Improving website effectiveness with usability testing

I'm a big fan of applying cognitive science and psychology when making digital products and services better.

One of the theories that we draw from those academic fields and bump up against regularly in our work is confirmation bias.

Put simply, this is when people naturally seek out and place greater value on evidence that confirms a view they already hold. And they do this at the same time as inadvertently dismissing or undervaluing information that is contrary to their existing views.

It's a natural tendency that we all have, yet we need to guard against to ensure we're making the right decisions in how we deliver digital products and services.

One of the ways we help our clients deal with confirmation biases is to champion the use of objective evidence in decision making.

Wherever we can we make recommendations based on evidence as well as professional judgements and experience.

We've applied that approach in our website usability testing package that we've developed for a number of clients.

It's designed to combine a 100 point expert review of a website (or part of a website) with real user research - so that problems can be quickly identified and evidenced objectively.

This helps eliminate confirmation bias from decision-making about digital products and services - meaning that future work and investment can be directed towards the areas that will make the greatest impact on business goals and targets.

Our website usability testing is designed for rapid deployment and costs less than £3,000. You can find out more about the package and what's included here.

Image credit: Tash Lampard