The 2 AM Test
This is a tough one to make work. It's based on the idea that folks are going to show up your Websites when you won't have people sitting around the store, waiting to answer the phone and help them out. The Website is going to have to carry itself on its own.
That means you have to design your site for ease-of-use with language that your visitors use and lots of simple instructions.
Here's the way I'd suggest you test this. Find a couple of fifteen-year-olds. They don't even have to be technologically-savvy fifteen-year-olds, because most fifteen-year-olds are more technologically savvy than most folks my age, anyway. Pay them a couple of bucks to try to do some simple tasks on your site. You might ask them to request information about something, or place an order.
Stand behind them and watch how things work. I can pretty well guarantee you that if they can't figure out how to do stuff, most of your visitors won't be able to do it, either.
Give yourself ten points here if your testers can do all the things you want them to do without any help from you.
The great thing about using fifteen-year-olds here is that they are absolutely fearless. They're at that stage of life when they pretty much know everything. That means that they won't be afraid to tell you stuff that they think is wrong with your site. A lot of the time they will be right.
Here's how to improve this measurement. Start by developing some basic scripts for things you want people to do on your site. For example, if a parent is going to select a musical instrument to rent, theyâll probably have a few specific things they will do along the way. They will probably check out different kinds of instruments and compare them. They will probably look at the different plans you have available to them. They may have some questions to ask. Finally, they will want to make a choice and place an order.
Your script is the tasks that they need to do in the order they will probably do them in. Scripts help you figure out what actually has to happen on your site. Then you can make sure it does, and you can make sure that the language is simple and active.
I also suggest using what we call "visitor vignettesä to sharpen up your ease-of-use. A visitor vignette is simply a little story about how someone will experience your Website. Stories are particularly good for this, because they help you pick up on issues you wouldn't see otherwise. If you would like an idea of what one might look like, click here to go over to a sample of one that I wrote for a musical instrument client.
Click here to take a look at a basic visitor vignette. Use your back button to return here.
Top of page
Copyright 2001 by Bock Information Group, Inc.
Email us at office@bockinfo.com or click for contact information |
