Testing the Usability of a Marketer’s Website

Constant Contact, a Massachusetts company which provides a rich set of email marketing and related services to over 250,000 customers worldwide, offers partner programs to help grow clients small businesses.  After having lunch with Gail Goodman, CEO, in October 2006, I decided to enroll in their Business Partner program.
As a business partner, I look for clients who would find the Constant Contact services compelling and help them get set up and running. Clients then manage their campaigns themselves and turn to Constant Contact for support when needed.
Recently, I received an email from Sue Sokoloski, Director of Channel Marketing.  Sue invited me to participate in a usability study of their Business Partner Console, their online marketing software.
I was immediately interested and looked forward to seeing how a firm like Constant Contact went about testing a website’s usability. I had visions of rows of testers with cameras trained on them, performing eye tracking.
Sue met me at their Waltham, Mass. Offices, and we settled into a conference room.  Two programmers joined us and connected the laptop to a projector.

We talked initially about my business, the types of clients I serve, what level of service I provide and what tasks I most commonly complete in the Business Partner Console.
The rest of the time was spent answering questions and clicking around the new Partner Console.
I was asked to complete a task and we would talk about what I was looking for, what I expected and what I found. The discussion then shifted to how to better meet partners’ expectations.
This kind of testing requires a lot of knowledge because each Business Partner operates differently and may have different high-level goals. Balancing all of these needs in one interface is challenging.
Naming was a considerable focus. Naming links accurately lends credibility and predictability to a website. We are all more likely to click on a link if we think we know where it will take us. The opposite is also true.
We covered a lot of interesting topics, such as clarity in multi-layered customer environments, position of columns for ease of use, target demographics, and appropriate font size.  It seemed like the team was really listening and interested to hear my thoughts on using the new Partner Console. The hour and a half session was friendly and very constructive. Sue had a variety of questions and tasks for me to complete and we worked through each of them.
I am grateful to have had the opportunity to provide usability consulting to optimize the new Partner Console and look forward to seeing it live. Of course if I am invited to return for another consultation, I would be delighted to.
As we said our good byes, I asked, How did you come to select me? Was it because of the work that I do. Sue confirmed that it was.
If you want to learn more about Constant Contact or consider becoming a Business Partner, click here – – http://cli.gs/ConstantContact
If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy this article over on http://www.jbspartners.com/blog/usability/upa-boston-offers-page-titles-and-you-are-here-best-practices-from-steve-krug
Have you had experiences with usability testing?  What was your experience like?
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