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Evaluate Your Current Site
Before you begin to design a Web site, it is wise to review and evaluate what you have now. By reviewing what currently exists, you can identify what is working well and the areas that need improvement. Ask these questions when evaluating your current Web site: Does the Web site meet your organization's objectives and your usability goals?Review the site to see how well the site is currently meeting your organization's objectives and the usability goals you have set for the site. If you have not set any organizational objectives, see the Questions to Ask at Kick-Off Meetings (PDF-33KB). If you have not set usability goals for your users' typical scenarios, learn how to Set Measurable Usability Goals. Is the site meeting the needs of your users?Consider how well the site is fulfilling users' goals by reviewing the types of users who visit your site and the reasons they come to the Web site. Gathering information from users is essential to understanding how well users can find information on your Web site, how efficiently they can use the functionality on the site, how well they understand your content, and how much they enjoy using your Web site. To gather information from users: Review users' emails and phone calls
Evaluate your Web logs and search logs
Conduct an online survey
Conduct a usability test
Does the Web site comply with basic Web guidelines?Also review the site to see how well it adheres to common Web standards and best practices. You may want to: Conduct a heuristic evaluation.
Review the Research-Based Usability and Web Design Guidelines.
Examine OMB policies.
The characteristics other than name and picture come from the data you gathered in learning about your users. For example, you may have quotes from interviews or surveys or usability testing. Next stepsOne of the most important keys in evaluating your current site is understanding your users. The article on Learn About Users introduces you to several ways to find out more about the people who come to your site, the people whom you want to come to your site, what they look for, whether they find it, and how they would organize the information on your site. You may also want to start your Content Inventory and do that at the same time that you are learning more about your users. |
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