COAP:COAP-2170/week5
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COAP 2170 Week 5 program
- Landing page design and testing
- Google Analytics
- Semantic differentials
Monday
We first will look at so-called landing page optimization and introduce some light-weight design & analysis methods. We then come back to the two Google tools a web designer should know: Google Analytics (and related) and Google webmaster tools. There exist many other alternatives, including open source tool kits and other commercial ones. However, Google is the easiest route for starters. Finally, we shall look at semantic differentials.
There also will be a presentation of summer term classes.
Designing / Analyzing home and landing pages
We shortly will present some simple general user experience design principles and analysis techniques that could apply to home and landing pages. We are interested in several factors, e.g. usability, conversion, effects of visual design...
- Guideline-based reviews and design
- (Some of) Oli Gardner's tips and examples:
- The 5 Second Rule: Critiquing the Best Websites of 2009 – Part 1 describes a very simple grid you can use to speculate whether users want to stay on the page. It's based on the idea that users create an opinion very quickly.
- HOW TO: Create a Landing Page Design Concept in 10 Minutes
- Designing for Conversion – 8 Visual Design Techniques to Focus Attention on Your Landing Pages
- 22 Creative Landing Page Designs – A Showcase, Critique, and Optimization Discussion
- 29 Landing Page Reviews That Show Why Clarity is the Key to Conversion
- Classroom activity 1 - Choose
- Apply Oli Gardners tips to design a landing page of your choice (sketch a quick drawing). Pick something that you will want your users to do, e.g. sign up for more information, download a text, register, etc.
- Apply the 5 second test to some website of your choice.
Google tools (to be confirmed)
- Google Analytics
Introductory videos:
- Google Analytics Overview Step By Step Tutorial 2014 SE01 EP01 (30 min)
- Google Analytics Video Tutorial For Beginners (20 min)
- Analyzing visibility in search engines (Google webmaster tools)
- google webmaster tools (includes more links for those who are interested)
- Google for Webmasters Tutorial: Ranking (5 min. video). Explains relevance and importance (over 200 criteria)
- Main principle: (stable and relevant) Content
- See also: Yahoo site explorer
- A/B testing and multivariate tests
- Google Analyics (help pages)
- Overview of Content Experiments (Google)
- Experimentation and Testing: A Primer
- Test landing pages with Google Analytics (google)
- Case Study: Universal Technical Institute Increases Application Requests Eight-fold With Website Optimizer (2011, Example)
- Adwords and AdSense
We will not really cover these topics in this class (take a web marketing class), for your information:
- Advertise to people searching on Google with google adwords
- Place ads on your own website with Google adSense (and earn some money)
Perception of designs using semantic differentials
- Semantic differential scales
- Presentation of Know Your Typefaces! Semantic Differential Presentation of 40 Onscreen Typefaces.
- Potency reflects typefaces that are seen as having strength, power, or force.
- Evaluative reflects typefaces that are viewed as having value, worth, and importance.
- Activity reflects typefaces that are considered to be full of energy, movement, and action.
- Direct link to a screenshot of the survey
- Classroom activity 2 (if time left)
- Find semantic differentials used by other students when they compared CSS ZenGarden designs.
Wednesday
Homework feedback
- HW3 feedback
- Some advise on "writing" assignments (structure and style)
- Reminder: Term project
The term project
Mid-term exam (about 80 minutes)
- Exam preparation: Read Important teaching materials (reading list: items 1-5, and 9)
- The exam will be "open documentation". You may consult the Internet. Questions will be based on homework 1-4 and the reading list. If you missed classes, then you also might have a look at the videos shown.
- It will include several questions of various types: MCQ, definitions, short design and analysis tasks
- Topics tested:
- The user-centered design process
- Definition(s) of user experience, usability, etc.
- Usability guidelines
- Task-based usability testing
- Usability and technology acceptance surveys
- Personas and scenarios
- Prototyping with wire frames
Homework 5
Choose either one !!!
Due: Wednesday week 6 (before class)
Option A
- Create a semantic differential scale for analyzing user's perceptions of the home page (and other landing pages) of a university web sites or another category of websites of your choice (e.g. think about your term project). It is better to reuse a scale you can find, e.g. on a good usability/marketing web site or a publication (under the condition that you provide a reference).
- Test the tool with at least two users and two web sites. I.e. show the users the web sites and have them rate them.
- Present both the scale and the testing results with a report. In particular:
- Explain the purpose of your scale, i.e. what is it supposed to measure
- Explain what kind of dimension an item is supposed to measure
- Report how well the users understood the differentials.
Tips:
- Make sure to submit a document that approximates academic standards (e.g. it should include at least a title, subtitles, name, date and references and be organized in some logical way).
- Focus on some aspects of user experience. A short scale is perfectly ok if it makes sense...
- Find another study and get inspiration
- You could use an online survey tool for this task (useful if you plan to conduct surveys sometimes later in your life)
- I suggest that those who already turned in 2-3 prior homework could skip this homework. I will give two additional homework (total of 7)
Option B
- Analyze four landing pages with the "5 seconds test" (http://unbounce.com/landing-page-optimization/the-5-second-rule-best-sites-of-2009-part-1/) or some other appropriate method for testing "first impression".
- These landing pages must share a same topic, i.e. be comparable (e.g. fashion, higher education, news, ...)
- Write a report that presents your findings.