jamjar cars selected The Usability Company to help
improve the performance of the www.jamjar.com website. A number of
companies were invited to present their proposals to jamjar with
the brief being to offer an objective external user view of how
the website was actually performing and assess its ease of use.
This would highlight any issues that would need to be addressed
through the planned future development.
jamjar short-listed three companies, each of which were invited
to present and then selected The Usability Company to carry out
the project. They ruled out an internal review, preferring a
completely independent and objective assessment of the website.
Why?
Paul Evans of jamjar explained, "the project allowed
jamjar to judge what we thought needed changing from a commercial
perspective compared to what actually needed attention according
to the users. The end benefit should be a more usable and
enjoyable experience for the visitor".
"We selected The Usability Company not because they were
the cheapest, but because they seemed to offer a level of
professionalism beyond the other companies we saw. It was very
important for us to get it right first time, as the results would
play an important role in the future development of the jamjar
website."
How?
The Usability Company recommended a Usability Evaluation –
lab based testing with real users – to meet jamjar's needs. 8
participants were recruited against jamjar's core buyer profile
and asked to attempt tasks similar to those they would be
attempting in the real world. The tasks were designed to test the
user's interaction with the core areas of the website, starting
with the home page.
What was the outcome?
The outputs of the Usability Evaluation were provided via a
detailed report that identified usability issues and provided
associated recommendations to rectify the problems. The identified
issues and recommendations were supported with edited video clips
that brought each of the issues to life. Finally, a presentation
was used to review the issues and recommendations and brainstorm
alternative solutions.
As a result of the findings the homepage was completely
redesigned, which vastly improved the navigation through the
website without the need for further changes to other pages. This
allowed for a significant improvement to be made to the website in
a short space of time ensuring benefits could be realised
immediately.
The Benefits
The changes to the homepage yielded business improvements and
further significant increases in business performance are
anticipated when the remaining recommendations are implemented.
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