Well, we’re finally back online after a two-and-a-half day server downtime to replace a RAID controller card. I could fill an entire post on why this is insane, but I digress…on to more important subjects, like testing the usability of a web design in just 5 seconds!

Yep, you heard me right…just 5 seconds!

Can you make that icon cornflower blue?

Let’s say you have a page on your website that you have just redesigned, and you’re sitting in a design review meeting with management (if you just got a chill down your spine, I feel your pain!).  The entire meeting is consumed with personal opinions of color, font, layout of the site, etc.  The one question that almost never gets discussed is “Will this design help us accomplish our defined business goals?”.  The reason it isn’t discussed if that management doesn’t think in terms of goal conversion (although they should!)…they usually see the website as this online brochure that magically turns visitors into gold…and as long as *management* likes the look of the site, then our visitors will too.

But we know it doesn’t quite work like that, don’t we?

A better (and cheap!) mousetrap for measuring page effectiveness

So how can you show the big dogs that this design will perform well? It’s actually simpler than you might think!

Traditional usability testing would have you bring in volunteers to look at a mock-up of a site design, be asked by a Usability Test Coordinator (ooh so formal) to perform certain functions on the site (what would you click on to do X? what steps would you take to purchase Y?), and then everything would be recorded and the data sliced & diced to measure the website’s user-friendliness.

You *could* do that, but why?  The process is so time consuming and cumbersome.  What if you wanted to just do a quick initial “gut check” about a certain element of the site?  What if you wanted to tweak and test several iterations of a design?  As they say on the commercials nowadays:  Let’s go to The Cloud!

The beauty of the internet is that there seems to be a cool new web service to address whatever business needs you may have.  One really awesome service is called Five Second Test.  Here’s how it works:

1. Upload a screenshot of your webpage design (this could be a new design or your current website!)

2. Come up with a few key questions that you want a test subject to answer

3. Activate the test

FiveSecondTest.com - quick test for web user friendliness!

I could go into step-by-step details for setting up a 5 second test, but they’ve done a superb job of making it easy to use (maybe they ran the interface through their own service!)

It’s all well and good to talk about how great they are, but how about some real world examples?

Example Test 1 – CX.City

I have a penchant for independent clothing lines, and they also happen to be prime test subjects for usability.  The first test I did was for a company called CX.City, who have some fantastic shirts and a solid website.  Or at least it looks solid, but what do the visitors think?

CX City Product Page...let's test it!

For this 5 second test, we wanted to look specifically at a product page to see just how intuitive and clear the goals were.  The primary goal for the page is of course to click that “add to cart” button, but we’ve got some secondary user experience goals here…noticing the shirt, the price, etc.

Question 1: How do you purchase this shirt? (Don’t assume here please, go off of your memory of the photo)

Out of the 39 folks who took the test, a good chunk of them said “click on the ADD TO CART” button”.  Keep in mind that the test takers only have 5 seconds to look at your site, so your standard “majority rules” don’t really apply.  As long as a fair amount of people answer correctly, you can feel confident that your design is headed in the right direction.

add to cart? yes, correct!

Question 2: What was the most eye-catching item on the page?

Most folks said “the picture of the shirt”, which is great news! Some testers said “the add to cart button”…even better news!

Visitors see the product image first? Winning!

Question 3: How much was the shirt?

Again, this one requires a bit more “fuzzy logic”…as long as the responses are in the ball park, then you know that the price is displayed prominently.

Overall Assessment: Success!

So with a quick 5 second test, we can tell that CX.City’s product page is doing a pretty good job of showcasing its business goals.  Is it a perfect test? Absolutely not, but it gives you a clear indicator that there’s nothing terribly wrong with the user experience of the page.  Unlike our next test…

Example Test 2 – Planet Annihilation

The next test is for the clothing line Planet Annihilation.  They have some great t-shirts and a nice looking website…but is their product page user friendly?  Let’s give it the Five Second Test!

Where's the Beef? Errr...Button?

Question 1: How do you purchase this shirt? (Don’t assume here please, go off of your memory of the photo)

The majority of the test participants said they had no idea, that they couldn’t find the “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button!  Shocking…well, not really if you look at the page.  You purchase a t-shirt by clicking on the tiny “+ Add” button next to the size.  This is bad news for the following reasons:

1. The button is too small and blends in with the surrounding page. (Haven’t you heard? BIG and ORANGE buttons!)

2. The button doesn’t look like a button at all

3. The text on the button is too cryptic…people are looking for “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now”

4. The structure is unfamiliar…every major successful ecommerce site has a single, brightly colored button on the page.  That’s the most important call-to-action!  Users are trained to look for this button, and by changing the structure (multiple buttons next to the size chart) you confuse people.  And confused people result in lost sales…BAD NEWS!

Planet Annihilation passed the next two questions with flying colors…but what an eye opener that first question was!  And all it took was a few minutes setting up the test, 5 seconds of an internet surfer’s time, and a few bucks out of your pocket (you can even get these tests free if you volunteer as a tester for other people’s Five Second Tests…and it’s pretty fun too!)

3 tips to get the most out of your 5 second tests

1. Narrow your test focus to just one or two specific design elements – 5 seconds really isn’t much time for a user to soak in all of the information you have in your design screenshot.  By reducing the questions to just talk about a couple of items in the screenshot, you’ll get a much more thorough response from the user.  If you ask about your product and navigation and overall feel of the site, you’ll overwhelm them!

2. Give the user descriptive instructions prior to the test…but don’t hold their hand – Again, you want the user to spend those 5 precious seconds looking at what you want feedback on…so give them a detailed scenario to start with like “You are shopping for t-shirts and found the t-shirt on the screenshot.  You really want to purchase this shirt”.  This gives them enough direction to start looking at the purchase related sections of the page instead of your blog, logo, etc.

3. Tweak and test! – because it’s so quick, easy, and cheap to run a Five Second Test take the responses you get and apply them to your site, then go for another iteration of testing!  With a bit of testing and some common sense, you can drastically increase the performance of your pages in a short amount of time.

If you’re an independent site owner, this is a great way to measure the user experience of your site without spending a ton of time and money.  If you are a designer at a corporation, you now have another arrow in your quiver to use at your next design review meeting with upper management.

“Sorry boss, but it’s a bad idea to make the Add To Cart button in the shape of your favorite pet…our preliminary usability tests show that users didn’t even know they were supposed to click on it”.

Happy testing!  Be sure to share your experiences in the comments below!