[IxDA Discuss] Value of utesting a client driven marketing site.

[Adrian Chong]

Not to worry. It's my personal hate on for specific type of
marketer/marketing which I should have clarified. I am aware of the 5
points you listed but I think internally it's more of the "if it ain't
broke don't fix it" mentality. Why should they take on more risk by
adopting and integrating new tools into their process if they are
making money with their previous process? There is the potential for
more but why risk it... that's what i feel i'm up against. It kind of
leaves few options out there.

On 9/18/06, Jared M. Spool <jspool at uie.com> wrote:
> At 12:11 PM 9/18/2006, Adrian Chong wrote:
> >Thanks for the response. That's probably the more accurate issue,
> >there is no measure of sucess for the site. If the stakeholders thinks
> >it's "cool" then it's a success for a while until they realize they
> >spent 500k on something that just looks neat but serves an ambiguous
> >purpose. Isn't that the nature of marketing though? Unfortunately, I
> >don't think I can really change a culture as one man :/
>
> <Flame>
> I have yet to meet a designer who doesn't get inflamed when a non-designer
> suggests that solving some complex problem is "just a simple matter of design."
>
> I think it's an unfair statement, even if made in jest, to suggest the
> "nature of marketing" entails spending money without caring of
> justification. I can assure you that marketers (a generic term, no less
> non-descript than "designer") who do their job well are keenly aware of the
> the results they are trying to attain. (And before you make some crass
> remark about how "those are rare", I'm sure there are many who would argue
> that smart, talented designers are equally as "rare.")
>
> Not to pick on Adrian, I don't think it benefits us, as practitioners in a
> burgeoning discipline to be so quick to dismiss the talents of other
> disciplines, especially those that have been around a lot longer than ours has.
> </Flame>
>
> In terms of change, I don't know enough about your situation to know
> whether you can affect change or not. However, I can tell you that many
> before you have, in situations that sound much more "dire" than what you
> might be facing.
>
> As I've said before on this list, senior executives care about 5 things.
> Translate what you're trying to do into one of those 5 things and you'll
> have no trouble getting their attention.
>
> I learned a long time ago that senior executives don't care about usability
> testing. But they do care about:
>
> 1) Increasing Revenue
> 2) Reducing Expenses
> 3) Increasing Sales from New Customers (aka increasing marketshare)
> 4) Increasing Sales from Existing Customers (aka leveraging customer base)
> 5) Increasing Shareholder Value
>
> Ask yourself how conducting a usability test (or a field study, card sort,
> prototype, or any other UX activity,) can achieve one of those 5 things and
> you'll have your answer as to how and when to use the test.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> (Sorry for the flame, but you hit one of my pet peeves - showing disrespect
> for the other hard-working members on *our* team.)
>
> Jared
>
>
> Jared M. Spool, Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering
> 510 Turnpike Street, Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845
> 978 327-5561   jspool at uie.com  http://www.uie.com
> Blog: http://www.uie.com/brainsparks
>
>
>


-- 
Adrian Chong
www.adrianchong.com/blog