Chapter 9 & 11

Many internal debates can be solved with user testing. This was the main ideas of chapter 9 and 11. User testing can solve issues, hidden bugs, problems, etc. that normally would be caught by the designer(s). I thought this was interesting because it’s true. There has been many times that I didn’t notice a double space until someone pointed it out to me. As a designer you see the design as a whole, but most people who are visiting your web tie care more about the content. However, sometime the issues that are caught are not as big as they seem. Like stated previously, the book really goes into usability testing. The book states that it most often and not produces great end results. I never really understood optimal usability, until making a website. It never crossed my mind when initially redesigning the Morgantown Farmers Market’s website that all of my design work really doesn’t mean anything to someone that is blind. That person is here only for the content and user testing can help you find out what is the most optimal way to organize that content. Something else I thought was interesting is the notion that doing numerous test gives you a better outcome comparatively to doing very little testing. Continue reading, the book states that the content that should be tested are the welcoming message, questions, home page tour, tasks, probing and concluding. I noticed a lot of this is most homepage affiliated stuff, but I understand why. If your homepage is not interesting and intuitive enough, then it would persuade the visitor to continue clicking on your site. If the website is hard to navigate or have misleading headings, it could, as the book said, diminish the goodwill of the website, however, making thing easier increases that. I remembered back when we did the card sorting, which was exactly what this is referring to. Something else I thought was interesting was the comparative to giving your information to a random stranger. You wouldn’t give your personal information to a stranger, unless you felt that that person is trustworthy. Then, you should not ask for any personal information at the beginning of your website either. You don’t know this website, and you don’t know if it seem trustworthy with your information. This puts things in puts things in perspective, because I realized when researching other websites that not a lot of websites have a place to put personal information on the homepage. There is always a link that will take you to a place to put that said information. All in all, user testing is very important. Without user testing, there can be a huge disconnect between the audience and the designer. The designer may have a particular vision when designing a website, but the audience isn’t there to see your beautiful use of typography or your beautifully animated gifs that animate when hover over. At the end of the day, they are there for there content and our jobs as web designers is help the viewer navigate that content as easy as possible.