[Sigia-l] MapSurface

[Jared M. Spool]

At 07:11 AM 3/8/2006, Listera wrote:
><http://www.andybudd.com/archives/2006/02/mapsurface/index.php>
>
>Useful? Usable?

I'll throw in my opinion...

It looks like a nifty analytics tool. Certainly seeing the link report 
mapped out on top of the page adds clarity that isn't afforded by just a 
tabular report of the same information.

However, like all of today's available analytics tools, it really can't be 
too helpful in measuring whether the page or site is usable or not.

As I'm sure you're aware, analytics can only measure what users do. They 
can't measure what users are *trying* to do.

To assess the usability of a page or site, you need to know two things: (1) 
What the user wants to accomplish and (2) whether they accomplished it or 
not. Today's analytics tools can't tell you either of these things, making 
it impossible to use them to assess usability.

For example, in 1996, our observational studies determined that about 1 out 
of every 7 people who try to find a hotel in the Walt Disney World theme 
park at Disney.com accidentally look in they Disneyland theme park without 
realizing it. It's still pretty much that way today. Would MapSurface (or 
any other analytics tool) point out that 14% of users were lost or 
confused? While it's obvious in our studies, it's impossible to determine 
from inspecting the analytic reports.

Tools like this can help support observational data. For example, if we see 
certain behaviors in our studies, we can turn to the analytics to see if 
confirming patterns exist. However, that's tricky since we can't control 
the sampling process. In the Disney example, there's no way to only look at 
the click patterns of people intending to stay in a WDW hotel versus 
everyone else who comes to the site.

Someday, I believe we'll see tools that can help with these problems. We're 
just not there today.

Jared


Jared M. Spool, Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering
4 Lookout Lane, Unit 4d, Middleton, MA 01949
978 777-9123   jspool at uie.com  http://www.uie.com
Blog: http://www.uie.com/brainsparks