jfranktoo

Aargh! I watched five of my neighbours, as they navigated my site.

I had asked them to try and rent our cottage in Scotland as if they were normal surfers. I watched them as they navigated to the pages they needed. I did not comment in any way, and just observed. I’ve got a sad life, but I enjoy it.

These are not computer savvy people, these people use the computer for e-mail and the occasional present buying, information on health problems, and not a lot more.

They are tentative and still slightly nervous of the machine. In other words they are your normal Mother, Auntie and next-door neighbour. They are often in a hurry. Their life consists of things outside computers.

Wow! They did it the wrong way. They did not use the bars I used, they went to a short cut version. I had a link to a virtual tour of the cottage, and instead of hitting the back button as any one of us would, they shut down the site! Ok, so now it opens in a new window, I know, I know, that's a kids mistake. But if I had not run the test I would not know of the problem.

I’ve made a few changes to our site design, and it is now much much easier to get around.

Can I suggest that a simple test like this might be useful, for some folks? When I’m searching myself, to me some sites look quite complicated, so I just go for the first thing I want. I discover later that the site might be rich with possibilities, but as a searcher I’m in a hurry.


John

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Scotland last minute short breaks and special deals, self catering cottages

Self catering cottage in Appin by Glencoe Scotland

ssgcmwatson

Check out crazyegg.com - they have a free trial for a small number of pages at a time, but their rates for larger sets are reasonable. You can get a "hotzone" map of where people are clicking on your pages. It may help.

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http://www.getrichatamediumpace.com