[Sigia-l] testing content for websites

[katherine lumb]

A colleague of mine who works in pharma is trying to figure out how to
extensively test content for a website. Essentially, he's looking for a way
to evaluate reading comprehension in the loose context of a website. Any
thoughts?

See a more detailed description of his task below.

Thanks,

K

"We are developing an unbranded website for a drug that will affect several
areas, including weight loss, smoking, diabetes, cardio health, etc (you may
have heard of metabolic syndrome before, which is related to this).

We've had to distill heavy medical journal content into consumer friendly
language.  Even so, the content comprehension and linking between the
different medical areas mentioned is still difficult, and we need to make
sure consumers understand ' the interconnection' between the various areas. 
A lot of this is based on new research.  Our client wants to test the
content with consumers.

This is not site usability - site won't be built in time, but I think it
should still be tested within context of a website, if possible. We're
schedule to test in mid-October.

Katherine previously mentioned doing a card sort to see if content groupings
and nomenclature are on target.  This is a good idea, and I think it would
be the first step.  We also need to test excerpts of content.

Looking for ideas on how we could go about this -- a "focus type group"
reading the content on paper;  one-on-ones examining the content, etc.  We
could treat this the way the general adv. team tests content and hire one of
their moderator facilities, but would still like this somehow in context of
a website.

Any, and all, ideas or thoughts, recommendations appreciated."

Katherine K. Lumb
Creative Experience Director
Publicis Dialog
212/279-5281
katherine.lumb at publicis-usa.com