DRTV Derailers is a monthly series on Internet-age issues that can turn a promising DRTV campaign into a train wreck.

There is a great temptation to put as much information on your website as possible and include links to all kinds of resources. Remember: Every single link you include increases the chance that consumers will be distracted from buying.

We touched on this earlier in Part 1, but we feel that because this is such an important area, we’ll go into much greater detail here. Today, while this topic is fresh in your mind, take a good look at your site. Make a list of all clickable links, which includes links to pages within your site as well as external links. We’ve observed that many DRTV product sites include these kinds of links:

• About company
• Message boards
• Product detail
• Newsletters
• Live chat
• My account
• Terms of use
• Warranty/Guarantee
• Product use instructions
• Offer details
• Site map
• Customer service
• FAQs
• Social networking logos/links
• Testimonials
• Before/After video/photographs
• Press & Reviews
• Blog
• Register product
• Membership club information
• Parts & Accessories

We’ve underlined the links that we think — in most cases — are necessary for conversion success. All the others can be explained in graphics and copy on the main landing page or don’t belong on a site designed to sell.

Bridge Over Disaster

This is an easy issue to resolve. Prepare to cut out all links that don’t directly aid the conversion process.

If you do a great job designing the landing page and a few other pages on the site, you won’t need these extraneous links that do not aid the sales process and only serve to distract potential customers.

You can ask your IT people to provide you with a report of the pages that are visited on your current site. Knowing where people go on your site will give you clues as to which pages are important and which are not.

The post DRTV Derailer #6: Too Many Distractions appeared first on The Agency Post.

DRTV Derailers is a monthly series on Internet-age issues that can turn a promising DRTV campaign into a train wreck.

The only way to get the truest picture of how your DRTV campaign is performing is by combining orders received in the mail, by phone, via direct URL to your website and through the search channel.

We’ve done a lot of work in the area tracking DRTV-to-online, and we understand the importance of doing so. Based on years of observing what other DRTV marketers are doing, here is our estimate of the percentage of DRTV marketers who track each response mechanism accurately and effectively:

• Mail orders – 100%
• Phone orders – 100%
• Direct web URL – 5%
• DRTV-driven search – 0%

This is not a typo. Almost every DRTV advertiser (except our clients) are not able to successfully track orders that arrive at their websites through either direct URL or via search. In fact, we believe that most DRTV advertisers:

• Don’t think it’s necessary to track online orders.
• Think it’s OK to assign online orders based on phone order patterns.
• Have no clue about the importance of tracking web orders.

Even more importantly, we believe that DRTV advertisers are actually cancelling profitable DRTV spots and infomercials. That’s right! When the TV media buyers read the results and can’t account accurately for online orders, they may wrongly conclude that any given media placement is not working.

Here is a graphic representation of the results of one of our clients based on how online orders were tracked.

This chart shows results from DRTV media placed on 10 stations/networks (ATV to JTV). The target ad allowable in all cases was $30.

• Case I: Looking only at orders coming via phone, nine of the 10 spots were losers (red boxes).
• Case II: By including web orders evenly distributed across all 10 placements, six of the 10 were winners.
• Case III: By assigning web orders based on media spend, five of 10 were profitable.
• Case IV: By allocating web orders based on orders received by phone, six placements worked.
• Case V: By tracking and allocating web orders using our tracking system, seven of the 10 placements were indeed profitable.

What’s even more revealing is the net effective cost per order. Looking at column “DTV,” the CPO numbers for the five cases are $38, $13, $21, $11 and $16 respectively. That’s a very wide range, and it’s important to determine which of the five cases is the most realistic.

Case I is the worst scenario in terms of accuracy. No credit is given for web orders.

Cases II, III and IV are all arbitrary ways of allocating web orders, none of which is consistently accurate.

Case V is the most accurate method we know of because it tracks orders using a specially modified URL and makes an intelligent estimate for search channel orders.

Bridge Over Disaster

To resolve tracking issues successfully, you need to work with media buyers, search people and your IT professionals to develop the right tracking model.

The key to the best possible tracking program is to have both media buying and search handled by the same agency, or handle both in-house. It is essential to craft a program that has input from media, IT and search people.

The post DRTV Derailer #5: Lack of Accurate Tracking appeared first on The Agency Post.

DRTV Derailers is a monthly series on Internet-age issues that can turn a promising DRTV campaign into a train wreck.

Imagine visiting a website after seeing an ad, only to find the price is higher and/or the offer is different. Most consumers will think twice about buying when there is such a major disconnect.

With this issue, the notion of “bait and switch” comes to mind. These days, online consumers are very savvy, and they can easily leave your website for greener pastures when they smell something that’s inconsistent. It’s human nature to become cynical when the infomercial says one thing and the site says another, especially if it results in more money coming out of the consumer’s pocket.

There are only two reasons why the price, offer and/or other details would not be the same on the site as they are in the commercial:

• You’ve done that on purpose.
• It’s an accidental oversight.

Because consumers have the ability to compare products, prices and offers quickly and easily with a wide range of online tools, it’s pretty risky to deliberately have a different offer in the commercial than what is online, especially if there’s no good reason. You risk turning off hundreds or even thousands of consumers — all of whom could post negative comments about their experiences. Why have an online price that’s higher unless the offer is different and has greater value, and you’ve specified that in the copy?

Bridge Over Disaster

This is an easy one: set up a process to ensure that all details of your online offer match those in your DRTV commercial.

Get your site design people to communicate with the scriptwriters and production people so that there are no inconsistencies.

If there is a difference due to testing different offers and price points, for example, the ideal scenario is to make a copy of your website for each offer/price test, and change that information accordingly. If you do that, make sure the URL in the infomercial goes to the correct landing page.

We advise not using “suffix” web URLs such as “www.domain.com/TV/32″ because most consumers do not type in what comes after the “.com,” and if they make a typo, the consumer will see a “page not found error.”

An easy way to test different offers is by using “prefix” URLs, such as:

• Buy.Domain.com
• Get.Domain.com
• Try.Domain.com

The “Buy” URL goes to one landing page, while the “Get” and “Try” domains go to other pages. Therefore, each offer/price is consistent both in the commercial and online.

The post DRTV Derailer #3: Information Inconsistency appeared first on The Agency Post.

As many as 75 percent of your customers start the shopping cart process and abandon it before completion. Learn why this happens and what to do about it.

Imagine if 7 out of 10 phone calls into your call center where a consumer started to place an order disappeared. Alarm bells would be going off, and you’d examine every aspect of the script, the call center and everything that could impact inbound phone orders.

Well, the same thing is happening on your site as you read this. 70 percent of the consumers coming to your site who start the buying process drop off for some reason. According to Forrester Research, the top five reasons for online shopping cart abandonment are:

• Shipping and handling costs too high
• Consumer not ready to purchase
• Consumer wanted to compare prices on other sites
• Product price was higher than consumer was willing to pay
• Wanted to save product in cart for later evaluation

Abandonment and retargeting company SeeWhy categorizes these reasons into two primary drivers of abandonment: price and timing. Either the total cost is too high and/or the consumer is not yet ready to buy.

You also need to know that 47 percent of online buyers are unwilling to finalize a purchase unless some sort of promotion is offered. This ties back to the offer, which we’ll discuss in the next section.

Another fact is that men and women shop differently, so if your target audience is one or the other, you need to understand those differences. Part of the thought process to reduce abandonment is to understand the importance of email retargeting, the role of after-the-fact offers and promotions, and that, in fact, spending time and effort to reach out to abandoners is not a waste of time and money.

Bridge Over Disaster

The time and effort you put into understanding abandonment and addressing it is time well spent.

Make reducing shopping cart abandonment a major priority and commit to addressing it in the next 30 days. Top management needs to be involved because some of the decisions will possibly require changes to the TV spot or show, such as offering free or reduced-cost shipping. Here are the key top-level points about abandonment that serve as a good starting point:

• For many consumers, abandonment — returning and buying on the second or third visit — is a normal part of the purchase cycle.
• Make sure you have a permanent shopping cart, giving consumers the ability to save the potential purchase so that they can come back later.
• Embrace the use of email to retarget consumers whose email addresses you’ve captured.
• Make email address capture a top priority so that you can send retargeting messages, including special offers, at specific intervals.
• Provide additional reasons to buy and special offers to entice consumers to come back to complete their purchases.
• Understand that men are more likely to compare prices and less likely to abandon, and women who take longer to buy are more sensitive to shipping costs and more likely to save carts for later.
• Recognize that new buyers — those who have never purchased from you before — will often take more nurturing than those familiar with your brand and products.
• Understand the value of timing in your retargeting program, and be prepared to develop an email retargeting program (either in-house or with a vendor such as SeeWhy) that leverages timing to generate the best response to retargeting messages.
• Understand that there is a strong relationship between the monetary value of the cart and the abandonment rate. Typically, higher value shopping carts are abandoned more frequently, but there are exceptions that you need to know:
• Low value carts have high abandonment rates
• Carts at critical price points have very high abandonment rates
• Individual products can have very different abandonment rates
• Learn the value of retargeting in real time, which generally means immediately following the abandonment. The real-time remarketing campaigns generated 105 percent more revenue than the same email sent 24 hours after the abandonment, according to SeeWhy.
• Well-known brands have an advantage. Consumers are more comfortable buying from well-known and well-respected brands, and this aids retargeting.

The good news is that 8 percent of abandoners will return to buy without any form of remarketing. The better news is that an additional 18 percent will come back to buy after receiving email retargeting messages. That’s a whopping 26 percent conversion of abandoners — a very meaningful number.

The post DRTV Derailer #2: Online Shopping Cart appeared first on The Agency Post.

DRTV Derailers is a monthly series on Internet-age issues that can turn a promising DRTV campaign into a train wreck.

Back in the day pre-Internet, producing a winning DRTV campaign was so much easier than it is today. Orders came in by unique 800 numbers and in envelopes with checks. Media was cheap, and consumers had plenty of money to spend.

But then the Internet came along. Web sites. Shopping carts. Search engine marketing. Banner ads. Social networks. And suddenly, making DRTV work became more complex, more difficult and more costly.

With media costs steadily increasing and a consumer-centric environment developing, DRTV marketers now face the need for online ordering and tracking, building web sites and landing pages and learning how to use paid search to their advantage.

Website and Landing Pages

50 percent, 75 percent or even 100 percent of your orders can take place online. You can’t afford to lose orders to competitors who are more nimble than you are.

After reviewing hundreds of landing pages, websites and microsites for DRTV products over the years, I’ve concluded that there’s nothing as important as having a well-designed site that converts. I’ve seen too many sites that:

• Look nothing like the short-form or infomercial
• Have poor navigation
• Have a lot of useless information
• Present the consumer with numerous links that are not necessary
• Don’t have the ability to play the original short-form or show
• Testimonials are missing or not prominently displayed
• Bury the offer instead of making it prominent
• Don’t have a graphic call-to-action
• Use the word “submit” in a button instead of a more descriptive call to action
• Have inconsistent information, such as a different price or offer than is featured in the commercial
• Have a poorly designed shopping cart

These basic errors lead me to conclude that site design is often treated as an afterthought instead of a component deserving the same kind of attention that goes into the production of the commercial.

To see why this is so important, do the math. Shopping cart abandonment — when online customers get into the cart and then leave — accounts for 70 percent or more of lost customers. Add in bad site design and other common errors, and you could be losing 90 percent of consumers who you’ve spent cold cash on to get to your site in the first place.

You should be able to get stats from your webmaster or IT people and determine how many consumers arrive at your site on a monthly basis. Imagine that 90 percent of them leave without purchasing. Imagine if you could prevent just 10 percent of them from leaving — wouldn’t that add significant dollars to your bottom line?

Bridge Over Disaster

Put as much effort into the site as you do for production and media planning.

In the same way you create a marketing blueprint and/or a creative brief to design your infomercial, follow a similar best practices process for creating your website or landing page. Spend time reviewing dozens of landing pages for successful DRTV products, just as I have. You’ll see some well-designed sites that you can emulate. Benchmark traffic and conversion rates for your current site so you can see how a revised site will enhance conversion.

Specifically, here are some suggestions based on the list of common errors presented on the previous page:

• Your site should have the same look and feel as your commercial (with similar graphics) so that consumers will know they are on the right site.
• You don’t need much navigation. We pioneered microsites in 1996 and found that having the entire site on one to five pages is all you need. I’ve seen numerous sites where the complete site is just one page, including all the order information and form. In this case, less is more.
• Look at every piece of text and graphic on your site, and ask yourself, “Is this really necessary? Is it converting window shoppers?” You only need to present information that aids in the conversion process.
• Remove all links that don’t contribute to the conversion process. You don’t need to provide “resources” that will distract the consumer from doing the one thing that you want them to do: buy.
• You MUST have the ability to play the original spot or long-form — either automatically when the page loads or clickable by the consumer. There are numerous reasons for doing this: the consumer only saw a small percentage of the show, he/she wants to show it to a family member, they want to see a specific part again and so forth.
• In the same way that authentic testimonials are the backbone of your short- or long-form, they need to be present on your site. You can put three to five of the best ones on the initial landing page, and then give visitors the ability to see more on a secondary page. Same with positive press you’ve received — awards, endorsements and other “warm and fuzzy” third-party comments.
• You’ve taken the time and effort to create a compelling offer, so make sure it’s prominent on your site. Don’t bury it. We all know how important the offer is from decades in the DRTV business, so don’t relegate it to an unimportant position on your site.
• Your call-to-action should be a bold and prominent button. It should be repeated at least two times; place one of them above the fold.
• Don’t use the word “submit” as your CTA graphic. It’s a techie term that means nothing to most people. It’s easy to come up with something much better, such as “Send it to me today!” or “Buy Now” or “Click for Free Shipping.” You get the point.
• Make sure you have several people proof your website, comparing it against information in the commercial. You can’t afford to lose customers because of a different price, different offer or missing/incomplete information.
• Make sure your shopping cart is simple — having as few steps as possible — and addresses the common reasons for abandonment.

The post DRTV Derailer #1: Website/Landing Pages appeared first on The Agency Post.

So here are my six steps to breaking the UX barrier:

1. Gain some hands-on experience.

This is not the catch-22 that it may seem. There are plenty of freelance and pro-bono projects out there that you can take on with only knowledge and theory of UX and little to no experience. At the very least, create your own project, be your own UX designer and go through the whole process from ideation to design implementation. Gain experience in identifying a user experience problem and coming up with an effective design solution using the tools of a UX professional. It doesn’t matter what the project is. Just make sure that you’ve got two or three projects for your portfolio.

2. Speaking of portfolio…

Your portfolio will be the biggest determinant of whether you get a phone interview or not. You’d be surprised at how many UX designers have portfolios that are difficult to navigate and understand! In your portfolio, make sure you not only show the final outcome, but also the sketches, flows and wireframes that you created to arrive at that outcome. This shows the hiring manager that you’re capable of creating the basic UX deliverables of personas, user flows, user experience maps, wireframes and mockups.

3. Gain proficiency creating the basic UX deliverables.

If you aren’t familiar with the items listed above, you need to become intimate with them fast and be able to create them with little or no direction. It’s all about practice. The more you create, the better you’ll get and the more confident you’ll be with your skills.

4. Know current user experience industry trends and hot topics.

Read up on the many UX blogs and sites out there. My favorite ones are UX Magazine, IXDA, User Interface Engineering and UX Booth. You should also read some books. I’ve pinned some recommended books here. If you have the budget, I highly recommend attending one of the big conferences such as IA Summit, User Interface Summit or UX Week. These are great because not only will you learn the latest studies and research, but you’ll also get a feel for the industry and network with a lot of great designers.

5. Network and join the community!

Learn by mingling with fellow UX designers. There are a lot of UX meetups around the country that you can join to meet other UX designers. You’ll learn just by talking to one of us — and trust me, we like to talk about our work. Networking is key. People like to hire people they know. You may just meet your next teammate at one of these events.

6. Show that you can think critically and communicate well.

If the portfolio is what gets you the phone interview, showing your critical thinking and communication skills is what gets you the job. Be able to articulate the thought process behind the design decisions you made. Communicate the problem you were trying to solve, the different ideas you explored and the final solution you came up with. UX work is about critical thinking. It also involves facilitating UX processes within a team, communicating with different groups and selling ideas. It can be a high-exposure role. You have to show that you are capable.

If you have the six items above, you can be just as good as any UX designer out of design school. I’m not saying that it’s easy or quick. Working on a project as a UX designer — even if it’s on your own — takes time and quite a bit of effort if done right. But if you’re serious about becoming a UX designer and don’t want to spend two years and $200,000 for a design degree, then it’s absolutely worth it. It’s great being a UX designer right now, and I can only see it getting better.

The post So You Want to Become a UX Designer? (Without Spending Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars On a Degree) appeared first on The Agency Post.

Year award. It’s showing up as a line item on RFPs and continually being hailed as “the only way” by bloggers and marketers. It also makes people drool, seriously. Just open up Starbucks.com in a presentation and start resizing the browser. You’re sure to hear ooh’s and aah’s and at least one “how do I get one of those?”

Don’t get me wrong: RWD is awesome. A Pew Internet report shows that 28 percent of Americans are using a mobile device as their primary way of accessing the web. RWD helps solve the problem of duplicate content, doubles the support and helps create a consistent experience for visitors across a variety of devices. However, I’m finding both clients and agencies are jumping to conclusions and not considering some key elements when planning a website project.

Big brands like Starbucks, Jack Daniels, Dairy Queen and Qdoba have adopted an RWD approach and that naturally means more and more clients will be asking for it. Instead of reacting, be prepared to lead your client in the discussion, explain the challenges and identify the solutions. Here are a few things you should definitely consider:

1. Budget

RWD costs more. The cost of a web development project is impacted by many factors including project planning, the number of design layouts, content and the total hours required. All of these increase in a RWD project. While there are many variables to consider, it may require two to three times the number of hours to complete a project.

On the flipside, the client will be developing and managing one website. The long-term value can be huge. Each of these considerations requires additional explanation to the client, and budget will be a huge part of that conversation.

2. Timeline

In most cases, RWD takes longer. As documented in a few early case studies, (here and here) the process tends to include a few additional steps. Prepare for a nice chunk of additional up-front planning, client involvement and adjustments to the typical linear process. You’ll also want to consider adjusting your development methodology, which can deeply impact your business. Many digital experts are recommending an agile approach over the waterfall method when it comes to RWD.

Regardless, you’re going to need to experiment. In a world of never-ending tight deadlines, this isn’t always possible or easy to explain to clients.

3. Content Planning

All too often content is handled with a “we’ll worry about that later” mentality. RWD is different. Be prepared to be planning for content at the very beginning of the project and for it to be a non-stop topic. This includes planning to deliver what is necessary at the right stages, navigation structure and images.

Many agencies have gotten used to creating content based on the design. With RWD the design will be driven by content, making the early development of that content very important.

4. Infrastructure Requirements

There are many infrastructure challenges that you’ll need to deal with. Images will be no doubt be one that needs to be addressed as resizing a desktop image to fit a mobile screen requires downloading the larger image first. Resizing these images forces CPU and memory, impacting load time and creating server load concerns. There are an increasing amount of development resources to help with this problem. A few good places to start: Adaptive Images by Matt Wilcox, Using SVG graphics today by Josh Emerson and Resolution independence with SVG by David Bushell.

5. Testing

If you’re used to testing in the final stages of the process, you will want to plan on adjustments to your process. RWD requires testing along the way (aka Agile) on multiple screen sizes and browsers. This will not only require a change in your process, but additional time for testing. Also, the ability to test on multiple devices can be challenging. While there are many resources coming out to help with this, none are as effective as testing on a suite of devices. As you can guess, this can be expensive to maintain as these devices are constantly evolving.

Regardless of the challenges, RWD is something you should be considering and planning for. What other benefits and challenges do you see with adopting a RWD approach?

The post 5 Things You’re Forgetting About Responsive Web Design appeared first on The Agency Post.

Some argue that web properties should be built with separate desktop and mobile-optimized versions of the site. While there can be the option to offer more customized content to mobile viewers this way, there are plenty of drawbacks, such as the maintenance of multiple sites and the possibility that a mobile device could be directed to a desktop web page, resulting in a poor user experience. The purpose of responsive design is to provide a positive user experience that builds customer loyalty and conversions without having to maintain multiple sites.

At the core of responsive design is user experience, the experience of all existing and potential customers. A website is often the first entry point or introduction to a new business or product for potential customers. If they arrive at a site — using a mobile device — that isn’t responsive, the site may display in such a way that requires users to scroll and zoom to view a page or may not function as intended. Let’s say, for example, that I’m walking down the street and want to call a particular business and ask a question, but when I go to the site, there is no click-to-call option. This leaves me with the options of either memorizing the number while I switch gears into phone mode or scrounging up a pen and paper. Both are inconvenient and less than optimal for a mobile web experience. Overlapping copy, pull-down menus that don’t function and links that are broken are the fastest ways to send a consumer to a competitor’s site — all while diminishing the credibility of the business.

A couple of years ago, there was an article geared toward artists creating websites that contained some very sound advice applicable to everyone creating a website. Photojournalist and web design instructor Richard Koci Hernandez suggested that when creating a website, navigation should be simple enough that your mother or grandmother could use it. The point being that a website and the entire experience should be created with actual users in mind — not designers or developers. The design should be clean, the sitemap easy to navigate and the site should be responsive on multiple devices and browsers. This should be kept in mind during the design phase when making decisions regarding widgets, hovers and other features that behave differently under cursors and touch screens. By creating a design with these variables in mind, complications can be avoided. Additionally, search engines prefer a single source of content. By providing only one URL, redirects are not an issue.

At this point, mobile options and users are increasing daily, so there will continue to be an expanding array of platforms. Rather than scrambling to update sites to accommodate constant advancements in display and browsers, responsive design allows us to be prepared now for whatever is coming next. By implementing a responsive design, websites will be more compatible and available to a greater number of users, delivering a positive user experience that will ultimately increase bottom lines for businesses.

The post Responsive Design = Responsible Design appeared first on The Agency Post.

With this in mind, I have compiled a list of “events” for web design featuring some national and international studios that excel in each individual category.

Event: “Studio Naming”

Gold: USA – Duct Tape and Glitter

Silver: England – The Friendly Duck

Bronze: Denmark – Mustache

There are tons of studios with unique names from all around the globe, but based on volume and uniqueness, you have to go with the U.S. Who else would name a company something like “Duct Tape and Glitter”? (Can you imagine saying “I used Duct Tape and Glitter to make my logo”?) The UK is a close second, but Denmark is a strong up-and-comer.

Event: “Scrolling”

Gold: Norway – Unfold

Silver: Argentina – Iutopi

Bronze: Belgium – Appmiral

The scrolling website has been extremely popular in the last two years. And Norway designers seem to have a special eye for this type of movement. Unfold has done something very creative but also something rather simple, which is the definition of sophistication. What puts the Unfold site above the rest is the way the diagonal lines flow — it makes you feel like there is a ton of movement, even though only vertical movement is present.

Event: “Responding”

Gold: Paraguay – Teixido

Silver: Brazil – Cappuccino Digital

Bronze: The Netherlands – Bread and Pepper

Responsive design is and has been the trend for the last couple of years, and it’s wonderful to see a global embrace of this style of design. But the best example of responsive design in terms readability and user-friendliness is Paraguay’s Teixido. It looks just as good small as it does large.

Event: “Illustrating”

Gold: Australia – The Squad

Silver: Spain – Pampaneo

Bronze: Canada – Onst Creative

To me, nothing says creativity more than a great illustration. It adds color and a uniqueness to your site that almost no other element can. Illustration can also add a lightness that can be hard to capture in the current modern minimalist trend sweeping web design. The Squad shows a great way to present your staff front and center.

Event: “Navigation”

Gold: England – Magnetic North M

Silver: Amsterdam – Booreiland

Bronze: Singapore – Manic

One of the best ways to make a web design unique is to play with different ways to navigate the site. Because navigation is a cornerstone to web design, many simply lay out the navigation in the normal horizontal or vertical fashion (not that there is anything wrong with that). The sites above, however, show how creative you can be with functionality. Magnetic North, in particular, has found a way to get the user involved in the process of creating and navigating the site.

The post Creative Olympics: Celebrating Design From Around the Globe appeared first on The Agency Post.

Sin #1. Use a friend or acquaintance’s advice only – Your natural instinct will be to ask around, to see if anyone you know has used a usability or UX consultant in the past. This is smart, but the sin is stopping there, and not getting more information about the prospective consultant. Without doing things like background checks, asking for samples of work, or checking with past clients, you’re taking a big chance.  Make sure you don’t stop at getting a friend or acquaintances’ advice on who to hire.

Sin #2. Don’t check references – A legitimate usability or UX consultant will have references, people they’ve worked with in the past that will attest to their skills. The deadly sin here is not calling each reference and asking them probing questions. Ask questions like: “How were they to work with? Were they prompt? Did they communicate clearly, quickly and efficiently? What were their key strengths, and what were their key weaknesses? Would you hire them again? How effective was their work for you?” Probing each reference is a great way to learn whether you have a usability or UX pro, or a UX pretender.

Sin #3. Don’t bother testing the consultant – By testing I mean asking for recommendations on how they might go about helping you or your client. At this early stage they won’t be able to come up with specifics for strategy and tactics (if they do, run!). They don’t have enough information yet to solve the issues or create the tactics in your early calls, but they should be able to talk about how they can use their overall methodology or approach to create a strategy and tactics that will work for you. You test them by asking for similar projects they may have worked with in the past. You further test them by asking about their approach to usability and UX. Can they talk about it in such a way that you understand the basics of what they do? If yes, great! If no, move on!

Sin #4. Never check Industry sources – A true expert in usability or UX will have a history of expertise evident across the web and across the industry. Do they blog about it? Are they a member of a usability or UX group such as the Usability Professionals’ Association, the Interaction Design Association or SIGCHI (Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction)? Experts generally are members of associations or groups that have a direct bearing on their career.  Check to make sure you see that kind of industry participation.

Sin #5. Fail to research the consultant’s education – Anybody can set up a website and call themselves a “usability” or “UX” expert. Unlike accountants, doctors or lawyers, there is no Association or authorized group that vets a practitioner’s knowledge and certifies them. The closest you can come with usability or UX is either a PhD or Masters in the subject, or a Certified Usability Analyst through Human Factors International. Do inspect the prospective consultant’s education and background. You want to make sure that they have acquired their skills either through education or through many long years of practical work.

Sin #6. Hire a low-balling consultant – You can file this one under: “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” If most consultants are working for $100 or $150 an hour or up, and you find one who’s willing to work for $20 an hour — run, don’t walk away from them! The problem with consulting is it’s not like going to Kohl’s and buying a shirt. There’s no such thing in the usability or UX world as a set price for a set amount of work that is standard across all consultants. When I hire, I rarely hire the most expensive consultant, and I never hire the cheapest, I always look for someone in the middle. And when I’m doing freelance consulting, my hourly rate is fair considering my expertise and knowledge —it’s not too high and it’s not too low. Like anything else in this world, you get what you pay for.

Sin #7. Forget to get it in writing – I know what you are thinking: “No duh, of COURSE we get it in writing!” But in fact when dealing with consultants it’s very easy to have scope-creep change the nature of your engagement. A good usability or UX consultant will provide you with a proposal that spells out the nature of the engagement early on. Likewise, the contract and the detailed proposal should clearly explain the nature of the project, including providing information about any potential extra costs, such as going past the estimated hours, adding additional testing or related analysis and other scope-creep variables.  The more detailed the proposal or contact is, the better protected you are, and the better you know you’ve found a good usability or UX consultant. Make sure you get it in writing. It will make your relationship with your consultant go much more smoothly!

Conclusion – So those are the top seven Sins when hiring a UX consultant. For additional information about usability and UX consultants I’ve listed below a few of the better places to obtain information. By making sure you don’t fall into one or more of the seven sins for hiring a consultant you, your consultant and your client will enjoy a much better project, and relationship!

Usability and UX Resources – Here’s a handy list of usability and UX resources you can use to help you when engaging a consultant.

Usability.gov – Excellent material for understanding what usability is, how it works, and what to do.

Usability Professionals’ Association – The UPA is an organization of members who take usability and UX seriously. It’s always a good idea to ask if your usability or UX expert is a member of this Association.

SIGCHI – The Special Interest Group on Human Computer Interaction is a member organization sometimes considered a bit more “technical” in nature than some other organizations.

Interaction Design Association – The Interaction Design Association is a group of members focused on the practice of improving interaction between people and their devices, websites or applications.

Information Architecture Institute – Another non-profit association, this one is devoted toward the information architecture of websites or applications.

UX Magazine – A publishing site focused on all things usability, user experience and the like. If you find a consultant that says he or she reads “UXMag” then that’s a really good sign.

24 Usability Testing Tools – The most popular post from my Useful Usability website that provides information on the various usability and UX tools available. Many of these are tools your expert should be aware of or should use as applicable.

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