back to: methods & procedures

Integrated homepage analysis

When is this method appropriate?

An integrated homepage analysis in a usability laboratory generally proceed like in a classical, scene-based usability test in laboratory.

While a usability test in laboratory also examines functions (for instance product search, order process) in the foreground of the “homepage test” the cover page is focussed. The results provide valuable findings to optimise the cover page which is the access to the whole internet offer.

Possible questions:

Where is potential for improvement on your website and where on your website are the users optimally supported?
How do users rate the design and layout of site elements?
What requirements and expectations do your users have referred to the formal and contentual design of the cover page?
Does the cover page clearly displays the contents or the use of the website?
What is the first impression of this cover page? What associations and emotional effects arise?
Are the information and contents clearly readable (text design)?
How do users conceive the structure and the offer on the cover page?
Is the important information placed in attention strong positions? What elements belong to actual eye-catchers?
Are important navigation or menu options generally seen or are usage problems attributed to problems in comprehension?
Is a visual guiding on the cover page successful (wanted eye-tracking = actual eye-tracking)?

And many more…

In what project phase applicable?

Conception/development
With help of a homepage analysis it is possible to gain first findings referred to the call-character of the cover page during the conception phase. The precondition is a creative worked out layout of the homepage.
Live activity/usage
The design of the cover page should be regularly examined. On the base of the results either detail optimisations can be implemented or a complete re-design process can take place if the cover page is not considered as “innovative” or “modern” any longer. Completed with data from user-tracking a homepage analysis can additionally detect reasons and causes for missing or a small number of clicks on central site elements. So it conduces to improve the performance of the complete website.

What is the procedure of this method?

Our integrated homepage analysis is conformed to the procedure of the classical usability test in laboratory. But here ratings of the cover page are focussed referred to the formal, contentual and functional design. Interaction processes are not examined and not optimised.

During the single test session we “simulate” different accesses for example via AdWords and/or mailings. So we can check whether the cover page leads the user to access and to motivate an intensive usage of the total supply.

While solving the tasks and during a short useage phase the test subjects are observed. Spontaneous comments, ratings and reproduction of thoughts are recorded. Furthermore, we measure the eye-tracking, or rather, the attention distribution of the cover page.

After the cover page usage stimulus orientated single interviews take place. Thereby the test subjects rate the cover page in detail.

Strengths of this method:

“360 order data ascertainment”: Observation and survey of the test subjects incl. eye-tracking.
Possibility to formulate very concrete tasks or usage scenes.
Besides usability problems this method also provides approaches to optimise the cover page.
Providing comprehensive qualitative data that show how users find their ways on your cover page.
Video recordings of tests, or rather, of test subjects in dealing with the website, that should be examined, can be very informative and convincing.

What about the sample size?

Besides general usability questions also design and layout are in the foreground. Therefore ca. 25 test subjects should be interviewed to rate the front page and to gain convincing results.

How much time takes the implementation?

The study can be implemented within 1 to 2 weeks.

What input do you have to provide?

Optimally you come to our premises with concrete questions and/or site areas which we can carefully examine and thematise during the evaluation. We would like to work out with you this kind of questions.

Generally either we the need the URL of your already existing website (front page) or completely graphical worked out screens (layouts) of the front page in a current graphic format. Also such “static” layouts can answer the before mentioned questions. Hereby we use a prototype to simulate different kinds of accesses to the front page.

What do you receive from us?

You receive an interpretative result report with the following contents:

Management summary
Detailed illustration of the results which base on observation and survey data.
Interpretation of the data: identification of the reasons and causes for the ascertained data.
Highlight video scenes (click stream, interviews, exemplary sight videos).
• Concrete guidance to remedy identified usability and design problems, verbal described and visual-functional implemented (for example in terms of optimised wireframes or clickable prototypes).

On demand we present the results and findings of the test within a moderated workshop.