Running a usability test with real customers is essential to good Web site design. You may know a lot about your customers, but it’s hard to predict how people will react to and interact with your Web site. Usability tests are also effective in ending those constant opinion wars in which members of the design team argue about what people like and don’t like. The best way to answer questions about your customers is to recruit some participants, run a quick test, and see what they say and do.

What kinds of mistakes are made on Web sites? The figure categorizes the problems by feature and implementation. The top right-hand quadrant shows the right feature but the wrong implementation. For example, a shopping cart is definitely the right feature for an e-commerce site, but it could have implementation problems that make it hard for customers to check out and finalize purchases. Iterative design and usability testing will help you discover these types of problems.

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