Live site reviews are popular sessions in conferences and webinars, but are they actually all that useful?
In a site review, an expert takes a quick look at a site and makes recommendations on the fly as to how he would improve the site. I am just doubtful that you can make any valid recommendations without knowing at least a little bit about the business behind the site. This is not a criticism of the site reviewer, but rather of the site review process itself.
Even though it may be an expert opinion, it's still only one opinion from one person. This person will be shaped by his unique world view and past experiences and will have all sorts of hidden biases. For this reason I would take the combined behavior of thousands of actual website visitors over the opinion of one person any time. Put differently, I would trust web analytics data more than anecdotal evidence. I am also doubtful that you can easily apply the recommendations of the reviewed site to your own site.
I think the best outcome for a site review session, outside of the entertainment value, is that it gets you to think about your own site. And the starting point should be to delve in web analytics.
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Michael,
I agree. Without knowing something about the business and who their customers are, it can be dangerous to make sweeping recommendations. There are some basic usability rules that do apply. (for example, if the call to action is not obvious). But beyond that, I’d be cautious.
I think you hit the nail on the head with this observation: “This person will be shaped by his unique world view and past experiences and will have all sorts of hidden biases.” SO true. The further away you are from the target audience, the harder you’ll have to work to overcome your own biases to understand theirs.
How many times have we seen tests where our “gut” was completely wrong?
Loving your blog. Great information.