Entries Tagged 'Usability'
At Boston Interactive, we view websites as living, breathing, evolving things. They need to be consistently updated, maintained, and refreshed in order to be effective. One way to regularly make sure that your website is operating optimally is through A/B testing. However, to continually improve your website and better serve your customers you can never go wrong with A/B testing, a form of research that allows you to test different copy and design elements on your website and determine which are most effective.
What is A/B Testing?
A/B testing involves deploying multiple versions of a website or e-mail and measuring how each performs in order to determine which design or copy elements are most successful. It is important in A/B testing that variables are isolated, so that you can identify exactly which factors are making the test more or less successful. The tests are generally preformed on a live website rather than in a controlled environment and usually without the user’s knowledge. Read On
When was the last time you brought a significant other shopping to help pick out furniture? Perhaps you sent a friend a picture from a dressing room via text to get a second opinion or asked a co-worker for book recommendations before stopping by Borders. If you’re like most of us, you do this all the time. Many of us rely on the recommendations and opinions of our friends when making purchasing decisions, so it’s only natural to add social elements to e-commerce as well. While many sites have featured product reviews and “send to a friend” buttons for years, Visa, Amazon, and Facebook have recently raised the bar and introduced some exciting new features to the online shopping experience.
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Think back to the first web browser you ever used. Most likely it was Netscape Navigator or America Online (remember those AOL installation CD’s everywhere you went?). Back in the 90’s it was simple; most people used Netscape, Internet Explorer, or AOL to get online. Nowadays there are so many to choose from: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, and that does not even touch the obscure ones such as Flock, Konqueror, and Amaya. So the question is with all the choices out there, which one should you use? Read On
Yesterday the 9th Annual Usability Professionals Association (UPA Boston) Conference took place at the convention center at Bentley University, sponsored by Boston Interactive. The event, which sold out this year, brings together hundreds of user experience professionals from around New England to learn about trends and best practices for user-centered product development, usability research, web, and mobile design. Read On
As a designer I have an interest (okay, obsession) with typography. As we’ve turned the page to a new year, I’ve read a number of articles regarding upcoming trends for the year 2010. One of the more consistent trends I’ve been seeing more and more often is typography as the main design element. Take for example the Lean Enterprise Institute. This is a design that does more with less. It evokes simplicity, boldness, and clear comprehension. Other sites that do this well are A Working Library, Design Snips, and A List Apart.
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While doing my morning blog reading I came across a great list of “101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site” from the great people over at Inside CRM. I realize that 101 tips is a lot of information, so I have summarized 10 big ideas and made the whole thing a little easier to digest. Read On
