We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog post with an urgent message – you MUST do usability testing on your website.

Although it might sound daunting—and expensive—usability testing is nothing more than a fancy term for getting an objective opinion. As the wonderful Steve Krug (who has a PhD in Awesome) has pointed out, usability testing doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming. And it always gives you insight into how you can improve your site.

Last week at CDG, we conducted formal usability testing sessions with a client who’s redesigning a site for a very specific audience. In testing just seven users over the course of two days, we found—happily—that users had a quite positive reaction to the site. Much more importantly, however, we identified several, crucial, forehead-slap inducing changes that we need to make. These changes aren’t huge, and they won’t be difficult to fix, but without getting objective opinions from the target audience, we wouldn’t have known that there was a problem to fix (at least, not until the redesigned site was launched—and that’s too late).

At CDG, we regularly do formal testing sessions on behalf of clients, but we also do informal testing as well—and it’s always revealing and useful

So, how can you get the benefits of usability testing? Easy.

• Round up five people who aren’t familiar with your site. Ideally, they’ll be somewhat representative of your target audience.
• Ask them to look at your site and give some general impressions
• See if they can perform two or three key tasks (buying a product, finding a contact form, etc.)
• Take some notes

That’s it.

I guarantee that if you get five people to give you an objective opinion about your site, you’ll come away with ways to improve it. Maybe your site just needs few tweaks, or maybe it needs some bigger fixes. Either way, knowledge is power.

If you want to learn more about usability testing, check out Steve Krug’s Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems.

Need more help? Contact CDG. We’re happy to help.

If I had a dollar for every time a client fretted over “the fold”—well, I wouldn’t be a millionaire, but I could certainly afford an iPhone 4S. The idea of a page fold (and the fear of it) is a widely accepted bit of conventional wisdom, but that’s changing. We want to do our part to explore the myth of the fold and explain: what it is, whether it still exists, and how much agita it should cause you and your marketing team.

What is the fold?

The fold is a term adopted from newspaper publishing, where the most important items were featured in at the top of the page, visible above the paper’s fold. In the interactive industry, the fold refers to the point at which the user needs to scroll to see content. Anything visible above that point is considered to be “above the fold”.

Where is the fold?

Some people argue pretty passionately that there is no fold. I’m going to simply concede that—unless all of your content can be consumed on any device (including mobile) without scrolling, that the fold does exist. But pinning down its precise location is harder than geo tagging the Loch Ness Monster. Sure, your web stats can help you approximate where the fold falls for a portion of your users. However, given the varieties of screen resolution, monitor size, browser usage, and devices available (computers vs. mobile devices) there is literally no way to know where the fold resides for all—or even most—of your viewers.

How important is the fold?

This is the big question. When clients express concern about the fold, what they’re really worrying about is the kernel at the center of the fold mythology, namely:

The Myth that Users Will Not Scroll

<sinister music>dum dum DUMMMM. . . </sinister music>

Now here’s a myth worth BUSTING.

Like most myths, this one has some basis in fact. Back in the day when dinosaurs roamed and we all had dial-up connections, scrolling wasn’t the easy breezy task it is today. In fact, AOL did not allow page-level vertical scrolling. Beyond that, we were all learning how to consume information on the web. So it’s true that users didn’t scroll – in 1994.

Times have changed. As early as 1997, usability guru Jakob Nielsen retracted his recommendation against scrolling pages. And many studies have proven that users do scroll, and even use the scrollbar itself to assess the page length. Yet in 2011 people still are afraid that any content below the fold is effectively invisible.

To be fair, above-the-fold content does get the most attention, and the most clicks. The problem is, when you try to cram everything above the fold, you short-circuit you’re the users’ attention with information overload. When every department in an organization is clamoring for their stake at the top of the homepage, you need to remind them:

When everything is important, nothing is important.

Should we just forget about the fold?

Yes and no. The fold does still exist, but its existence doesn’t lead to hard-and-fast rules. Instead of shoving everything into the top of the page, good designers will create an environment that keeps key items featured at the top, yet implies that there’s valuable content below. Jakob Nielsen calls this an “information scent”— the page layout, design and content should allow the user to pick up the expectation of more content and follow it down the page.

Instead of completely disregarding the fold, I propose that we call a fold truce. Stop fighting to place every little bit of content in the very limited space above the fold and trust the intelligence of your users. If you give them a reason to scroll and reward them with quality content that matches their expectation, you’re going to iron out that fold pretty darn fast.

Need help getting the wrinkles out of your site? Contact CDG.

Just as the 2012 election cycle got hotter than a fried butterstick in Iowa, CDG launched a new and improved site for CQ Roll Call.

CQ Roll Call is the premier provider of non-partisan legislative and electoral news and analysis, as well as legislative tracking and advocacy tools. The new site features a streamlined structure that gives users a comprehensive, yet concise picture of what CQ Roll Call has to offer.

But it’s not only end-users who enjoy a better experience on the site—so do the editors and producers at CQ Roll Call. The new site was implemented in Zeus, CDG’s content management system. Zeus’ powerful functionality and intuitive interface makes it easy for CQ Roll Call to add, edit, and manage the site content.

Also, Zeus allows CQ Roll Call to track the users who request free trials of their products—information that had previously gone un-captured. With its new Zeus-powered site, CQ Roll Call can track conversions precisely and communicate more effectively with its current and potential subscribers.

“The new website is a great showcase for our products and services,” says Andrea Birdsong, Director of Interactive Marketing at CQ Roll Call, “And because we can better manage our content and track our conversions, we can serve our subscribers more effectively.”

So, Beltway insiders and intrepid politicos, visit the new CQRollCall.com and see if it gets your vote of approval.

Looking to improve your website? Contact CDG Interactive.

It’s here! CDG's new iAd for GEICO has just launched. The “Secret Savings Society” iAd takes the user on a compelling journey of tests and trials to unlock the secret of savings.

The iAd was created to drive home GEICO’s signature brand message of saving on insurance—and to generate new quotes—through a highly engaging environment.  As the driving creative concept, our team developed the idea of the Secret Savings Society—a mysterious group that had discovered the ultimate way to save. The action, and interaction, of the iAd introduces users to the world of the Secret Savings Society and challenges them to join it.

Once inside the iAd interface, the user challenged to pass four tests, in order to gain entry into the Secret Savings Society. Each of the tests is a different game-like interface. After completing each test, the user receives a crucial piece of a code that ultimately unlocks the door to the Secret Savings Society. Once admitted, the user learns the true secret of savings. (Hint: GEICO figures prominently here!) Capitalizing on social media, the iAd allows the user to share their experience with the Secret Savings Society via an iAd Twitter interface.

 

Designed to encourage user engagement with the GEICO brand, as well as to generate new online quotes, the iAd offers a variety of content and user interactions beyond the four challenges. Users can access free GEICO ringtones and wallpapers, videos, and apps. They can also get a free online quote and/or contact GEICO with the tap of a button.

The “Secret Savings Society” is currently running in a variety of apps, and is featured on Apple’s iAd gallery app. Since its launch, it has been achieving impressive results, in terms of both the number of people who are viewing the iAd, and the amount of time they spend in the interface.

CDG’s second iAd for GEICO comes on the heels of its successful “Wheel of Wisdom” iAd, which launched in October 2010. This first ad not only received high traffic and a large number of repeat visits; it also won several industry awards, including Best Insurance Online ad (IAC Awards) and Platinum Award, Mobile Device Advertising 41st (Creativity International Awards).

 

It all started with the peanuts. Last year, to introduce some levity into its serious daily diet of journalism, CQ Roll Call launched a poll on its website to determine which state produces the best peanuts.

After the peanut debate was settled (for the record, Georgia won), CQ Roll Call decided to launch a more elaborate contest and capitalize on the potential to spike both traffic and brand awareness. To turn the vision into reality, CQ Roll Call turned to us at CDG Interactive.

The result, “Roll Call: A Taste of America” was a delicious success. The mini-site created by CDG Interactive generated more than 400,000 votes over the course of just 5 weeks.

The Set-Up

Roll Call: Taste of America was an All-American virtual food fight that functioned like a typical March Madness bracket, with 64 regional foods from U.S. states and territories were chosen to “compete.” Each week users voted for the winners in each bracket. Voting took place over 5 weeks until the final victor emerged. Users who voted were entered for a chance to win a pair tickets to a Taste of America party at We the Pizza, a Capitol Hill restaurant run by celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn.

The Interface

To support the contest, we created a fun, energetic design that housed not only the bracket itself, but also displayed supporting materials like contest rules, sponsor advertising, and a video by Mendelsohn. The site also allowed (but did not require) voters to enter their email addresses and share the link with friends.

We also created the database of foods, monitored the voting, and modified the bracket week to week to show the winners and initiate the next round of voting.

The Results

Over the next five weeks, Roll Call: Taste of America brought in more than 400,000 votes and nearly 1,400 unique email addresses. Feedback was incredibly positive from users, sponsors, and the team at CQ Roll Call.

“Everyone was blown away by the design,” said Andrea  Birdsong, Director of Interactive Marketing at CQ Roll Call, “The site surpassed all of our expectations. It was a fun diversion for our usual audience, not to mention an excellent showcase for our brand and our sponsors.”

(Another big winner? The coconut, which pulled out a victory over all the other regional foods. Too bad, chicken wings, maybe next year. )

This is a guest post by CDG's UI Developer, Ivan Wilson.

Earlier this year I attended the IxDA Interaction 11 conference in Boulder, Colorado, one of most important in the field of interaction design. At this conference, I’m both an observer of the field and a student, gleaning ideas I can use to improve my own skills.

In my three years of attendance, I’ve learned that interaction design is not just about building products—it’s also about how to visualize information. One of my jobs is taking HTML/CSS code and making the content not only visible but easily accessible to the user. At a time when massive amounts of data are freely available, finding ways to making information not only understandable but also easier to use and manage has become its own field of study.

Continue reading "What Geocaching Taught Me About Interaction Design and Visualizing Information" »

One of the most important parts of the User Interface (UI)/User Experience (UX) process--that is, mapping out all the pieces of information that will go on a web page or application screen--is deciding how to label the navigation. And one of the most important pieces of navigation for sites with user accounts is the link visitors use to access their account.

We're currently working with one of our favorite big clients to redesign the dashboard for their customers' account management site. These customer accounts include not just contact data but financial information, so the entire site is behind a log-in screen. Or wait: is that a sign-in screen?

And that's just it; one of the decisions we had to make was whether to label this seemingly simple link "log in/log out," "sign in/sign out," or "log on/log off."

There's no final answer to this question in a UX Bible somewhere, so we conducted some quick research to see how other top websites labeled their account access navigation, and the results were interesting.

How Top Websites Label Their User Account Access Navigation

Continue reading "Should You Sign In or Log In? How Top Websites Label Their User Account Access Navigation" »

If you’ve got an ecommerce website, it goes without saying that it should be hyper-usable (as in, everyone from your 10-year-old niece to your 95-year-old grandfather should be able to figure it out). Nowhere is this more important than in your shopping cart.

After all, if a customer either can't check out, or becomes too frustrated to continue checking out, you've lost a sale. (Even worse, they may share their bad experience on your site with friends.)

The importance of the shopping cart user experience, and how to improve it, was illustrated this week in "How To Make Your Shopping Cart Suck Less," a funny, insightful--and blatantly Not Safe For Work--blog post by web designer and cartoonist Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal.

Profane humor aside, the cartoon reminds us of several key points of shopping cart usability.

5 Shopping Cart Usability Errors To Avoid

Continue reading "They Can't Buy if They Can't Check Out: 5 Shopping Cart Usability Errors to Avoid" »

We’ve got an exciting project in the works at CDG; one that took some of us (though, sadly, not yours truly) all the way to Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA.

Our creative department is working with an Apple engineering team to create an iAd for a major US company. (I’d be more specific, but then I’d have to kill you.) President Scott Adams, Creative Director Matthew Snyder, Art Director Jeff Walter, and Project Manager Kelly McNamara spent much of last week meeting with the Apple team and working on the iAd development.

As you may know, the iAd is a new kid on the iPhone OS 4 block, and it represents an innovative new approach to virtual advertising. When Steve Jobs introduced the iAd back in the spring, he said Apple is striving to “change the quality of advertising” on the iPhone. Specifically, iAds are designed to merge the interactivity of online advertising with the emotion of television/video advertising.

It’s a tall order, but it’s also an amazing opportunity for advertisers. Nike, Disney, and the NFL are a few of the big dogs who have tried to capitalize on the iAd platform, and now we’re up to bat.

We can’t get into too many specifics about our iAd yet (see CIA-like disclaimer above), but once it’s live, you’ll be the first to know.

In the meantime, we’ll tide you over with a few "Inside Apple" photos shot by Scott Adams.

New journalism and the "Google Gods"

Journalism is changing to "appease the Google Gods" according to Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post (though I might argue with him about whether some of those former headlines were as clever as the newspapers thought they were).

Approaching content strategy in a new way

A List Apart talks content strategy - including three reasons not to select a particular Content Management System (they're more common than you might think).

Not Found

404 Not Found is usually not the most popular page on your site. (And we always recommend a customized page to help visitors get back on track quickly.) Mashable presents a round-up of 35 entertaining 404 pages that you might actually want to go looking for.

Facebook search

We all wondered what Facebook would do with posts, pages and information that we "liked." And now we have at least a partial answer. As of this week you'll start seeing additional results when you use the search feature on Facebook that will show you which of your friends shared a particular link or liked a post containing your search terms.

Google in an instant

The launch of Google Instant (currently just in the U.S. and for searchers logged in to their Google accounts) had the web buzzing this week: what are the implications for SEO and AdWords, for example? Will it change the way people search? Meanwhile, one agency offered a way to track the new Instant searches in Google Analytics.

Curated book collection

This list is for service designers which is nice since dedicated books are few and far between.

Know of any other good curated lists?