You are almost there. In
month three we begin the verification of your web site. Is
everything spelled correctly and working properly. You will do
one last verification at the end but it is an ongoing process.
Walking Through Your Web Site
by David Blakey
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What do your visitors experience when they arrive at your site? Is it
what they expect? If it isn't, will they stay to find what they want?
These are some of the questions that you can answer if you use the "walkthrough" technique.
Originally, "walkthroughs" were used during structured systems design
and programming. The plan for a walkthrough covered how it would be conducted and what the walker would expect to see and experience along
the way. Today, I often find that Web sites have been designed to tell
their visitors what the site owners want to tell them, rather than what
the visitors want to know. I have used walkthroughs to get site owners
to see their sites from their visitors' perspective.
It is important to remember that a site walkthrough is a tool, not a
rule. There are alternative methods. If you do use walkthroughs, you can
tailor the tool to suit you.
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How it works
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My experience shows that it is better to do two separate walkthrough
exercises - one to analyze what visitors experience when they arrive,
based upon their reasons for visiting your site; and the second to analyze how those visitors arrive, through referrals or search engines
or links or whatever.
We shall only look at the first. You should be able to work out how to
do the second.
This is how it works.
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Step 1. Identify
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List your expected viewers. Use any techniques that work for you. I prefer a mind-mapping tool for this, but sticky notes on whiteboards or
index cards in shoeboxes may be more effective for you. I am not going
to try to suggest techniques to you in this article. I want us to concentrate on the method itself.
Tips:
Get as long a list as possible. Don't worry about whether you'll have
time to go through all the options. You might not, but that's not an
issue in this stage.
Don't set a deadline. If someone suddenly thinks of another kind of
viewer when you've moved on to stage 2 or even stage 3, then re-plany
our walkthrough to include it. Don't reject ideas because they're "too
late".
Techniques such as mind mapping can help to document and present your
thoughts. You may need to produce justification at some stage, and it's
as well to document as you go.
List viewers as plural nouns. Then you can use "they" instead of
"he", "she", "it" or "he/she". Viewers are "they" and "them".
List the reasons for viewers to visit your site. As you think of a
reason for a particular viewer to visit, check whether this reason will
apply to other viewers as well. You should be building a tree, from site
to viewers to reasons. The reasons can be duplicated across different
viewers.
Hints:
Always include the same reason for every viewer to which it applies.
This is because the same reason may have a different result for each
kind of viewer. In addition, there may be subtleties of interpretation
of the reason depending on the kind of viewer.
Don't linger or agonize over this step. If you look at a viewer and
cannot think of a new reason for them to visit your site within four
seconds, then move on.
Always start a reason with "to". The usage "to check on …" is more
powerful than "checking on …" A typical sentence to describe viewers and
reasons could be: "Prospects visit to check our qualifications".
Add possible results for each reason for each viewer.
Try to start each result with the verb "will".
Examples:
Prospects visit to check our qualifications and will be convinced of
our competence.
Customers visit to see if we offer other services that they are
seeking and will find all the appropriate services that we offer.
Customers visit to see if we offer enhanced versions of our current
services and will find all the appropriate service variations that we
offer.
Job seekers visit to see if we might employ them and will find all
openings that fit their skills and experience.
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Stage 2: Plan
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The second stage is to plan the walkthroughs.
Here are the steps to planning.
Prioritize the sets of viewers-reasons-results. This means deciding
which are the most important to your business.
Calculate the time and resources required for each set.
Use the available people, budget and time to make a cut of the most
important sets.
Determine the rules for the walkthroughs.
Determine the starting page for each walkthrough. In many instances
this will be the home page. In some instances, different viewers will
approach the site through different pages.
Have all walkthrough team members describe the viewers, reasons and
results of the sets assigned to them. This achieves two objectives:
-- It is a demonstration that the team members have a correct
understanding of the sets.
-- It allows particular parameters and circumstances to be discussed and, where appropriate, to be included in the walkthrough plan.
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Stage 3: Walk
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The third stage is to actually walk through the site as a viewer would.
There are some important analogies with walking through the real world.
First, if you're walking through a town, you may, by accident, turn down
a wrong street where you may see a shop selling something you want. You
will go into the shop and buy it. Later, discovering your mistake, you
will turn around and walk back. But, as you go past the shop again, you
won't go in and return the item and ask for your money back. You may not
find a similar along the correct route. This should apply to
walkthroughs of your site as well. If a walker does go down a wrong track, but finds something of interest there, this should be noted.
Later, if this item is also on the correct route, then all is well. But
if it was only available by walking down the wrong route, then you may
want to include it on the correct route as well.
Second, as you walk through a town, you may see something that captures
your attention but not enough to divert from your route. You may see a
shop or an art gallery or a park that you will want to visit at some
time, but not now. In a real town, you will make a note - in your memory
or in a notebook - to visit that place in the future. As you walk through your site, you should note places that would be of interest to
the viewer, although not directly relevant to the viewer's reason for
visiting the site this time.
The main technique to be used when walking through your site is to note
the route that you take and the reasons for taking that route. The real-world analogy is of noting that you turned into a particular street
because it was marked on a map or because there was a sign indicating
that you should turn into that street or because you made an inspired
guess. You should also note when you are taken to your destination - or
nearer to your destination - by a link. This is the equivalent of taking
a cab rather than walking. You should also note, when you get out of the
cab, whether you are where you thought you would be.
Hints:
Keep the nature of the viewers and the reasons for the visit in mind
through the entire procedure. The walkthrough is a check to see whether
the viewers will reach their destination. It is not a check of quality
or design or speed.
Keep notes of all the "events" of your walk: wrong directions, useful
places, diversions, and so on. A useful place along the route may be of
great interest but very little importance to the objectives of the viewers.
Try to focus on what is currently visible. External viewers are
unlikely to know anything about the site except what they can currently
see and what they have already seen.
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Stage 4: Act
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What you do in the final stage of the walkthrough exercise depends on what you have planned to do.
You might produce a report, giving recommendations for future action.
You might now embark on a second walkthrough, based on how visitors
arrive and whether they will see what they expected to see.
You might make changes to the site to deal with any problems or
missed opportunities. You can prioritize the changes to fit with budgets
and time limits.
If the walkthrough revealed that some important content was only
available by taking the wrong route through the site, then you can plan
how to get this content available on the correct route. (This was the
analogy of finding something we wanted to buy in a shop on the wrong
street.)
If the walkthrough has shown that interesting content appears along
the route that viewers may want to visit later, you can plan how you
will enable them to return to it later. (This was the analogy of finding
art galleries or parks along the route that you will want to note for a
later visit.)
Even if your site does not need any major work done on it, the designers
and developers on the walkthrough team will have had a refreshing and
perhaps thought-provoking view of their work.
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About the Author:
David Blakey (djb@blakey.co.nz) is a freelance consultant in information.
