Do you know what I hate about movie reviews? Chick flicks. Yeah, that’s right. Chick flicks.
And do you know what I hate about book reviews? Romance novels. Yep.
And do you know what I hate about car reviews? Make-up mirrors. Uh-huh.
Are you sensing a theme here (pretend its the SAT/LSAT/MCAT/Dumb, generalized, multi- tests that allege to set standards)?
ANSWER: The reviewers are not of the same personality-type as the consumers.
So remember, when testing your web pages, don’t build them to please yourself or your boss.
As my boss told me when I first started, “we’ve fallen in love with our own artwork”.
I know it is hard to remember. I cannot tell you how many meetings I have been in and we all get caught up in how slick and gorgeous the page, the color, the design, the layout is. We forgot: we aren’t the ones who are looking at the pages once it is built.
Or we are worried that the approving partner won’t like it so we build it to get it approved.
Instead, think about your audience; your potential site visitors: what is the predominant personality type? What appeals to them?
I know that marketing people that I have worked with are the creative sort. We love to talk, like lots of colors, the prettier it is, the happier we are.
And IT, well, they like black and white, either/or kinds of choices. Plain, straight-forward, no-nonense pages are our designs of choice.
Now do you see why web sites should be built by both marketing and IT people?
So put on your thinking cap: envision your “jury”. Conduct voire dire. Once you’ve figured this out, you’ve done some good research and can start putting together a plan.
Oh.
And the chick flick/romance/car rant? Well, its just me being me. I saw “Ugly Truth” and loved it. The Chronicle book reviewer panned one of my favorite authors. And, well, you know, car reviewers NEVER mention make-up mirrors.
See?