What we learnt in June

Catriona, Clare and Arthur attended the Usability Professionals’ Association conference in Austin, Texas, where Catriona delivered a presentation about combining web analytics with usability testing. It was the only talk to mention analytics and the feedback we received confirmed that the use of analytics is still in its infancy across the industry, although surveys are becoming more widespread. We’ve found analytics to be an essential part of a continuous improvement programme. As the saying goes – you can’t manage what you don’t measure.

There were whispers about dynamic content, but so far the usability community doesn’t seem to have a standard approach to it. There was also talk about testing websites with audiences abroad. The key lesson there is that the recruitment criteria need to be sensitive to the local culture. If your typical customer is a 45 year-old man earning £30k in the UK, you need to adjust the salary level relative to the average wage when you recruit participants in Japan. Participant recruitment needs to be allocated plenty of time to ensure that it doesn’t hold up the project.