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Test & Refine |
Implement and Retest
For a usability test to have any value, you must use what you learn to improve the site.
You may not be able to implement all the recommendations. Developing any product is a series of trade-offs in which you balance schedule, budget, people's availability, and the changes that are needed.
If you cannot implement all the recommendations, develop priorities based on fixing the most global and serious problems. Research shows that fixing the most widespread and serious problems gets you closer to your measurable usability goals faster than fixing many minor problems while ignoring the most global and most serious.
As you prioritize, push to get the changes that users need. The cost of supporting users of a poorly-designed site is much greater than the cost of fixing the site while it is still being developed.
The iterative design process in which you develop a partial prototype, test early, fix and expand the prototype, test again (and repeat) is the most successful way to develop a Web site that allows users to accomplish their own goals effectively and efficiently. Many Web teams plan and carry out three or four cycles of design/develop and test as they prepare a new or revised Web site.
