Behind new eyes
Jakob Nielsen, a web usability guru (he’s been writing regular columns on the subject since 1995), posted a great piece of advice in a recent article:
“ … it’s a good idea to ask any new hires in your usability group to immediately write usability reviews of your [website] design while they still have an outside perspective.”
I would take that a step further (especially since very few associations probably have a separate usability department) and expand that to all new hires—even new members. Create a set of usability questions and tasks to send to each newbie. Take their input, along with the information you're gathering from site logs and other sources, and use it to fine-tune your online presence.
I bet you’ll be surprised and enlightened by what fresh eyes see on your site.
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Comments
I had a boss once who made it a practice to do "new hire in terviews" similar to how people do exit interviews. About two weeks after someone had started he would take the person to lunch and ask "What have you noticed so far that has you scratching your head wondering why we do it that way and what changes would you make?" It made so much sense once I saw him doing it.
Posted by: Jeffrey Cufaude | January 18, 2007 10:01 PM
That's a great idea, Jeff! I've always met with new hires regularly to see how they are doing, but I've never asked them a question exactly like that one. I will in the future.
I've noticed in the past that, when a new hire asks me "Why don't we do X?", my immediate instinct is to explain why--give him or her the whole backstory. But that's the wrong approach; the more I explain why we don't do something, the more I can lose that person's fresh perspective.
If I can suppress that instinct and instead say, "Why do you ask? Should we be doing X?" and listen carefully to what the new hire has to say, I hear some really good ideas.
Posted by: Lisa Junker | January 19, 2007 8:53 AM