Evolving the platform

Once the platform is ready for real users, you have two new methods available for working out what to build next. Firstly, you can watch what your users are doing on your platform by engaging with them personally and monitoring the right statistics (more on this later). Watching how people are using your platform allows you to see whether your assumptions were correct about what they would find useful: are they using the features you thought they would; which parts are they not using, and why; and are they using it in new ways you didn’t expect? And secondly, you can ask people on the platform what they think about it via online feedback systems, e-mail surveys and public discussions using your own tools. Make it as easy as possible for people to tell you what they think, and then publicly act on their requests to show you care.

You can also conduct user testing to check the effectiveness of what you’ve built. User testing allows you to watch real users using your platform for the things you’d like them to use if for, and evaluate how effectively you’ve met your objectives. There are very sophisticated methodologies and technologies for evaluating website usability, but you can do the basics yourself and learn a lot quickly. With even a small amount of user testing you can quickly iron out small but critical features like invisible buttons, unclear terminology and confusing workflows, and transform the usefulness experience of your tools for your visitors.

At this point you’ll be very glad that you engaged your users from the start (you did do that, didn’t you?), because you’ll already have an engaged community to shape the development of the platform. Keep evolving your platform with your users, particularly responding to specific requests – but be careful not to break the things that people like in your enthusiasm to add more features. Be fast and loose with evolving your platform in the early stages, but be cautious of changing things once people start using them. Collect and prioritise feedback, watch what’s happening, hold on to what’s working, and make small improvements in consultation with your users. And be prepared to put things back if you make a mistake!

Respond to technical concerns and complaints quickly too (see Taking care of your community), in public if possible; keep track of bugs and feedback in tools like Mantis or GetSatisfaction, and act quickly to fix prominent bugs and obstacles to show that you’re listening to your users’ concerns.

How to run user testing on your website

by Andy

  1. You don’t actually need a fully-developed tool or website to start user-testing; you can test prototypes, functional wireframes and even screen designs for language, layout and logic, and get what you build right first time.
  2. You do however need a clear sense of the tasks you want to test for. Write out 4-6 tasks in a form that a user will understand, which represent how you’d most like your site to be used. For example, ‘You’ve heard that the Social by Social publication contains information about user testing. Go to the publication online, find the relevant section and cut-and-paste it into an e-mail.’ Tasks should be achievable, with a clear definition of what completing them means.
  3. Ask a user to come in for 30 minutes to help you test your system. They could be a regular user, or someone who’s never heard of your project, depending on who you want to focus on.
  4. Explain the basics to them, including: asking for permission to record the test in some form; explaining that it is the technology under scrutiny and not them; that they should be encouraged to think out loud to help you understand their motivations; and that if they get stuck you won’t help them immediately, but you will answer questions at the end.
  5. Give them the tasks on a clear printout and read them out to them, and allow them to find their way through the tools and complete the tasks for themselves.
  6. Watch and make notes of anywhere they get stuck, and anywhere they don’t get what they were expecting. You should also make notes of their exact quotes when they say anything really significant, as these are very powerful for explaining the results to your colleagues. (It might be easier to have a colleague making notes while you take care of the subject.)
  7. For each of the tasks, you are assessing your system’s performance for efficacy (whether the user completed the task), efficiency (how long or how many clicks it took them) and satisfaction (how they felt about the overall experience). Make notes around each of these things and give each a score if you want so you can monitor progress later.
  8. You may want to record the test and show it to colleagues or review it at more length later. Use a recording package like Silverback to capture screen activity, vocals and user reactions.
  9. Once the test is complete, you may want to reward or even pay your subjects, or maybe not; but either way, remember to thank them.
  10. If that all seems too complicated, you can outsource the whole process to strangers in the US by submitting your website (for a very small fee) to www.usertesting.com.

Dealing with inappropriate content

by Jenny Reina, Freelance Community Manager

Jenny has helped organisations including School of Everything, BBC, Disney and ABC set up and look after online communities and user-generated content. Most of her work currently revolves around eModeration and its clients.

  • Deal with inappropriate content by editing the post or removing it completely as soon as possible.
  • If you step in to remove or edit content refer the user back to the Community Guidelines or Terms & Conditions so they know why. You can replace the removed/edited content with a post explaining the action was taken because the content violated the community user guidelines/T&C.
  • Decide how you will deal with people who violate the guidelines/T&C. You might want to introduce a 'three strikes and you're out' policy towards repeat offenders, enforcing a temporary ban for a set period of time or a permanent ban.
  • Recording deleted content is sometimes useful in case it is queried at a later date (especially if more than one person is scanning/moderating the community). This kind of reporting can be built into a moderation admin tool or details can be recorded manually e.g. on an Excel doc, but this is more time consuming.
  • Remember that if you see any child sexual abuse content hosted worldwide or criminally obscene and incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK it should be reported to the Internet Watch Foundation.