LiveBlog: Adventures In Usability & The Crazy Things People Do
Written November 6th, 2007 by CapnFirst let’s preface this one with the fact that it’s our very own Neal Linkon, presenting. So A) that’s kewl for webiscope, and B) we can all harrass him with comments and questions (hint hint, people) right here.
Right now, the first couple rows in front of the podium are webiscope members – here to heckle er ah ahem support Neal. 
Aaron, Kat, Wendy, Drew, James, Andy, Keith, Bart myself, and I believe there’s more in back (they’ll get more airtime w/ the tomatoes). We gotcha covered, Neal!
On with the show. The focus of this seminar is to express & demonstrate that the focus of a website (ultimately, any website) needs to be on the visitor.
3:05 “Who is your most important audience?”
- Patients.
Next you need to ask:
- Are you meeting their needs?
- How do you know?
- What can you do about it?
“Get the patient’s voice on the website”
* watch; ask; listen.
The hard part is responding, and appropriately.
3:12 “Not every stat is meaningful” 
The value in any statistic is the reason the drives that particular result. Lots of page visits do not necessarily imply a visitor is satisfied with the content delivered by your site; it could just as easily mean they can’t find anything they’re looking for.
[Aaron stepping in - Jake's battery just died on his Mac]
Just wanted to say – great presentation thus far Neal. Great, sensible info. I have to echo Jake’s comments – the value in any statistic really is the reason that drives whatever the statistic is.
3:27 Neal’s moved onto user testing, and how it’s good to really get back to basics. By simply adding a link to his Pay your bill page they saw a 70% reduction in bill related emails.
3:32 Ooh, here comes his favorite part (or so he says )
* Emails from patients who couldn’t find a doctor or facility
* Some site visitor profile feedback on a similar theme
After looking at their own search results, 10% of searches got no results.
After doing a usability study – they were able to determine that people were using very specific criteria for search options. Eventually they changed it to what it looks today.
Did it work?
* The email complaints disappeared
* “No result” searches dropped nearly to 50%
* No complaints or other problems! (some kind of butterfly effect?)
Now it’s time for some wild input:
* “Get rid of Jobs and About Us”
* “I would never think of looking for a calendar of events under a Calendar tab”
* “Why doesn’t my old doctor show up?” (hahaha, you should get on that Neal)
* “Philanthropy is an untreatable health condition”
* “Why isn’t your phone number on the home page?”
* Zip code radius extremes
Favorite email of the year:
“Why do you make it so hard to find a job at Aurora? I have been all over your web site, and I can’t find any place to look for much less apply for a job”
- Apparently that email was sent from the Jobs page… Guess you’ve got another screening tool built in Neal. Haha.
Presenting:
Neal Linkon
Manager, Web Communications
Aurora Healthcare
November 6th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Go Neal!
Love your presentation so far.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:41 am
Neal: fantastic presentation. Great way to wrap up the weekend, and definitely a subject everyone here could’ve/should’ve taken something away from. Thanks again.
November 7th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
I wish I could have attended Neil’s speech, however my presentation was running concurrently. When I welcomed people, I referred to my session as ‘Neil Linkon’s overflow crowd’.
-MK
November 8th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Oh, gents, you are too kind. I’m just glad the heckling was all on Webiscope!
Neal
November 8th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Hahaha, of course! We were heckling you while you were on stage
November 9th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
It’s too bad Neal wasn’t a keynote speaker. He could’ve easily replaced the girl from Google.
November 12th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Thanks for that, but I was a keynoter last year. It was weird. Doing it two years in a row would have been too much!