The 2 A.M. Test

Most likely, your office is not open twenty-four hours-a-day, but your Web site is. That means that, many times, people will be visiting your site at times when no one's around to help them if the site doesn't do its job. Your site should be so easy to use that people never have to call you to figure out how to get it done or to get information that's there.

I call this the 2 a.m. test, because lots of folks do their research late at night. It's worth ten points.

Give yourself the full ten if a first-time user can go to your site and find information easily and quickly.

Here's a way to test that that's worked for several clients and me. Go out and find some intelligent fifteen-year-olds who are conversant with the Web. Give them the assignment to go to your site and find the answers to some of the questions and problems that you've identified in your research. Tell them they can't call for more help -- they just need to either find the stuff or not and tell you what the experience was like. Then turn them loose.

Fifteen-year-olds are great for this. First of all, they've grown up in the Net generation, so the Web doesn't scare them. Second of all, they've hit that stage of life where they know more than you do. Don't worry, that part will go away over time; but for the moment, it can work for you.

That certainty that they're right makes them absolutely fearless in telling you the truth. And you need to hear the truth.

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