I'm in the middle of reviewing some usability testing footage and have been prompted by sheer frustration to writing a quick post about labelling on websites.

Why must we make things so difficult for our users? I can't tell you how many websites I look at that seem to be going out of their way to obfuscate what will happen when the user clicks on a link, button or navigational item. That moment of hesitation could be the trigger that makes your user leave your site for a competitor - and if they do that from your homepage then you've essentially prevented them from seeing what you have to offer.

Today we're running lab-based user testing with our eye-tracking equipment. We have four participants booked to come in this afternoon and to run through a series of tasks comparing different homepage designs. Here's how a day of user testing breaks down.

We all have changes we'd like to make to our favourite websites to improve our experience. And when sites do make a change 9 times out of 10 it is a good thing.

In my experience, Amazon is a great example of a site that makes improvements in increments. It's only when you think "ooh that was easy!" that you stop for a moment and realise they've made a change. This is a good way to update your site: visitors get the comfort and reassurance from a consistent user experience whilst you tweak problem areas. An additional benefit is that small, isolated changes can be more easily tracked to check that they really did make things better. You won't find a site owner that doesn't smile at proof of improved conversion rates or decreased exits.