Applied Usability
The world of usability is more expansive than a simple test to find out whether your potential users can accomplish important tasks, like getting users to register for your website, or getting users to purchase your products/services easily online. In fact, usability can and should be used as a business differentiator, not simply a test to ensure that users understand a unique piece of functionality. To be sure, usability testing your functionality is not obsolete; usability has just expanded and evolved to include strategic initiatives as well as tactical testing. Understanding the online sphere that brings users to your website and keeps them behaving how you want them to is called Applied Usability.
Steps to a sound business strategy
At Definition 6, our standard business practice is to apply usability analysis to give our clients a competitive advantage in the marketplace. We take three important steps to ensure a sound business strategy adheres to usability best practices.
Step 1: Business Goals - We work closely with our clients to explore and understand the business goals associated with their online business channel.
Step 2: Web Analytics - We use quantitative tools provided by our web analytics partner, WebTrends, to gain an understanding of your current online visitors. We look at user behaviors, such as which websites brought your current visitors to your website and what are the relationships between the website the visitor is coming from and your website? Web Analytics is a MUST for evaluating e-commerce websites. With these reporting capabilities, Definition 6 has the ability to measure the current website conversion process and provide key recommendations. Additionally, we use a scenario analysis report to examine specific paths of the user-experience.
Step 3: Competitive Scan - Finally we develop a competitive scan that reviews your competitors’ websites, and analyze their users. This helps us identify how to differentiate your website in the online marketplace.
We use the findings from these three steps as a foundation for designing a relevant, compelling, usable experience for your online visitors.
Traditional usability services
Definition 6 also offers a full range of traditional usability services, including usability testing, card sorting exercises with users, participatory design with users, and ethnographic research to understand your users in their native environment.
