First-click tests solve common UX problems fast and easy
This article discusses three common user experience problems, and how first-click testing can help identify and lead to solutions:
- Performance of a top task is negatively impacted by too-similar link-labels
- People can’t find a top task link hidden on secondary landing pages
- Some visitor groups have lower success rates than others
First-click tests display an image of a web page and a task. The test-taker clicks on the part of the web page (link, graphic, menu, etc.) where they think they would be able to complete the task. And that’s it! That’s a first-click test. Participants are given a number of tasks to complete. Most tools for first-click testing provide “heat maps” showing which parts of the web page were clicked for each task tested.
For this test, we used Optimal Workshop’s Chalkmark tool. Based on known top tasks and analysis of current web analytics, we created a set of tasks to target potential problems and assigned a version of the home page image to be displayed with each task.
First-Click tests are not facilitated. Thus there is no opportunity to clarify a task. Task wordings must be very precise, unambiguous, and easily-understood. A draft version of the study was pilot tested with library staff to help refine the tasks before a final version was created. Because we can’t share the specific data images, due to university ethics requirements, we’ve created an anonymous study applying the tasks to similar University Library sites.
To get a full understanding of the usability issues and the experience of a first-click test, try a shortened version of the anonymous study before you read any further:
Try this first-click Demonstration Test
We provided the library with custom invitation software which intercepted randomly selected visitors to the home page. If a visitor opted to participate, the testing page waited in the background until the visitor finished their task at the library site.
Over 200 people responded to the invitation and took the test. On average, it took participants about 4 minutes to perform ten tasks. We removed the results of participants who completed only one task to reduce the chance of spurious data. The participants ended up fairly evenly split across undergraduate, graduate student, faculty or staff visitors. This allowed us to compare results across groups and to filter out staff and faculty responses for important student-oriented tasks.
What does success look like?
Before we get to the problems that a first-click test can reveal, let’s examine a successful first-click task. Successful results would show that at least 80% of participants clicked on the correct link. A click-map image (see below for a simulated image) will show a large concentration of clicks on the target links (in this case, Campus Libraries or Hours) with little scatter and very few clicks on Help or Search.
Simulated click-map for a successful task shows most clicks on the correct links – clicks are represented as dots
Image of first-click test
While the home page image in the study was different than the image shown above, the task – to find out if a particular library would be open on Saturday – was the same. About 65% of the participants correctly clicked on the prominent Hours link. A further 20% approached the task from the alternative direction of choosing the Library from the Campus Libraries list first, and viewing the hours on the page for that library.
UX problem 1: Performance of a top task is negatively impacted by too-similar link labels
When links are too similar, or so general that they can apply to many tasks, visitors often “satisfice”. They choose one that looks good enough, rather than continuing to look for the optimal solution. In the following task to renew a book, we see that a relatively unimportant link is distracting many participants away from the correct top task link.
- Over half of the participants correctly clicked on My Library Account to renew a book
- But more than 20% clicked on Borrow from the Library. Despite the active verb in the link label, the destination page isn’t about action – it lists the fines and rules for borrowing from the Libraries
Simulated results: The too-similar Borrow from Libraries link attracts clicks away from the correct My Library Account link.
Image of the results of incorrect clicks
Solution: Rename or remove the too-similar link. We recommended either moving the too-similar Borrow from the Libraries link from the home page to the My Library Account section, or clarifying the link label by renaming it Fines and privileges.
UX problem 2: People can’t find a top task link hidden on secondary landing pages
Undergraduate students often need help with general research skills. We were able to use the Chalkmark participant selection feature to narrow the results to undergraduate students for this task. This task was selected because there is no direct link to research help on the Libraries home page. Including the task in the study would help the library team understand whether students knew which of the headings on the home page would lead them to the research help section on the site.
In the example below, the Research Help link is only available on the Services page thus correct clicks from this home page would be on the Services heading. This obviously wasn’t a natural fit for the students, since:
- Only 25% correctly clicked on the Services link
- Another 25% of students appear to have decided that no such category was available anywhere, and opted to get the help via Chat with a Librarian or Contact Us
- The rest of the clicks were almost random – including clicks on About the Library and other high-level links
Simulated results: Too few clicks on the correct Services heading link and many on Chat, Subject Guides and Search
Image of incorrect clicks
Solution: Getting research help appears to be a poor fit with the Services category, perhaps because Services is a staff-oriented label. The easiest solution is to bring the Research Help link out from under the Services heading onto the home page.
UX problem 3: Some visitor groups have lower success rates than others
Finding journal articles is the top task for students and faculty at most university libraries. Previous usability testing conducted by Neo Insight with undergraduates at a Canadian university suggested that students would be more successful at finding articles with a discovery tool. Discovery tools, also known as federated search, search all sources together, finding books, articles, theses etc. Federated search is a new alternative to the databases approach to finding journal articles that has been in use for many years. Databases of journals are usually oriented to a specific topic areas and many faculty members have databases they prefer. In contrast, our research and other studies cited by John Kupersmith suggests that undergraduates often aren’t even familiar with the term ‘Database’. They are however, quite able to recognize and use a discovery tool via the search field.
When the results for the ‘Find an Article’ task were broken down by visitor group, it became clear that undergraduates were more likely to use the federated search field and conversely were less likely to select the incorrect Library catalogue search link. The catalogue would not be a successful approach because physical copies of the particular journal are not available in the library and thus are not listed in the catalogue. Online versions can only be found and read via the federated search field, Articles & Databases, or the E-Journals list.
- 51% of the undergraduates correctly clicked in the federated search field to find the Germanic Studies article cited in the task and 11% incorrectly clicked Library catalogue search.
- 33% of Faculty and staff members correctly clicked in the federated search field. 27% incorrectly clicked the Library catalogue search link.
Simulated Results: Click maps show more Undergraduates click in the federated search field than Staff and Faculty participants
Search results
Solution: While the Libraries team has more work to do on encouraging use of the Federated Search (such as adding a hint into the search field), they also realized they need to target the Faculty and Staff members to encourage them to try the new Search capabilities that the undergraduate students are using with greater success.
Many sites suffer from top task usability problems that could be identified with First-click tests. If you have hints of problems in your analytics but aren’t sure of the cause, First-click tests can be implemented very quickly and easily. Depending on your traffic volumes, enough responses to identify the problem can be collected in a week or less. For lower-volume sites, it may take longer, particularly if you wish to analyze the results by visitor group.
If you don’t have much budget or time for testing, then measuring and improving your visitors’ first-click for their top tasks is a great place to start.
Online options for first-click testing include Chalkmark by Optimal Workshop and Clicktest by Usabilityhub. Contact us at Neo Insight at +1 866 232-6968 if you need any help with setting up tests or applying the learning from other testing to improve the usability of your site.
More on First Click Testing
- The vital importance of the first click – Gerry McGovern
- FirstClick Usability Testing – Dr. Bob Bailey
- Chalkmark online screenshot testing software – Optimal Workshop
- clicktest – Usability Hub
- Library Terms That Users Understand – John Kupersmith
- Usability Test Results for a Discovery Tool in an Academic Library– Jody Condit Fagan
Neo Insight has extensive experience designing mega menus with public and corporate clients. We’ve shared our learning in previous articles about menu design and the big improvements in task success rates that careful design and testing can deliver. Neo Insight has tested and co-designed many Government of Canada mega menu sites, using a new process combining un-moderated tests for quantitative data (hundreds of site visitors participate) and moderated live usability sessions for qualitative fine-tuning of the menu structure, format and task labels.
To quickly change the menus between tests, we developed a method of using Excel spreadsheets to drive both TreeJack online architecture tests and live sessions on a standard web template. For one department’s site, the new rapid process gathered input from over 400 site visitors over 4 weeks to progressively develop the mega menu designs, with success rates for some top tasks boosted 30% during the process.
If you are considering mega menus to improve your site’s task success rates or you are a Government of Canada department optimizing your Website, we can help you create, test and deliver a successful task-oriented menu design within one to two months. Contact us at Neo Insight: +1 (866) 232-6968.
