Pointers and Pro tips
16. Get outside eyes.
Find other people to review your site—preferably as users—but any feedback will count. You will spend so long looking at this site, you will start not seeing things. Bonus points if the people are not from your field. This will help you combat jargon you may not have even been aware you were using!
17. Do usability testing.
Usability testing is like a reference interview except you can’t help at all. Basically, you sit someone down at your site, ask them to do/find something, and then say nothing as they narrate their attempt to do what you asked. This testing gives you valuable insight into how general users will encounter and use your website.
Usability testing is an entire field in its own right with lots of different ways to do it—some complex, some simple. Find ways that work for you.
18. Give users lots of advance warning!
You know how you post a meaningful inspirational re minder on your fridge or your bathroom mirror so you’ll see it every day and get inspired? And you know how after a few days, you just stop seeing it? It’s like that with notifying your users about website changes. Mention it as early as possible, but not all the time and not all at once.
For example, if you plan a change in the following year, just let them know that a change is coming. That’s it. Say it again in a few months; maybe build some suspense around it. Then, about 1 month out, release a beta version for users to try out. From then on, send weekly reminders, then daily reminders during the week of the change.
Try to use multiple venues to get your message across. My company frowns on mass emails, so I use Microsoft Yammer for a lot of announcements. If you have a physical presence, use those signage skills!
19. Check it often.
You’re not done when the site is up. Links will break. Vendor contracts will change your access. Platforms will up grade and forget how to read your content. Such is the nature of the internet. But you can be ready for it!
Schedule some periodic reviews of your website over the course of the year. I try to check links every quarter or two. You may want to add a site review as part of your annual budgeting process so you can add/remove any new/old subscriptions. Remember to keep your ears open for when your company updates their brand standards. Oh yeah, and failing everything else, you’ll want to restart this process in about 2–3 years to make sure your overall site is still up-to-date.
20. Be cool; aka have fun.
I once read that something is “cool” when it brings joy into the everyday. You might feel overwhelmed by all the things I’ve been talking about that you need to keep track of in your site renovation, but remember that web design, along with UX, is, at its heart, a creative endeavor. So have fun with it. Bring some joy to your site. I often do this through using quality images (try pixabay.com) and by avoiding boring shapes. For example, I don’t use any rectangular images. Mine all have either rounded or dog-eared corners. It may sound like a small thing, but our users’ days are filled with small things, and it makes a difference that your small things are enjoyable.
UX is a wide field that no one can learn all at once, so I encourage you to invest further in yourself. Read a book (see my Goodreads list [bit.ly/2AHZAKs] for suggestions), take a community college workshop, or hang out with other UXers. Many cities have monthly gatherings of SharePoint power users or chapters within the Social Media Club orga nization (socialmediaclub.org). By attending those meetings, I have learned a lot about how organizations and in dividuals communicate.
