PinPoint Performance Solutions Blog (Legacy Content)

The team at Virtual Hosting brought to my attention a recent post they made to their blog on how to improve the usability of your website.

Test your Website: A 57-Point Checklist for Maximum Usability

This impressive list provides links to supporting content on the web that I'm sure will burn up your Delicious bookmarks.

Enjoy!

The Web 2.0 world we live in has been beneficial in creating a community of users that share their thoughts and opinions on the quality of just about anything ranging from websites, books and music, to services provided by vendors in their local.

The power is in the hands of the end-user and they now have a voice. Even more powerful and more prevalent on the web is the power of groups. A fundamental paradigm has adapted itself online in the world of Web 2.0: People tend to buy, use, do and think the way their peers do. In other words, there is a human need to fit in and be among people much like ourselves that we often follow the trend so as not to be left behind or seen as out of touch.

Ratings are often the means of expression of preference in the Web 2.0 world. It's easily understandable by all. Something rated "1-star" is often deemed as bad while something given an "A" or a "10" is deemed as good or excellent.

If you intend employ a ratings system in the design your software, website or web application be sure to choose a system that is not only understandable, but objective.

The more common system is referred to as a Likert Scale. It's a 5-point scale similar to the following:

1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neither agree nor disagree
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree

Anything more than 5 points tend to muddy the waters of objectivity. The more choices, the less absolute the values will be. For example, in a 10-point scale where I say "1" is bad and "10" is the best, I may interpret "7" to be OK while another person may say "8" is also OK. Well, which is it?

The Likert Scale is the better choice when implementing a rating system, but it does have it's pitfalls. I find the 5-point Likert Scale to lack objectivity when you give the end-user a list of many things to rate. The trend usually produces a traditional bell curve where most of the choices fall under the rating of "3" - neither agree or disagree.

If you want your end-users to commit to a choice, do a 4-point scale such as the following:

1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Agree
4. Strongly agree

By removing the middle choice you avoid neutrality and create greater objectivity. Greater objectivity means better usability to the community of users.

I was happy to see a post by Peter Abrahams at IT-Director.com on the Future of Usability Testing. The reason I was pleased to see this post was because it backed up my assertion from what I feel to be a credible source that usability and user-centered design during the conceptual and development phases of software, website and web applications, should be a holistic process.

By holistic process, I mean to say that the usability of the application should be linked to the business need. The business need can mean two things - one for the developer and the other for the customer.

As an advocate for usability, I find that user-centered design and usability applied throughout the development process lowers costs both before and after the application is released. During concept and development, user-centered design and usability under an agile methodology will lead to shorter time frame for the development phase, thus lowering development costs.

If there's one thing businesses love, it's lowered costs!

For the customer, a usable application means less support. Ease of use will allow them to be productive with the application and spend less time trying to train themselves how to do certain tasks. If an end-user can be self-sufficient in their use of the application, acceptance and productivity increases thus making the technology purchase a worthwhile investment. If they are able to complete their tasks quickly and efficiently with the application this can translate into lowered costs for the customer. The same is true for the developer. Money going toward support resources to handle "how-to" questions can be diverted to resources that tackle tough technical issues.

Since launching this blog I have written about this topic extensively. Here are some past posts on this subject:

• Maintaining User-Centered Design in Agile Software Development
• User-Centered Design and Agile: Why Can't We Be Friends?
• User Centered Design, HCI and Agile Development Compatibility

I think it will take some time for business leaders to have a meeting of the minds with developers on the need for usability, as demonstrated by the panel discussion that Abrahams reported on in his article. When that will happen it is hard to say, but the trend appears to be moving in the right direction.

Rik Catlow of Rikcat Industries posted to his blog 5 Ways to Make a User Interface Intuitive.

I completely agree with Rik and wish more developers of software, web applications and websites embrace simplicity in the design of user interfaces. I'm sure if you take stock of the applications you use on a daily basis or applications you have used in the past, you'll recall how most of them are confusing leaving you to fumble around just to accomplish a simple task.

Much of this is common sense and when simplicity is chosen over complexity it is not about compromise. It is about being targeted and precise in your intentions and purpose behind your application.

Here are Rik's suggestions on making a user interface intuitive along with some of my own commentary:

1. Eliminate Redundancy: most applications have different ways to accomplish the same task. Reduce the redundancy and simplify the tasks to a select few.
2. Nomenclature & Contextualization: I sum this up as a controlled vocabulary and proper labeling. Don't be cute with titles linking to other pages or sections in your website or web application. If you have a section with a list of links to other websites or links to e-books and presentations, don't call it "The Pit" or "Library". Call it what it is. Call it "Links". This is about knowing your audience and you must speak their language in your application's interface.
3. Consistency: the overall look and navigation of your application must be the same throughout, no matter where a user is in the application.
4. Protect Screen Real Estate: if you work with many people on a project, there is a tendency for others to jockey for position to take up space on the screen for their pet projects or areas of interest. Make it clear that it is about the end-users and what is relevant to them.
5. Testing: make sure you test your application or website with actual end-users. Run a series of tests from paper-based, wire frame prototypes to functioning prototypes. Testing need not be complex, but it must be objective.

Along with these 5 suggestions, here are a few books and a link to a useful web article that will help you create a intuitive user interface:

Books

• Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville
• Don't Make Me Think by Steven Krug

Web Articles

• Why You Only Need to Test With 5 Users by Jakob Nielsen

My friends at Valitics are running a series of posts on their blog about web optimization. One of thoses posts is on web optimization and usability.

Head on over to their blog to see how they view this subject. As an item of interest, you may also find my recently published white paper on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Usability useful as well.

One of my favorite websites, BNET, has put together a feature on Web 2.0 and how it can work for you in your business.

Not only are you able to find out what it is and what specific tools are at your disposal, you can also learn how to put it to use in your company. I encourage you to read this article as well as others in the feature if you are considering using Web 2.0 technologies in your organization.

Here are some highlights from the article and some thoughts I have on this topic:

• Web 2.0 - simple deployment, simple management and lower overall costs. There is typically no software to buy and configure on a network server or desktop. Management and maintenance of the application is often minimal. Somebody else is usually responsible for the "dirty work".
• Implementing Web 2.0 in an organization should be done out of a need to improve performance, productivity and communication. It shouldn't be done for the sake of the technology or just because "everybody else is doing it." The solution the technology provides should be to evolve current processes and practices, not to revolutionize what is currently being done. The key is to have minimal pain and minimal resistance during a time of change. Otherwise, your initiative could be rejected by the end users. Find a champion for your cause that people respect and are willing to follow. It could be you or it could be someone else.
• Some Web 2.0 applications have poor usability or counter-intuitive interfaces. This is a young field and there are bound to be many bugs, glitches and overlooked features that may be important to you. In this day and age, beta is the new "final release". It just comes with the territory.
• Be willing to experiment. Find the root causes to performance problems and identify whether or not a technology solution is the answer. If so, choose an application and see if it works for you. If not, you are out very little due to the nature of the technology. Simple deployment, simple management and low cost make it affordable to try on different hats until you find the one that is the best fit.

I would be very interested in learning what you discover in these articles. Perhaps you'll come to the same conclusions or arrive at your own. Enjoy!

While taking my blog break last month, I had a little time to do some research and find two very interesting articles on how to use Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft PowerPoint in creating user interface prototypes that are interactive. This is goes way beyond paper prototypes and basic screen captures and gives people a sense of how a website or web application will behave when a user interacts with it.

Here are the articles:

• Interactive Prototypes with PowerPoint
• PDF Prototypes: Mistakenly Disregarded and Underutilized

I'm always fascinated when we find new uses for applications beyond what we commonly utilize them for. The greatest advantage to using these two applications for interactive user interface prototypes is that you can be confident that almost everybody you work with, who needs to see these prototypes, will have these applications or at the very least reader versions on their systems.

If you have any other suggestions for uncommon uses of software that we may take for granted, I welcome them.

PinPoint Performance Solutions has published a white paper on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Usability (PDF, 75K).

Abstract
The design and functionality of a website does not have to suffer just to receive a high ranking on a search engine results page. Search engine optimization, the practice of optimizing the code and content of a website to make it easy for search engines to index and for end-users to find and usability, the practice of making something easy to understand and learn are actually two sides of the same coin. Both practices are a lot more similar than you may think and lend to enhancing the user experience for websites and web-based applications.

I’m a very visual person and I like it when people make an effort to illustrate thoughts and ideas. After all, thoughts and ideas by their very nature are abstract and when it comes to something like the user experience, you can’t get any more abstract than that.

What is the user experience? If you were asked to draw it as it relates to your product, your software, website or web application, could you do it?

A book called Sketching User Experiences by Bill Buxton demystifies the abstract and helps bring the design process to a more tangible level. You can read a brief review of the book here. Also, a colleague in the Boise area discusses the book to some degree and explains how he uses sketching in his daily work.

I think one thing that turns off some folks from sketching is the pressure to be perfect right out the gate. They see people they perceive as their competition and fear what they are working on is not innovative enough. In the process of designing a product, most of the joy comes from the journey, answering questions that seem to crop up without warning and discovering new things that may not have been considered before.

Even though we live in a digital age, start putting pen to paper to fuel that new idea.

I’m always interested in finding ways to reach new customers and keep the one’s I have happy through my website or blog. One way to do this is to make sure my website and blog adhere to tried and true usability standards.

I always learn something new each time I find an article or blog post on the subject of usability. I’m not perfect and I haven’t applied every tip and trick I’ve encountered. One thing you find as you begin to focus more on usability, it’s an ongoing process.

Recently I found this blog post discussing usability as it relates to websites, mostly e-commerce sites. I encourage you to read the post, but I thought I’d take the same five points and adapt them to a reader who may be in the business of designing and developing software and web applications.

Here we go:

1. You just can’t afford not to – the user experience is what keeps your end-users engaged and continuing to use your applications. If it doesn’t meet their needs or is difficult to use they’ll find something else to replace it.
2. The user experience is more important than your brand or pricing – the most popular software companies in the world can make all the software they want and sell it for a good price, but if it doesn’t meet the needs of the end-user they will likely reject it. I don’t want to name names, but your company name, your pricing and distribution strategy has very little to do with how your application will be received by your target audience. It’s about meeting needs and helping people accomplish tasks to their expectations.
3. Gain a competitive advantage – usable software and web applications have a greater loyalty among end-users. In the e-commerce world this is identified as conversion rates and repeat customers.
4. Focus on the standards – stick to usability standards outlined by organizations like W3C or ISO. When standards are employed, end-users encountering your software or web applications know what to expect and can grasp key concepts quickly.
5. You are already spending on design – why not continue the process? Business needs change as well as the processes that are part of the business. You’ll likely make changes to your application so budget accordingly. Focus on the usability of the application first and the design & aesthetics second.

As I said, usability is an ongoing process. If you make the commitment to usability now, changes you make to improve your software and web application in the near future will be minor compared to monumental changes if you had not focused on usability at all.

Since I started this blog, I never set out to promote local items of interest primarily because I considered my readership would be spread out across the nation and perhaps overseas. However, when I see a good thing I want to talk about it - especially when it has something to do with technology.

In the Boise area a new website, or blog if you will, has been launched called TechBoise. It's a great example of how a usable form of technology can be put into use to bring together diverse groups of people on one particular subject. In this case it is technology. MSNBC recently ran a story on how Boise will be one of the next thriving technology centers in the US in the years to come. TechBoise will be a part of that serving as a forum for people in the industry to share ideas and show the world just how unique and innovative our city is.

For companies looking to leverage technology internally as a way to support collaboration and spur innovation, look to this site as a great example. Also, if you are in a thriving tech region in the USA or in another country, a site like this can really draw some much needed attention to those interested in investing in start ups or supporting them through complementary products and services.

Note: Content for this blog post has been drawn from Usability First: Consulting.

Usable systems such as software and web applications should seem intuitive to the end-user, but getting there is not always as intuitive for programmers and developers.

What Do Usability Consultants Do?
Usability consultants work with designers and developers to analyze how an application meets end-user needs so that they can improve upon its concept to enhance productivity, increase overall end-user satisfaction, and minimize end-user errors.

If a usability consultant is brought in before a website or software application is created, they can help developers achieve consistent, usable results. This is the preferred model for development, as usability is built into the application rather than as an afterthought. Usability is not about making a user interface attractive. It encompasses issues such as information architecture, design, writing, and quality assurance. Usability goes way beyond the surface elements.

If usability is brought in after production, it can evaluate the usefulness of a website or software application by using one or more usability evaluation methods such as focus groups, job / task analysis and end-user testing.

Usability consultants usually offer such services as needs analysis, heuristic evaluation (often conducted through expert critique or usability testing), user interface design, and usability training.

What Are The Benefits Of Hiring A Usability Consultant?

• Increasing the usability of a website or software application results in increased productivity for the end-user.
• Bringing a usability consultant into the design and production process will reduce overall costs as it is more cost effective to build a usable application than it is to repair an unusable one.
• Doing a less than thorough job can cost more than money. It can cost time and customers.
• Usability consultants can evaluate systems more efficiently because they know what to look out for based on their experience with a wide range of systems.
• They can bring perspectives that those close to a project may not have considered. It is often difficult to be objective about your own work when you are closely tied to it.
• Consultants are trained in a range of usability evaluation methods. The advantage comes with knowing which method is best for each individual project.
• Having a usable application will result in satisfied, productive users with lowered support costs.

Yesterday I read the following article on the Idaho Statesman website which fascinated me.

HP tries reinventing its masterpiece

The article discussed how Vyomesh I. Joshi, the senior vice president of Hewlett-Packard's printing division, is looking at his business in a different way in order to stay competitive and keep up with a changing marketplace. Rather than thinking of HP as being in the printing business, Joshi is thinking of the company as being in the content consumption business.

Looking at your overall business or the products you create (i.e. - software & web applications) in an opposite way changes your paradigm. When it comes down to it, the tools of technology we produce are nothing more than a means to an end. It is the end we should be thinking about above all else. For instance, HP's printers are merely the tools that allow the content the end-user is consuming to be transferred to the printed page. With that printed page they will be able to a do a number of things.

So take a step back and look at your business or your products. Start with the end in mind to create a whole new way of thinking. Who knows? From there your next innovation may emerge.

Tickets for Kickstart 2007 have gone on sale and the event is shaping up to be an exciting one! It's the kind of event I like to be a part of because it attracts and brings together business innovators, especially those who know and understand how technology plays are role in commerce and our everyday lives.

Along with Rich Sloan from Startup Nation speaking on the evening of April 18th, I'm especially excited about Ben McConnell, author of Citizen Marketers. I learned more about this subject earlier this week when I attended a search engine optimization / findability workshop.

Justin Foster from BlueLine Grassroots Marketing talked about Citizen Marketers as the next wave of marketing for businesses and used the book as a reference. It's essentially letting your customers become an advocate or evangelist for your products and services. At the same time, it allows these same customers the ability to voice their concerns, questions and perhaps their dislike for your products or services through mediums such as blogs and forums. While most businesses wouldn't like to have their customers service grievances aired public, the businesses who have embraced this new form of marketing have found increase prosperity.

Visit the Kickstart 2007 website to purchase your tickets for either day or both. In addition, a blog is being maintained as we move closer to the event.

Your business website isn't usable unless it can be found.

On Monday I spent the day at a search engine optimization (SEO) / findability workshop hosted by Cendesic where the discussion of business websites and their ability to be found by clients through web searches was center stage. The ultimate form of usability in any business website, in my opinion, starts with its findability. In other words, its ability to be discovered by clients through keyword searches.

In this day and age it still happens - far too often I've seen businesses, whether big to small, take a "build it and they will come" approach to their websites. It simply doesn't work because if the search engines don't know you exist, how will you be found unless you use traditional forms of marketing to blast your URL out to the public? That form of marketing can get very expensive.

Most web searches are not very specific. In the minds of the end-user, they are usually typing in keywords that relate to a problem they are facing. They are looking for answers to solve their problem. Also, it is estimated that almost 3/4 of all big-ticket consumer purchasing decisions begin with a web search.

So, how do you make sure you appear front and center as the problem solver for your potential client's most recent dilemma and how to you make sure your information, which will help them make a purchasing decision, gets to your intended audience ahead of your competitor? The answer is SEO. Here a few tips you can do today to make a difference:

• Content is king - even though this may be a cliche' marketing term, it is very relevant in SEO. Your content is the heart of your website and provides you the opportunity to leverage the keywords your clients are likely to use when they conduct an web search. If your content matches their idea of a solution, you've accomplished more than most business websites on the web. Make sure you write good, quality content for your website. Keep it updated and relevant.
  
• Build high-quality links to other websites - this is easier said than done and requires some creative thinking. What you want to do is create a reciprocal link where you link to a site and they link back to you. You want the site you link to to have a large volume of web traffic. For instance, I was quoted in a article on blogging in the Idaho Statesman. Unfortunately, the author of the article did not link to my company's website. Had he linked to my website and I posted a small news item in my website or my blog linking back to the article on the Statesman website, I would have likely seen an increase in web traffic. It doesn't have to be just articles on newspaper websites. It can be niche web directories or websites that offer complementary products and services.
  
• Make use of your META tags, especially keywords - if you are not familiar with this, META tags are code in your web pages that provide a title for your web page, a brief description and keyword phrases that describe the content of the page. "Phrases" is the operative word. When you select keyword phrases to describe your content, be a descriptive as possible and narrow it down. For example, "shoes" is not a very descriptive word, but "running shoes" or "cross country running shoes" is more descriptive. This plays into the Long Tail theory. You are likely to find most of your customers in the long tail of a search where it is narrowed down to a niche area versus a wide open area that is not so descriptive. If you just optimized your META tags and your content for the word "shoes" you'll be at the bottom of most search engine results pages, guaranteed.
• Post to blogs and forums - in a Web 2.0 world how can you not afford to be a part of the conversations that are going on, especially in areas where your business is an expert in? Blogs and forums give you the opportunity to link back to your website, provided you do it in a respectful manner. If you simply post comments to blogs that say "visit our website" with a URL and not contribute something meaningful to the conversation, you'll end up drawing some negative attention. Keep it professional and add value to the conversations. Remember, if you link back to these blogs and forums in some way from your site you create a reciprocal link.
  

Remember, your company's website is not usable unless it can be found. It's the ultimate form of usability especially if your website is intended to help your end user accomplish a specific task or overcome an obstacle in their daily business processes and routines. These are just a few suggestions to get started. Unfortunately, they are not as in-depth as I would like them to be. This blog is really not the place for it. So, I encourage you to conduct some research on your own to help boost the usability of your website by making sure it can be found. SEO is the answer.

You can begin your research by visiting a recent blog post I made on SEO and user-centered design. The information in that post will be handy once you start getting visitors to your website. Some other sources include:

• Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization
• About.com - Search Engine Optimization

Good luck!

Note: in your research you'll notice that the term "search engine marketing" and "search engine optimization" are used interchangeably.

Rarely are the best tips and shortcuts to enhance the usability of the more commonly used Microsoft applications ever published. Most of the time we learn them from friends or co-workers.

There's a website called BNET that I receive regular e-mails with links to business tips and advice ranging from marketing to finance to the occasional technology trick. Here are some links to some tips and tricks that were recently sent to my inbox:

• 50 Best Excel Tips
• Become a Word Wizard - 50 Best Tips
• Powerful PowerPoint Presentations
• 60 Internet Explorer 7 Shortcuts

To download these articles you'll need to sign up on the BNET website. (What!? Another website to sign up for! No worries.) The information on the website is worth it and you can control what you receive from BNET or opt out of their e-mails entirely.

Enjoy.

I want to apologize for being somewhat of a shill for my company and a Boise-area organization I support. We upgraded our website and we threw our support behind Kickstart, an entrepreneur event happening in April. Last week's posts has little to do with PinPoint Performance Solutions and our overall mission to help companies implement technology in their organizations to improve performance. Still, why be in the blogging game if you can't do a little self-promotion from time to time and advocate a cause or two?

This week, I thought I'd dedicate a couple posts to my "roots". I started out my professional career as an instructional designer and human performance improvement specialist. Those titles may seem a little foreign to you, but that's OK. Before the week is out you'll have a better understanding of where I'm coming from, how it all falls into place and drives PinPoint Performance Solutions. All you really need to know about my previous career is that much of what I was taught and what I practiced supported the human resources function of an organization (or at least that's where it originated). I had a strong interest in technology and over time I found ways to merge my interest and my profession.

It wasn't all that hard to do. The fields of instructional design and human performance improvement today leverage technology and use it as a driver for many of the solutions that are developed. I'm sure you heard of e-learning. Well, that's an instructional design (i.e. - training) solution and if it is determined after an analysis conducted under the umbrella of human performance improvement that it will benefit the end-user and the organization, true performance emerges that is objective and measurable.

So how does this all tie in to what PinPoint Performance Solutions is doing today? I feel that technology, whether software, websites or web applications, even hardware products like hand held devices, is sometimes hastily implemented. In other words, the technology solution is created for the sake of the solution and not to address the true need or real performance problem in the organization. We get so excited about the possible outcome, but we have a clouded vision of what lies between the perceived need and potential solution.

The model I use at PinPoint Performance Solutions to validate the need to implement a technology solution in business, is Gilbert's Behavior Engineering Model. The link will take you to a PDF file with a copy of the model I have posted on my website. Gilbert, Thomas F., is considered the father of human performance technology. It basically boils down to this - problems in the workplace usually stem from either the business environment or the individual. Each have three sub-sets or areas where the problem(s) is usually centered upon.

Environment:

• Information
• Resources
• Incentives / Consequences
  

Individual:

• Knowledge / Skills
• Capacity
• Motivation

When we look to implement a technology solution in an organization to increase performance (or change the behavior of our workforce - because they aren't doing what they ought to be doing), what we are doing is concentrating on validating the environmental factor of resources. In most cases it is a lack thereof or having the wrong tool to complete crucial tasks, poor supporting systems, inadequate procedures, time (moving too quickly, moving very slowly or not enough) or lack of reference materials to support the transfer of knowledge.

Technology is a tool and if it is determined that a tool will help people and an organization perform better, then it is the right choice. Otherwise, there may be other factors at play that are causing the problem that should be explored more thoroughly. Technology is an expensive proposition for any organization to undertake. If a solution can be developed that doesn't involve implementing technology, then it should be pursued.

It may surprise you that I'm talking about steering clients away from implementing technology solutions, but that's quite the contrary. It's about serving our clients the best way possible and making sure they are implementing technology solutions for the right reasons.

Those of you in the Boise area are probably familiar with Kickstand, a local organization of entrepreneurs and innovators mostly from the technology industry.

On April 18th and 19th, Kickstand will be hosting Kickstart - The Northwest's Premier Entrepreneur Event. Keynote speakers include the Sloan brothers, Rich & Jeff, founders of Startup Nation and Ben McConnell, co-author of Citizen Marketers. In addition there will be several breakout sessions with topics ranging from business start-ups to business growth.

In the weeks ahead I'll be blogging more about this event. In the interest of full-disclosure I have volunteered to help promote this event. I wouldn't be doing it if I wasn't passionate about the subjects that are going to be presented. You can learn more about this event by visiting their main website and their blog, which will have more in-depth information about the event as we draw closer to it.

It's been a few months in the making, but we have finally launched an upgrade to our website that includes a conversion from HTML to XHTML and CSS. In addition we have included links to the most recent blog postings for PinPoint Performance Solutions starting on our home page.

There are many advantages to this conversion. Chief among them are the search engine visibility and accessibility. Now, the content on the PinPoint website will have a far greater reach and can be easily converted to other platforms such as hardware devices with mobile web capabilities.

The upgrade to the website couldn't have been done without the help of Aaron Day and ABD Insights. To read the full story of the website upgrade and the advantages it brings to PinPoint Performance Solutions, please read the press release posted on our website.

Some of you are aware that in addition to my work with PinPoint Performance Solutions I also run a business networking organization in the Boise area called Treasure Valley Consultants' Network that focuses on promoting the knowledge and expertise of area consultants. We held a meeting last night, which you can read more about at the TVCNet Blog, on the topic of search engine optimization. The discussion took a brief but interesting turn to usability testing of website.

A guest at the meeting mentioned that a usability test doesn't have to be complex. Just get some people together and ask them to go through the website while you observe. With all due respect to my guest, I would have to disagree with the comment to a certain extent. While it's true usability tests do not have to be complex, it really depends on the nature of the website, web application or software. By that I mean its intended end-user and the tasks it was designed to help the end-user accomplish.

If we're talking about website, for example, that is developed for information purposes then it's perfectly fine to recruit people that are easily accessible to you to be your test participants. They may or may not be the intended audience for your website, but if you are out to learn just basic information - what works with the website and what doesn't work - then you should be OK. On the other hand, if the website is linked to important business processes, functions, or perhaps safety, then you need to recruit actual end-users who are likely to be using the website.

Why is it important to find actual end-users if the product is linked to something vital? Actual end-users have a vested interest over those who are just casual observers. They are closely tied to the situation the product is intended for and have history and intrinsic knowledge as to what will work and what won't. Consider this: if you designed a new snow shovel, would you give it to a guy in Florida to test out?

I find that some developers take a path of least resistance when it comes to usability testing. They choose not to conduct them because they are thought of as too costly, too time consuming or yield little to no results. Perhaps they don't know what they are looking for during a usability test? It's a question I've wondered about for quite some time.

A challenge I face in my business is demonstrating the overall value of a usability test. The decision as to whether or not to conduct a usability test rests in what I feel is the critical nature of the product. If it is critical then I would recommend conducting a formalized test with actual end-users. If it is not, then it is perfectly fine to find people easily accessible to you, actual end-users or not.

Either way, conduct a usability test to measure the value and effectiveness of your application, be it website, web app or software. Just make sure your test participants have a vested interest in what they are testing. In the end you'll get better results.