Complete Web Monitoring

How Did They Do It?

The second question is all about usability. Most modern websites let users accomplish their goals in a number of ways. Visitors might search for a book or browse by a list of authors. They might click on text hyperlinks or the images next to them. They might take a circuitous route through the application because they didn’t see the big button just out of sight on their screens. They might abandon a form halfway through a page. Or they might enter a zip code in the price field, then wonder why they can’t complete their transaction.

Usability is a mixture of science and art. Web designers want their work to look fresh and innovative, but need to balance their desire for cutting-edge design with a focus on familiar affordances and button conventions that visitors understand.

Perhaps because of designers’ eagerness to introduce fresh sites, they’ve given users many more interfaces to learn, making the Web less consistent even as its citizens become more savvy.

A profusion of browsers

Opera, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Flock, Camino, Safari, and others all render pages slightly differently. Sometimes the differences can be subtle; other times, entire ads may not show up, JavaScript may not execute, or functionality may be severely impaired. You may not even be aware of these limitations.

A variety of devices

Notebooks, desktops, mobile phones, and PDAs offer different controls. Some have touchscreens and new gestures, while others have numeric keypads. They all display different resolutions. We use them in many different surroundings—in a car, in bright light, or in a noisy room.

New interaction metaphors

Drag-and-drop, wheelmouse-zoom, modal displays, and so on, are now possible with Flash, Java, and JavaScript.

Usability is most important when it affects goal attainment. It’s the domain of Web Interaction Analytics (WIA).

Note

The term “WIA” was coined by ClickTale, and is also variously referred to as in-page or behavioral analytics.