Dear Expert, 

"Need A Dot Com?" -- http://www.needa.com is our web hosting and
domain registration company.  We have recently relaunched with a new
site design and I am looking for a web site review.  I need an expert
Researcher, preferably one who has usability analysis experience and
experience registering domain names and/or web hosting accounts, to
perform a usability test on our site.

Specifically, we do not want html suggestions etc (although
javascript, flash concerns are welcome), we're are more wanting "how
did it work for you as a potential purchaser of our services".   I'm
looking to get your experience and feedback, as well as your opinions
and suggestions.  What type of impression does the web site leave on
you?  What turned you off, what gave you confidence about us?

Provide us with your thought processes that you have while you do the
test, positive or negative.  Please be specific.   Please also give
feedback on our service offerings -- How could they be better?

I'm not after books, or services or links as to how to design a
website or who can do this. I specifically want the assistance of
an expert researcher to give me their user experience and their
suggestions.

Please try to buy a service.  Go through to order page and put Expert
Researcher in the Credit card field, use test credit card # 4111 1111
1111 1111 - ex 10/02.   Once you have your order, you could then
please log into our members area and provide similar feedback on our
members area.  Please use an email address you can check, to evaluate
our auto-generated welcome letter.

What worked and didn't work in your buying experience?  

Thanks! 


(note: I am thankful for the idea for this question from similar
questions already posted)

Hello Webhosting,

I enter the home page at http://www.needa.com/
I'm wondering if "Need A Dot Com" is the company name, or company
slogan. The page appears slightly too balanced in the sense that I
don't know where to start reading (and what's the important parts not
to miss out). I find the left side to be a second "content" area,
while it's usually a place for the navigation bar. But, good overall
design, looks professional and trustworthy so far.

Suggestion: create place for a highly distinguishable content area,
likely in the middle, and decrease the width of the left part.

I'm starting to read the text on the left. It sounds like advertising,
so I jump ahead a few lines to find information. The fonts are of
fixed size, and a little small after my fails to readjust them.

Suggestion: for contentual areas, leave the font-size adjustable and
to the browser defaults.

I'm looking through the page some more to see what you have to offer.
An image of a mouse catches my attention. I don't suppose I can buy
one here?

Suggestion: picture of hardware may be more appropriate if you sell
hardware, whereas typically, "click here" is emphasized by a
"hand"-cursor.

Clicking on "Domain Registration" brings me to
http://www.needa.com/domain/
This is interesting, you offer .info domains. There are text passages
dealing with "Why do I need a domain name", before I can see what
interests me really (and should distinguish you from other services):
the details of the offer, and a price tag. But I'm still looking for a
little input box. Where can I enter my domain name?
Something in the back of my head tells me you might have put it on the
first page, so I go back -- and there it is.

Suggestion: Make the steps one has to go through easier to follow. Do
not alter the appearance of the input box and submit button to make it
as easily and instantly recognizable as possible. The approach should
be:
1) enter wanted domain name
2) see, it's still available! the adrenaline rush on the customer side
kicks in
3) there's a cheap price tag in a very obvious position
4) a second click on a prominently placed "Reserve" button brings one
to the customer data input section

So let's see if my domain name is still free. I enter "mynewsite" and
press return.
Something went wrong. Instead of list of available domains, there's
the text:
"Please select a valid top level domain from the select box. [Go
Back]"
OK, I click the back button. But where is that select box? I'm looking
again, to no avail. In any case, I click the "Forward" button, because
I remember there was a select box on the follow-up page.

Again I enter "mynewsite", and now select ".info" and click "Search".
For some seconds, a "Your request is in process" page shows up.
I'm now on a page that lists:
    mynewsite.com        N/A  
    mynewsite.net        N/A  
    mynewsite.org for $8.95/year          
    mynewsite.info for $8.95/year (min 2 years)          
    mynewsite.biz for $8.95/year (min 2 years)          

But I selected ".info" -- why did I chose this if I end up with a list
of all top level domains? It seems the selection was ignored.

Suggestion: either make the top level domain selection optional/ leave
it out, or only list the selected top level domain (and, if there's a
free one in another domain, possibly list them clearly seperated below
that).

The domain "mynewsite.info" is available, and it's checked! I can get
it by clicking on the "Add To Cart" button. I'm being transferred to a
"Create Order" page. The most prominent feature of the page is "New
Domain Name Search". But yes, as a footnote, there's my cart; a click
on "Next >>" continues my shopping.

On the next page, again titled "Create Order", I need to chose between
three options:
    Domain only | Deluxe (Email) | Web Hosting

There are many questions I have now: what exactly are those options?
Can I change them later on? If they do really cost the same, as it
seems to be implied since there's no additional price tag, are they
somehow equal?

Suggestion: Place a clear information as a footnote what the different
options are. Also, if one can go back to revert a choice, now or later
on. Don't reuse the same title, but label your pages as e.g. "Create
Order (Step 2 of 3)". You may also think about ordering the steps in
dialog-like multi-tabs.

Well, I choose "Web Hosting" for $8.95, since it seems to add more
value than the "Domain Only" option, and I click on "Next>>".
Another "Create Order" page. This time, I can chose the "Hosting
Option", and go for "Standard Webhosting $24.95".

Suggestion: make the price ranges clear from the beginning, instead of
during late phases of the order process.

"Next>>" brings me to "Contact Information". Since this is my first
time here, I need to register, so after the data is entered, I click
on "Next>>" once again.

Suggestion: rationalize the "Next>>" clicks. Think about how to break
up the process in chunks that are not too small.

I'm now on the "Checkout" page. After providing my password, you ask
how I heard about the site. I'm not sure if this is an optional
selection or not, and the bright orange asterisk isn't explained in
the footnote. (But I see it's used on the password as well, so it sure
must mean this selection is required.) I don't check the "I have read
and agree ..." radio button since it's pre-selected.

Suggestion: make it very clear which fields are optional. Don't
pre-select the "agreed" radio button -- rather, let it be an active
choice. (This is in terms with typical interface expectations.)

Clicking on "Checkout" I need to enter my credit card number and type
sample data "4111 1111 1111 1111" before clicking on "Next>>".

I'm on the "Thank You" page and completely ordered my
"mynewsite.info". I can print out the information on this page for
further reference, or save it to my disk.


Hope this helps!

---

Request for Answer Clarification by webhosting-ga on 16 Jun 2002 16:59 PDT

This is an excellent answer.   Very constructive about the ordering
process.

I do feel that it is somewhat narrow in scope.  I was hoping that I
could get feedback that encompassed the entire sites offerings (i.e.
the SiteBuilder tool, the eCommerce package, the account features,
etc..).  Perhaps I was unclear about this in my original question, but
if you could provide similar details about the rest of the site, I
would appreciate it.

---

Clarification of Answer by j_philipp-ga on 17 Jun 2002 11:15 PDT

Hello again Webhosting,

Thanks for your comments. Let me add an analysis of broader scope.

SiteBuilder __________

After clicking on the SiteBuilder icon in the lower left of the
homepage, I land on the SiteBuilder main page, with a font-size that's
a bit small:
http://www.needa.com/sitebuilder/

Suggestions: Use a bold font for the appearances of "SiteBuilder" in
the main text. I can see you give the word "Builder" a blue color to
follow-up on the logo; it does look a bit like it could be clicked
tho, so I would suggest making it black. As for the font-size, my
suggestion stays; don't make it too small, or leave it to the browser
default.

I click on "Take it for a test drive" after reading the
easy-to-understand introduction.
http://sb.needa.com/

A new browser window opens.

Suggestion: unless you think it's absolutely necessary, don't open a
new browser window, as it can add to confusion.

I'm now seeing an explanation of 7 steps on how to create the webpage.

Suggestion: explain the steps while the user creates the page, not
before. It's unlikely anybody would want to understand everything
before seeing some "action".

Selecting 5 pages and clicking on "Go" brings me to the "Select a
Category" page. I click on "Media & Entertainment" and am forwarded to
"Select a design for your Web site".

Suggestion: the introduction text seems rather obvious as an
explanation -- I suggest putting it below the actual creation
interface.

I go with the "Alpha Series" because I like the striking yellow
colors. I simply skip the introduction text again, as I don't feel I
need it. There's a select color box. But what color does this refer
to? The background, foreground, or link color?

Suggestion: instead of "Select color", write: "Select background
color" (since the help seems to hint it is the background color). Or
why not just "Background color"? (That it needs to be selected seems
to be obvious from the interface element.)

Leaving the color at "Green", I do change the image of the upper left
in the design to "Flat computer", and the page refreshes with the
updated design. Very nice! But what to do now? Oh yes, there's a
little "Next" button.

Suggestion: Make the "Next button much more obvious, maybe a higher
contrast, a little bigger, and with an arrow icon.

Now I'm on the "Customization starts here". Again, I skip the
introductional text. The company name should be: "MyNewSite.com". The
slogan is: "It's Mine, and it's new". This time, there's a "Submit"
button.

Suggestion: streamline the submit/ next button, that is: reuse the
very same image or text (without switching from "Next" to "Submit",
and from orange to gray).

My new site appears, and it reads: "You have reached the end of the
demo". I like it! But, my slogan doesn't show up... only the first
word, to the right: "It". That was fun, but I wish I could've added
more things, like what is used as navigation, and maybe a paragraph or
two for the main content area. Then it would truly feel like mine, and
something I'd want to keep!

Suggestion: when one enters site name and slogan, give the optional
choice to enter some navigation section names, as well as a small
intro text.


eStore Demo __________

I click on "eStore" and then on "Demo":
http://needa.com/estore/demo.htm

There's a free-to-use username and password, which I memorize (is this
necessary, or could you automatize this?). I wonder what to do but
then see the black, non-underlined text "Demo Store 1" is a link, so I
click on it.

Suggestion: make links visible as such by underlining them, and
possibly changing their colors. Don't rely solely on hover effects.

A new window opens and brings me to:
http://host7.needa.com/

Whoops, that page cannot be found!
Neither can "Store 1 Admin" at:
http://host7.needa.com/admin/

Browsing in general __________

Clicking through some more pages, I find them easy to read and
professionally designed. It's a bit unclear from the navigation where
exactly I am at a given page.

Suggestion: create hilited version of the current section in the
navigation to emphasize where on is at any moment.

Looking for something specific __________

Clicking around is nice, but now I want to search for something. But I
don't find a search button!

Suggestion: definitely include a search feature in prominent position.
Studies have shown that an actual search input box directly on the
homepage (and possibly, all the following pages) is the most easily
recognizable search feature (even better than a simple "Search" link
that leads to a seperate page).

So as next-best thing I go to the easily-understood Sitemap. I want to
find out if you support the server-side scripting languages I'd need,
so I click on "WebHostingFAQ" and now I'm on:
http://needa.com/support/Index.cfm?FuseAction=Search&SearchFor=WebHostingFAQ

On that page, I see several references to NADC. What could that be? Oh
yes, it's your company name, abbreviated. I open a little "Find" box
in my browser and enter "script". Nothing... OK, I will read through
the headlines now. You mention ASP, but does it also have other
languages? Wait, there's a search box in the upper right! I enter
"php" and click on "GO". There are no matching documents.

Suggestion: I'm not sure, but did you think about including PHP,
Python etc.? Those can be installed on a Windows Server, too. Or maybe
you could at least include all those keywords in a special page, so I
would definitely know you don't have them

I will write an email to your support asking my question, so I click
on the "support-at-needa.com" link.

----------------

I hope this was of help, and good luck with your website!

j_phillipp

Thank you for the follow-up.  You report was very comprehensive and
will help us make the site more user-friendly, and (blush) fix some of
the problems.   I appreciate your time and research -- it has made me
realize no matter how much internal testing we do, a fresh set of eyes
is welcome.   Thanks again.

The first thing I noticed about the site is how unclear the main
domain search input box is - you have removed the border from it,
which means it just looks like an empty white area. I'd recommend
keeping the default browser border, or adding a strong border to
highlight it.

Your logo in the top-left corner could do with being a link back to
the homepage. It isn't totally clear where users should click if they
want more information on products from the homepage. An extra "more
information" link would be more directional.

Elsewhere on the site, links vary in style (for instance, on the
support site) - try to stick to one style, and make it clear what is a
link and what is plain text. You also underline non-link plain text on
some pages (such as the site map), which could confuse users into
clicking.

Domain search could be much more clever - try and second-guess the
user if you can, but without being annoying. For instance, if a user
enters "www.test.net", then they are most likely wanting to search for
the domain "test" with the extension "net". If the user doesn't enter
any domain extension, show them a search using all extensions.

I'd recommend against using the Macromedia (Dreamweaver or Fireworks)
scripting for your image rollovers - it can be very slow (especially
with a lot of images or frames, or on an older PC). This is not a
problem with browsers or caching, but they way the script is written.

Another thing to note is your site doesn't work all that well with
images disabled. More meaningful alt text is needed, especially when
you have used images to indicate prices.

The "new user" form is slightly overwhelming at first, and not that
easy to read. Less borders between element would make it easier to
follow. I'd recommend some slight e-mail verification too (either very
simple syntax checking, or full address verification) to make sure it
is not entered incorrectly.

I feel you should make it much clearer when the transaction is
actually going to take place. Instead of just another "Next >>"
button, it might be nice to say "Place Order" - to make it clear
there's no going back.

Users might also want to go back and forth through the ordering
process if they have entered incorrect details. A descriptive title
for each stage of ordering would help with that, instead of just
"Order Process".


Hope that helps!
Cheers
Tom

webhosting, I thought i recognized the style of the question. Thanks
for the credit - appreciated. Hope you get what you want. We did, it
worked for us.
tx. Headsets.com