Cliff Tyllick, TCEQ
PESO Dec. 8, 2010
Know your site
Know your customers
Focus your efforts
Measure progress
Build better relationships
Where’s the front door?
Where do people go from there?
What hallways are blocked?
Where’s the exit?
A landing page — probably not where you
think:
Often not your home page
Whatever customers bookmark
Wherever a referring site points them
Wherever a Web search leads them
Could have “front doors” all over your site
(depends on who’s coming in)
Links clicked
Search terms used
Off your site?
Where do they come from? (sort of)
What are they looking for?
What can’t they find?
But respect their privacy.
Google/Yahoo/Bing other Web search?
◦ And what search terms they used
Some other Web site?
◦ And which one (referring URL)
◦ Texas.gov?
What links do they click?
Where do they spend the most time?
What search terms do they use?
When they get stuck, they search.
GA tracks search terms used on each page
What’s the problem?
◦ It’s not yours. (Refer to the other agency.)
◦ It’s not linked. (Add a link.)
◦ It’s linked, but they’re using the wrong word.
(Hint: They’re not wrong!)
◦ It’s a linked image, and they don’t see it.
(Hint: Avoid linked images!)
Tell your customers you use analytics
Optional: (Further) anonymize information
◦ Modify “cookies”: “persistent” to “session”
◦ Remove part of ISP
Let them opt out — and tell them how
Add to your Web policies
Examples FCC.gov
Di will tell how cookies work
Google Analytics uses persistent cookies:
tracks each “user” over many visits
Another option: session cookies
A session cookie tracks one visit
Use Javascript to turn GA’s persistent cookies
into session cookies
IP is four values; for example: 2.58.2.256
First three values identify down to city (or
region)
Last value localizes further (to personal level?)
Javascript can strip that value before data is
stored
May appease people who are extremely
concerned about privacy
Turn off Javascript –or–
Add GA opt-out browser extension:
◦ Customer adds to their browser
◦ Works on three browsers:
Internet Explorer (versions 7 and 8)
Google Chrome (4.x and higher)
Mozilla Firefox (3.5 and higher)
◦ (Usually) not an option on public computers
(but how personal is the IP of a public computer?)
What needs to be fixed?
Do you need usability testing?
Where should you start?
How much traffic will it relieve?
What should improve?
What did change?
What ripple effects did it have?
Satisfy customers — before they complain!
Give help appropriately
Show respect for privacy
Learn the site you built — good and bad!
Get to know your customers and their needs.
◦ Respect privacy!
Focus on the most serious problems.
After you fix them, measure progress made.
Build a better website — and improve your
relationships with your customers.
Cliff Tyllick
Usability Assessment Specialist
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
512-239-4516
ctyllick [at] tceq.state.tx.us