The relationship between UX and optimization: how to do it right

This text again reveals the problem of user expectations, directly related to the metrics of behavioral factors, which we talked about in our previous posts and offers a number of tools to control user behavior. As a translator, we add that the tools listed in the article will help you detect problems in user behavior and improve behavioral factors based on the data collected. At the same time, we recommend using SERPClick to control behavioral factors and directly improve site ranking due to these factors. The first part of the original text is published in this post.



The author’s posts are entirely his or her own (with the exception of improbable cases of hypnosis) and may not coincide with the opinion of the Moz team.

Like any person who often uses the Internet, you already have a certain opinion of your own about UX (user experience) while navigating online. The problem is that each user experience will be different depending on expectations. Therefore, although you, as a reader of the Moz blog and, possibly, a connoisseur of the Internet, have certain ideas on how to make the site of the company or client more convenient for most users, it is still likely that your manager or customer will have to disagree with you.

If, like me, you are not a specialist in the field of UX, then in this case it will be difficult for you to find convincing arguments in support of your point of view. As a rule, we discuss all this among ourselves, but I recommend taking time to look for irrefutable arguments:

1. Prove that you have discovered the problem. This is a good idea even if you and your manager (or customer) fully agree that the site can and should be optimized. Gather feedback from visitors who are not working on the creation of the site and see if their opinion confirms your guesses.

2. Suggest a solution. Based on user feedback, suggest a solution to your problem. It’s best to visualize this with a page layout.

3. Test your decision. See if the behavioral factors on the new design have improved compared to what they were compared to the old design.

Using this algorithm as the basis of your actions, you can implement your recommendations soundly and thoroughly.

How to find evidence of a problem

First you need to really justify that there is a certain problem in the user experience. If you are lucky and you have time and money, it is best to collect user reviews through your customers and people in your target market, by working with them personally. But in most cases we do not have such an opportunity. If you, like me, have to manage a strict SEO budget, you can choose one of the online tools:

My favorite:

Qualaroo

Qualaroo is a simple but effective way to collect feedback data. Just add a small piece of JavaScript code to your website, let Qualaroo upload the question in the lower right (when looking at the monitor) corner of the page. You can:

Place a question on any page or group of pages.

Post your own questions or use your existing question library.

Set the time when the question is displayed (for example, load it with the page or after 15 seconds, or when the user takes courses to the URL bar in his browser, which may mean that the user is about to leave the page).

Usage example:

One of my clients is conducting seminars. They hold them in different places, but if the seminar is held in the main building of the company, they do not mention the location of the seminar. I suggested that this is causing confusion among visitors and that simply adding an address to the seminar page makes it easier for visitors to decide whether or not they will go.

I didn’t want to ask a question in the forehead, so I added a question on each page of the seminar: “Is there any other information on the seminar that will help you make a decision and visit it today?”

I managed to collect several hundred answers, I exported the reviews to an Excel file and sorted the answers. I was right: so many visitors asked where the seminar would be held. This work also taught me that many visitors would like to see a rough outline of the seminar program.

Pros: Easy to use, quickly collect reviews, very flexible program.

Cons: Reviews only from users who have visited your site.

Cost: $ 79 per month (and less if you pay immediately for 1-2 years of use).

Inexpensive way to collect feedback without adding a line of code to the site:

Feedback Army / Mechanical Turk

Although I personally recommend Qualaroo myself, I understand that many of our readers may encounter a situation where it may not be possible to convince your client or manager to add a line of code to the site, as this introduction could potentially distract users from the actual intended use of the site. In this case, you can use Mechanical Turk or Feedback Army - the latter will use the mechanical Turk for you, because mTurck's interface is rather cumbersome.

Mechanical Turk allows you to ask a question to millions of online workers from around the world (approximately 30% of whom are in America). Therefore, you can ask the same question as through Qualaroo. You invite users to a specific page that you would like them to test. Make it easy for them to do this.

Pros: An inexpensive way to find tester users.

Cons: Mechanical Turk pays its employee quite a bit, so the answers will be quick and short. In addition, visitors will not come from your target audience or customer base.

Cost: $ 40 for 10 responses.

Read the end of the article in Russian tomorrow at our ALTWeb Group hub .