You need users 
Experts alone, no matter how good or experienced they are, cannot trace all usability problems, let alone solve them. Usability is very complex and deals with a lot more than just putting the right button in the right place. Your visitors have to be able to understand the navigation at a glance, quickly find the information they're looking for and e able to order something without needing an IT degree.

Individual user tests 
The best way to find out what visitors do on your web site is to observe them while they're using it. Observing individual users is what user testing is all about. During a user test, a (potential) user of a web site/intranet/online application performs a number of standard tasks on the site. The expert's job is not limited to mere observation, he also encourages the user to think out loud and asks neutral but specific questions to find out as much as possible about the users reasons for saying or doing things. After all, it's not only important to find out what a site's usability problems are but also why. During a user test, the expert not only sees what the user does, he gets to understand the user's way of reasoning and finds out why he does certain things. More details about the do's and don'ts of user testing are discussed in our seminar "Making user-friendly web sites".

Focus groups 
A focus group brings a number of people together to talk about a product. Focus groups are interesting for marketing purposes but they're no good for finding out about usability issues. If you want to improve on a product's usability you have to see how people use the product. Relying on what people say about how they use a product or how they think they would use it, isn't a very good idea: - There's a big difference between how people say they use something and how they actually use it. - What people say they would like often isn't the same as what they'd actually use. - In a focus group, the participants aren't using the web site at the time of discussion. They voice opinions based on memory. Unfortunately, human memory is a very unreliable thing; people simply aren't very good at remembering exactly what they did on a web site and why. - A lot of people act differently in a group. - More outspoken members of the group can intimidate introverted people and keep them from expressing contrasting opinions.

Questionnaires 
Questionnaires, both offline and online, can provide very useful information about your visitors' profile and what their perception is of your site. But they can't tell you very much about the user-friendliness of your site. Again, what somebody says about how he uses your site doesn't necessarily correspond with his actual behaviour. If you connect a nice prize to the questionnaire, don't be surprised when 90% of respondents say they think your site is great. Most people think positive answers will increase their chances of winning that weekend to Disneyland you're giving away.

A questionnaire can be very useful if you don't connect a prize to it and send it to users you've already established a relationship with, like your intranet or extranet users or your newsletter subscribers.

Interview and observe users
A one-on-one interview is a good way to find out how users structure the information on your site and which words make sense to them and which don't, provided you ask neutral questions. Interviews are especially good for gathering information about the information structure and content aspect of your web site or intranet. Even more interesting, especially for b-to-c sites, is to observe the people who come to your shop(s). Watch how they handle your products and listen to the questions they ask the sales assistants. The questions and wishes of your web site visitors are exactly the same as those of your offline customers.

Els Aerts & Karl Gilis