Home » Tools, User Experience

3 Free Tools – Web Site Usability / User Experience

2 September 2009 13 Comments

In my previous post I wrote about the importance of usability/user experience testing on your web site.

Now for some interesting tools to help you along…

Wave – free, easy to use, and fantastic for a visual overview of your site. I recommend you download the Firefox toolbar for an even better look at it.

Improve Readability – this one really caught me out on Buzz Marketing Pros! My home page was, sure enough, filled with “agency-speak” and not connecting with the average reader. It showed the offending copy right in the analysis, so I knew what I needed to change.

Usabilla – this tool is in beta. It allows you to get visual feedback from visitors, who can indicate what they do/don’t like about your site. I’m still working with this…you may encounter it soon when you visit the Diva.

Do you have favorite usability tools to add to this list?

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  • http://www.craftmoneytree.com clarky

    They like great, but I have never used these tools before, thanks for sharing. I think that I will try them, maybe they will give me a big suprise.
    .-= clarky´s last blog ..5 Step Formula of Writing a Great Blog Post =-.

  • http://thehappyfamilies.blogspot.com lina@happy family

    This info is very useful for me cause I’ve never used the tools like these before…
    .-= lina@happy family´s last blog ..How to Overcome Conflict with Your in-laws (1) =-.

  • http://dailysnoop.net Dominic

    I will try about that Tools… I am thinking that that would help me.. Well,
    this is an additional tips for me.
    .-= Dominic´s last blog ..Erin Andrews – Full 911 Call Audio =-.

  • http://www.quality-web-programming.com/ecommerce-solutions.php e-commerce solutions

    All three are damn good ones!Thanks for giving the details of each one.This information will certainly help me in my future work.Thanks.Please give more such informations as and when you get.

  • http://learningstuff.necubed.com/2009/08/16/unique-web-traffic-to-your-website-you-can-get-it/ Unique Web Traffic

    I tried out the Wave and Improve Readability tools. For the latter, I’m skeptical. I guess because I don’t really know how they would go about determining those measurements, I have difficulty trusting the results. For the former, I didn’t really understand it. For eg. it pointed out a problem with some of my links, saying they don’t make sense out of context, or contained extraneous words like “click here”. In several of the instances, they were actually links that said something like “read the rest of this entry”, and they came after an excerpt of the post. I don’t see anything wrong with that, so I’m not sure what the tool was complaining about.

    Anyway, thanks for sharing as I didn’t know such things existed.
    .-= Unique Web Traffic´s last blog ..Beware Raz-Captcha WordPress Plugin =-.

    • http://www.seodiva.net Seo Diva

      I don’t know how readability tools make their determination on content, but they are a good indication of how your copy reads. When my readibility score is too high, I always go back and tweak the content on the page.

      As far as Wave goes, you do have to use a grain of salt with some of the findings. Nevertheless, it can help you discover problems you’ve overlooked.

      Any time I use a tool I take the good and leave the rest. I haven’t found a perfect one yet :)

  • http://www.tamundo.de/stichwortverzeichnis.html Willem Hagen

    Thanks…it will also help me in future…

  • http://flyingstyle2009.blogspot.com letian

    I think that tools are very good thank you

  • Bailey

    I found this very helpful, especially improving readability. First time I have read your blog, so I went back and read the previous post as well. Adding to what you have here and the idea in your previous post of hiring a specialist is just to have another person read it. This really helps me when I write copy as another person can see where I have an instead of and, when my eye just reads over it.

    I am definitely going to try the readability tools and it also gives me the idea to have someone who isn’t an expert take a look to make sure it is simple and easy to navigate. Thanks for this information.

  • http://eleganceit.com/en 4You

    I appreciate the article! I’m a beginner in the sphere of Internet and I’m interested in such information about different new tools and programs!Thanks!

  • http://www.adforces.com/blog/ Karen

    Thanks for sharing these tools. I have never used them before. I hope it will help me.

  • http://www.seodiva.net Seo Diva

    Yes, super easy to implement.