Test Your Web Site with Real Visitors

To build long term and sustainable customer base, web sites need to be tested with real visitors to see whether it is able to attract and retain loyal visitors. It is virtually impossible to perceive different practical situations that a customer experiences in ‘Computer Lab’ environment. As a web developer, you already would have so much of knowledge that some mistakes while debugging a site would never be made by you as by users. But a disgruntled user gives rise to frustrated consumers and leads to loss of sales when scaled up to the global level.
Ascertain the use of your site.

Testing is the first and foremost way to ascertain the use of your site. Besides, there are many other ways too to check the usefulness of your site.
Though very less often resorted to, it is quite important to employ user surveys and focus groups to find out what a selected group of users remember about a Web site. Importance of site name retention can not be overemphasized. The "feel" of a Web site is an important element of branding and corporate image. A good feeling can increase trust in the site, so can not be dismissed.
User feedback solicits the views of a users group. Web master’s experience shows that usually visitors who hate the site leave promptly without responding, those with minor problems as broken links, typos etc. often provide feedback, as do those who love the site. Unfortunately, the majority who probably think the site is OK don’t bother to tell you this. But their behavior is reflected in repeat visitors to your site or the way your site attracts registration. As such, this does act as an overall spectrum of user experience and can highlight specific problems.
Mechanical tools as log files and automated testing services such as www.usablenet.com, create log files that tell you which pages are most visited, longest studied, first/last visited etc., but they fail to tell you whether users found what they wanted, or why they left. Yes, they are helpful in advising on predictable problems as broken links, and missing ALT tags for images, but fail to spot complex things like difficulty in locating products, meaningless graphics, or poor results from search pages.
Another way to test the site is by systematically examining a representative selection of pages by team of experts in the field. Most people use checklists to evaluate against, though experience and instinct are equally important. The inspection report describes, at least, the most important flaws in the site, and may recommend improvements. However, they can cause problems - the creative and technical people in the Web team often resent the intervention of a know-it-all consultant. Here Usability of the site is the most important. It is the user’s experience of trying to do something with a site that is the critical thing to get right, and this can only be done effectively by testing with real users.
User Testing
A small number of users are asked, one by one, to perform set tasks using the site. They are not guided to confirm a specific range of checks, but are allowed to behave in their natural way in the site. A knowledgeable person sitting in the same room, takes notes on what they do and say. Sometimes, a video link or two-way mirror allows other staff to watch without disturbing the test.
The users so selected should be reasonably representative of the target audience for the site. If there are different target audiences, each must be tested separately. Testing can take place at almost any stage of development – in general, the earlier the better. Simple tests of early prototypes allow problems to be fixed, and then the next iteration of the site can be tested.
Lab programmers and design professionals being experts in their field have their own view to gauge what users want or need. But only users can really tell you whether your site meets their requirements. It is a fact that web master’s experience, howsoever great, is not a substitute of real user’s expectation.
There will always be some aspects that real users find problematic. In a real time test, at least one user will surprise you by using the site in an unanticipated way. While anyone can legitimately question the opinion of the professionals, it takes real nerve to suggest that the intended users of the site don’t know what they need.