Design | Active Website Enterprise Network Blog

Active Community: Usability Lab, Part 2

April 16, 2010

Filed under: Active Community,Design,Enterprise Network,Real Estate Technology,Usability

Welcome everyone to Active Community. Last week, we introduced you to the Usability Lab and the three main areas of focus for data collection while walking you through a demonstration of Tobii Technology’s eye tracking system. Today we’re discussing part two of our Active Usability Lab findings.

Because we released our results to Active Enterprise Network Members today, we want to give you a little insight into our findings through the online surveys we conducted as well as our eye tracking focus groups. 350 users participated in the surveys and over 60 people were tested using the eye tracking system. Because the information we collected is so valuable, we’re only releasing the full results to our clients.

However, we’d like to give you a sneak peek. This week’s video presentation focuses on four main of our study: the homepage, certain components on the homepage, content and branding. But what we really want to emphasis is the different perceptions of what the broker wants verses what the user wants.

At our October Enterprise Network Conference last year, we focused on the importance of moving to a more customer centric model. The results of our usability studies really drives this point home. With a user’s experience on our websites playing such a vital role in the success of our companies, it’s time we’re aware of their needs in order to meet their demands.

These results are crucial in helping the Enterprise Network move toward a more customer centric approach. With these findings, we’re now able to consult with our clients from a scientific standpoint when it comes to usability.

Below is the animation discussed in today’s Active Community session.

Active Community: Introduction to the Active Usability Lab

10 Blog Usability Tips

Becoming an “Inside Out” Business

By John Sable

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Top 5 Resolutions for Your Website in 2010

January 4, 2010

Filed under: Active Website,Content,Design,Enterprise Network

2010 is officially here and it’s time to make your resolutions. While you’re deciding on your personal goals to start the new decade off right, why not kick it up a notch and make a few business resolutions as well? And what better area to focus on than your website! We may be a bit biased, but a good website is essential to your company’s success. With over 70% of the U.S. population online (and more than 22.3 million Americans accessing the internet from their mobile devices daily) it’s crucial to make sure you’re customers are getting the most out of their online experience. To help you with this, we’ve come up with a list of New Year’s resolutions for your website.

Rewrite your site: The most important thing you can do for your website is to update your content every year (this is the minimum). The last thing you want is a potential customer to visit your site only to find out you have outdated material. Not only that, but having fresh content on your site is another way for current customers to reconnect with you. Don’t forget the importance of quality content, either! Use content to your advantage as a way to not only provide useful information, but to increase search engine optimization. Duplicate and outdated content is a sure way to disenchant users and impacts SEO rankings negatively. If you don’t impress them with your site, there is little chance they’ll bother contacting you for additional information. Related Post: Using Content to Increase SEO
Redesign with your customer in mind: Usability is another important aspect of your site. If a customer can’t navigate through your site easily, more than likely they will give up and look elsewhere. It’s not only important to attract users to your site, but equally important to keep them there. There is a lot of competition on the web, so while structuring your site around usability, try to keep these questions in mind: How easy is it for users to find information or accomplish basic tasks? How quickly can they perform these tasks? And, how easy is it for users to recover from issues they encounter? Related Posts: Three Simple Rules to Remember, Active Website Teams Up with Tobii Technology
Keywords, keywords, keywords! Expanding on the importance of re-writing your site, another great way to create quality content for your website is through the use of keywords. We’ve said it before, but this is an easy way to rank higher on searches, thus generating more traffic to your site! The goal of your site is to provide information to your customers, making them want to use your services. By incorporating keywords into content, you’re making it easier for potential clients to find you amongst the masses. Related Post: Maintaining Long Tail Result
Socialize: Communicating with your customers is a fun and easy way to help boost visits to your site. For example, by establishing a weekly blog not only are you able to stay in front of your customers and give them a reason to keep checking back to your site, but you open up the communication channels as well. A lot of great insight can come from comments your customers make to your postings and lets you know what is of interest to them. Also, by having a Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn account (the list of these social media sites goes on forever!) you are able to reach out through different outlets. At AW, we’re firm believers that everyone searches the internet differently, so it’s best to cover all the bases. However, make sure not to take on too much. If you’re not dedicated to updating these sites, they won’t do you a lot of good. Be sure to post the social media sites that you belong to on your website for all to see, as well! Related Post: A Changing Culture
Publish content from your site: This one is pretty self explanatory. If you’re already taking the time to blog and post current content on your site, take a few extra minutes out of your day to submit your content to other sites as well. There are a vast amount of resources out there for you to use, whether it be social media sites such as Digg or StumbleUpon or a more traditional outlet like your local paper, the more you get your company name out there, the more traffic you’ll see to your website. Not to mention, by publishing your content on these sites, you increase the odds that someone else will find it useful and re-post it themselves. Related Post: Using Social Media to Your Advantage

As you move forward into 2010, don’t forget to set aside some time to nurture your website. The above list may seem a little daunting, but is necessary to help move your company forward. So start the year off right and give your website a much deserved makeover.

Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox

Tobii Technology’s Blog

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A Little Southern Hospitality

December 14, 2009

Filed under: Active Website,Agent Training & Education,Design,Enterprise Network,Milestone Realty Consultants

There’s nothing like some southern hospitality and derby pie to give you a little inspiration for 2010. I spent the last week with Milestone Realty Consultants in Lexington, Kentucky rolling out their new website and discussing the 2010 internet marketing plan. While I was there, it seemed I spent less time discussing the importance of an online strategy and more time on the plan. I can’t tell you how great that felt.

Agents and managers alike came prepared with quality questions. As I stood there surveying the crowd, I noticed a room full of engaged realtors no longer struggling with the fact that traditional marketing has changed. Instead, this group of professionals came prepared to embrace the future with a new set of web tools. Terms such as advanced mapping, individual property websites, video streaming, unique content and viral marketing did not fall on deaf ears.

I thought to myself, they are honestly getting it!

As I went from meeting to meeting, it became even more obvious that the culture is changing and the world we live in as developers and technologists is starting to be shared by the masses. In the end, out of 100 agents in attendance, we had 60 sign up for the advanced marketing plan for 2010 – a plan that included an agent website and two individual property websites per month.

Milestone agents are now equipped with all the necessary tools to be successful. By being prepared to take what they’ve learned and start writing unique content about the areas they farm, Milestone is looking ahead at new ways to position themselves in 2010 and beyond.

So, as I jumped a plane back home, I asked myself a question. Have we reached a tipping point? Will 2010 be more about the customer and less about resisting change? I can’t fully answer these questions, but it did make me realize there is a light at the end of this tunnel.

And for everyone else out there, I encourage each of you to approach 2010 with a new sense of optimism. Don’t be afraid to talk openly with agents and managers about change; you may be surprised to find they are more accepting than you realize.

And please, do me a favor and visit the new Milestone site and give us some feedback. There has been a lot of hard work and late nights, so we welcome your comments. At Active Website, we are proud of the achievements Enterprise Network Members have made over the years and feel fortunate to have fifteen great clients up and running on the platform.

Wow, fifteen! It seems like just yesterday the Network started. It makes me realize how far we have come, but also how far we have to go. For now though, I am going to enjoy this successful launch and carry it with me into 2010.

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Why Usability Matters

September 29, 2009

Filed under: Active Website,Design,Usability

Jakob Nielsen, “the guru of web page usability”, wrote an interesting column a while back entitled, Usability 101: Introduction to Usability, that spoke about the fundamentals of usability and why it matters. Usability, as Nielsen defines it, is a “quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use.” Usability also refers to “methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process.”

This is an important reminder for the Enterprise Network. It’s sometimes easy to take for granted that the most crucial aspect of a website is the ability for users to navigate through it and accomplish their goals. If a website is difficult to use, fails to explain clearly who the company is and what they do, or if it’s content isn’t easy to read, there is a good chance the user will leave and not come back.

As Nielsen so clearly states, “If a user cannot find the product, they cannot buy the product either.”

Nielsen lists 3 key components to improving usability:

Get hold of some representative users, such as home buyers and sellers.
Have the users perform representative tasks with the design.
Observe what the users do, where they succeed, and where they are having problems with the user interface. Be quiet and let the users do the talking.

By focusing on the consumer, we can address these above concerns in an effort to deliver what users want, and in the process, create happy, loyal, return customers. When we prioritize the needs and wants of our users, in the end we guarantee a higher success rate and higher ROI on any website efforts.

To read more from Nielsen’s column, sign up for the bi-weekly newsletter, and to read about some misconceptions about usability, go to Jakob Niesen’s Alertbox.

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Inman SF 09: Building a Better Brokerage Mousetrap: Part 1

August 1, 2009

Filed under: Design,Inman Connect 2009

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