Seems like there is an acronym for just about everything these days and I admit that I use them from time to time too. Especially in situations where there’s a need to quickly articulate the underlying concepts of a more complex topic in a memorable way. Over the last five years, I’ve been fortunate to be a regular speaker at many WMW and SES events. I always look forward to the conferences since they allow me to connect with old friends and visit intriguing places.

There are certainly a lot of different topics at these conferences, but I generally participate on sessions related to some form of research and/or analysis of web site behavior and/or marketing performance. As a small research and web site development firm we are often asked to perform pre-site research to formulate designs and navigation, as well as post-site analysis to document performance results.

At search conferences the majority of the attendees seem to be familiar with quantitative measurement such as those provided by web analytic and business intelligence applications, but a lesser number of people have actually conducted qualitative research such as usability testing. I’m ask to present the executive summary on the latter topic and many times I need to recount different cases studies based on audience participation.

To present an overview on the topic and the many different case studies, I devised the acronym GODS FUEL as a memorable way to present the executive summary of web site usability testing. There’s really no religious connotation here, just an easy way to remember several important elements of the process.

This reminded me of my years teaching piano at Washington Park Piano Studio since we used acronyms with the kids to associate a musical staff to the notes on a keyboard. Does anyone remember - Every Good Baby Does Fine or All Cars Eat Gas? It makes you wonder if the mind of an adolescent is actually similar to an executive, but I guess that is beside the point.

So here’s what to remember about GODS FUEL. The first word (GODS) is used before you conduct your analysis and the second word (FUEL) is used after your research is complete. Clearly, the participants of the research should match the profiles of the users that visit your web site.

G is for Goal: Your goal is what you are actually trying to accomplish. The more granular you are the more specific your tactics will become. EXAMPLE: Our Goal is to increase the number of leads coming from our web site.

O is for Overview: Present any background information on your company or division with any relevant strategic research. EXAMPLE: Acme is the 2nd largest real estate firm in Hometown, USA. We specialize in commercial properties and our research has shown that the web is a good way to acquire new leads.

D is for Description: Describe your usability research. EXAMPLE: Standard in-house lab session with 10 participants using a computer connected to the internet. The testing will be conducted in a single day and remote monitoring will be available using WebEx.

S is for Scenario: The collective tasks of the test are considered scenarios. Ask each participant to complete your scenarios, observe and document the results. EXAMPLE: Participants will find the least expensive 5,000 square foot office space near I25 and contact a broker using the web site. Secondarily, users will be asked to create a personal web page and save a property to it.

As you prepare and conduct your usability testing keep in mind the 2nd word of the Acronym (FUEL).

F is for Findings: Focus on several high level findings and aggregate the data into categories if possible. EXAMPLE: 75% of participants were able to find the identified property and contact a broker via eMail in less than 5 minutes. Only one participant thought it would be useful to save the property to a personalized web page customized just for them.

U is for Usability Issues: Document and categorize any usability issues encountered (positive and negative) EXAMPLE: Users had little trouble locating the identified property, however, there were numerous usability issues encountered when asked to register and utilize the personalization functionality.  Many users said they would use immediate broker property chat if it were available on the web page.

E is for Effects on the Goal: By correlating the usability issues encountered during your testing to the goal of your research you can develop a list of action items for web site redesign and/or cost/benefit analysis. EXAMPLE: Participants said that having a personalized web portal would only be valuable if they had already established a relationship with a broker.

L is for Lessons Learned: Sum up the results of your research and identify any action items. EXAMPLE:  This research showed that immediate access to the brokers online would be the most valuable functionality to increase leads from the web site.

The acronym example above can be modified to meet just about any usability research. I can tell you that I’ve found it helpful in discussing the benefits of a variety of different case studies in a conference setting. So now you try it and please let me know if it comes in handy the next time you need to quickly deliver a high-level executive summary of your usability testing.

The easiest way we’ve found to include a video in a WordPress blog post is to use the Anarchy Media Player plugin. Adding videos is straight-forward once you get the plugin installed since it’s integrated right inside the “Write Post” functionality and covers most video formats. We recommend that you use Flash though, it’s pretty easy to encode your footage as FLV these days and Flash seems to be the best format for video delivery on the web, just ask YouTube. Here’s a sample:

denver.flv

Once you’ve uploaded your Flash Video (video.flv) it’s really simple to add it to a blog post because the Anarchy plugin handles the controls and the display. Keep in mind that if you use Flash FLV the size of your videos will remain the same throughout the blog since the resolution is adjusted as a parameter in the plugin’s options. You could use the Flash SWF format to adjust the size, but this adds several levels of complexity to the whole process. Most other formats are available too, but for consistency and easy deployment, Flash FLV is the way to go.

This is the first official post on Viewmark’s NEW blog. We actually started looking and using blogs back in 2004 when blogging was just getting started. Several of us participated in a session at a Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose with the creator of Blogger. I vaguely remember him announcing the Google acquisition.

We were intriqued enough to secure several blogs for Viewmark back then. Recently, we’ve added several new client blogs and are integrating the technology with our tools. Blogs are just one of the many marketing tools our customers are using to communicate with their customers.

As President of Viewmark, I am in charge of the overall vision and direction of the company. I think my first entry on our NEW blog will be to officially announce our commitment to use this channel to discuss, share, and explore relevant news, topics, technology and methods related to using the internet to enhance business.

I find blog integration with RSS feeds particularly interesting. We are now living in an “on-demand” world. Consuming content based on our personal preferences is becoming more and more the norm. News readers and the the many personalized myPages that support XML feeds through RSS and Atom are an eyeopener for sure.

In the late 90s, I was lucky enough to attend an awards ceromony in which Tim Bernes-Lee was discussing his book “Weaving the Web”. In the later chapters of the book, he describes the Semantic Web. Are we now starting to embrace and support his vision? Stay tuned!

I hope you you will sign up to our blog and join in on the discussion.