jhardernet

An excerpt from the homepage test

Today at work I was given the green light to start testing my “radically different” homepage design.  I’d like to say this design is based on a bunch of user research, or some sort of participatory design methodology but … it’s not. It’s pretty much just me making some guesses.  At this point I’ve stared at it and tweaked bits and pieces for so long that I don’t even know what to think of it anymore. This is the point where I wish there were other designers here, or a culture of usability testing to get more feedback.

Here’s the test page and the control.  If they look the same you’ll have to clear your cookies and reload the page because it will have pulled you into the test. Check them out and then I’ll break it down.

What (I think) it gets right:

1. Fluid layout accommodates different resolutions while maximizing use of screen space. A much bigger improvement over the former table based layout.
2. Text wherever possible and graphics only when necessary make improvements in accessibility.
3. Graphics and colors have been updated and white space increased for a more modern look, while still in keeping with the brand image. My goal was to make it look current and friendly.
4. Pared down the navigation, getting rid of little-used buttons at the top of the old site, and decluttering the left nav bar.
5. Inclusion of Twitter stream to show that there are real people here working hard and to generate some social networking mojo.
6. Took two small search boxes and replaced them with one big, centrally located box; also, focus is on the search box so you don’t have to click into it before your start typing.

What (I think) could be better:

1. Not sure on the scrolling feature box.  Could be clunky to use and create alignment issues when re-sized to an extremely narrow width.
2. The Mags by category, combined with the scroll box, create a big wall of  products that may be a bit overwhelming.
3. Something about the design still doesn’t quite say “E-Commerce website” to me. Not sure if it’s the color scheme or what.

There it is. Traffic is getting split 50/50 between this page and the control. So far, with approximately 30 visitors each the test page has 3 sales and the control has 2. Obviously it’s too early to tell.

Hopefully this test either wins big or goes down in a blaze of glory. The worst, yet most common theme is for the conversion rates/sale to be even in which case you’ve proved nothing without learning anything.

I’ll keep you (my imaginary readers) posted on the results.