Does your web site work

 

How should I judge my own web site?

Question 3

How functional is your web site?

A functional web site is a web site that works. How do you know if a web site is working or not?

The simple answer is to role play it. Set yourself a role as a customer looking for a service or product you sell or provide, for example;

• You are a customer looking for a widget to fit inside your widget container
• You are business owner looking for a service
• You are a secretary asked to draw up a shortlist of possible providers
• You are a member of the public curious about the costs for a product or service

Now start on Google and begin searching. How long did it take to find your web site? How did it compare to other sites you may have found during your search? Which site would you have contacted? (Hopefully your own but not necessarily.)

A harder but more valuable task is to get a friend or family member to begin a similar search on your own web site. Just watch their journey through the site. Do not offer any help like 'click on that image to get to the checkout' etc. You must just watch as if you were a fly on the wall. Where do they get stuck, where do they give up looking?

Everybody knows that websites should be easy to use, that you should find the information you need in a few clicks and of course everything should work. Fewer people spend the time to find out what functionality is missing from their web sites, and fewer still check out their competitors web sites. What are your competitors offering and what tools would your customers actually like to have available.

Which functions are spurious and not used on your site, which pages are never read? Your website is after all a communication tool.

1. If your website doesn't work properly, the only thing you're communicating is incompetence.
2. If your web site fails to communicate your purpose or focus, the only thing you are communicating is a confused and garbled message.
3. If your web site fails to offer common and useful tools, the only thing you communicate is an immature, uncaring and out of date service. Would you sign up? I wouldn't.

How functional is your website?

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