Without a clear picture of where you are now, it is easy to move in the wrong direction, under or over-value key aspects of your offer, or simply fail to appreciate what customers really want.
Evaluating your current site against key best practice standards, your peer group and the expectations of real customers is crucial to an understanding of where your strengths, weaknesses and opportunities lie.
User testing and other forms of customer research can provide invaluable insight into how you are performing. It is hard to imagine any reason to argue against gaining a strong understanding of real customer behaviour. Our testing can be tightly integrated with a design process, form part of a more holistic evaluation, or can be undertaken as a stand-alone piece of research.
Why bother?
Evaluation and testing are two of the most overlooked areas of online operations: most people believe that they're just not necessary, unfortunately. Surely, especially when you've decided you need something new, it's a waste of time?
Here are just a few of the reasons you should consider it essential:
- Basic knowledge: Particularly in larger sites, you may not even know what the full extent of the site is, nor what all site areas contain.
- Reduced risk: You can move forward secure in the knowledge that you really understand where weaknesses lie, and how to avoid them in future.
- Cost-efficiency: You can easily identify the areas of your site or service that are critical, and spend the money where it really matters.
- Market fit: You can be sure that your site will fit in to the standards expected by your customers.
- Competitive advantage: You can understand your competitors better, identify opportunities within your marketplace and exploit them in your new developments.
- Buy-in: You can more easily secure support from your organisation for a future plan if you have a clear assessment of your current position.
How can we help?
We have extensive experience carrying out evaluation and testing work, and we can help with everything from the simplest to the most extensive programmes of work. We conduct customer testing and focus groups in our own in-house facilities, which typically makes us a more cost-effective option than traditional usability consultancies.
Get in touch and we'll carry out a free high-level evaluation for you to give you an idea of what we can do.
Frequently asked questions
I have a limited budget, should I spend any on evaluation and strategy?
Usually, yes. Even with a constrained budget, a simple analysis of your existing site will prove valuable as you can be sure you are using your budget on the most important areas. We offer a high-level expert analysis for free as a way of introducing ourselves, so get in touch if you'd like to know more.
How long does an evaluation take?
As you would expect, this varies by project. As a guide, expert analysis can be carried out in a matter of days, with comprehensive studies involving customer focus groups, etc. lasting up to 6 weeks.