek.
Answers the questions:

• Can real users find what they seek?
• Is my feature/section of site easy to use?
• When are my users getting frustrated?
• What roadblocks prevent users from completing their tasks?

Package includes the following (pick one): 

• Option 1: Unmoderated usability testing
  • Five key tasks with 4-5 users on an existing site.
  • Use a tool like Usabilla, Usertesting.com or Chalkmalk
  • In this option, we do not interface directly with end users. Instead we analyze user activity that is collected by these online tool. The user data is analyzing and used as a basis for recommendations.
• Option 2: Moderated usability testing on one feature area or site section
  • Five key tasks with 4-5 users within an existing site section or functional area (like a data visualization).
  • A User Experience Lead works directly with a group of about five end users instead of using an unmoderated tool. This approach is more time-consuming than Option 2, but yields richer insights as we can test hypotheses with users directly and see how they affect their experience on the website or application.

The main outcome of this project is a “Key Findings” memo that will outline keep issues in your current site and suggest a course of action for improvement.

Project 5: Web Content 101

Content is the most important and most often overlooked component to the success of your website. Poor content leads to dissatisfied users. This project helps you sharpen your site’s message and impact by evaluating your current messaging and then training your content creators in the best practices for sharp writing and optimizing language for search engines.

Answers the questions:

• Am I expressing myself as clearly as possible on my site?
• How can I write for both quality content and search engine optimization (Option 1)?

This project includes:

• Content Testing
• Taxonomy and Meta-data Strategy
• Web Writing

This project’s outcome is a site that with content that is fine-tuned to your audience's expectations.

Project 6: Fast Visual Refresh

Your website’s visual design is what people see first when and you always need to make a good first impression. This project is designed to quickly identify improvements that need to be made to your existing site in order to more closely align your brand and vision in today’s market.

Answers the question:

• How can I continue to look relevant in today’s highly-competitive marketplace?

This project includes:

• Creative Analysis
• Expert review of site, using visual best practices.
• Results and recommendations provided in white sheet with visual examples.
• Option 1: Technical Analysis
  • Review of CSS and HTML used to build front-end of site to gauge level of effort in implementation of recommendations.
  • Stylesheet that puts the recommendations in place.
• Option 2: Additional Functionality
  • Review includes major areas of subpage functionality (i.e. shopping carts, map-based navigation, etc.)
• Both options include results in an screenshot-based “User Experience Guide” that illustrates recommendations in place thorough top-level annotations.

In conclusion, not every project listed above is appropriate for every website, but most will result in quicker insights and direction before or inbetween large, expensive major overhauls.

Contact us, if you would be interested in learning more about how these small projects might move your organization’s communications forward.