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In my last three
columns, I described some key roles necessary for a successful
landing page optimization
program: the product manager, Webmaster and graphic designer, and
copywriter, marketing manager and user experience.
Today, we'll look at the final three roles: the programmer,
system administrator, and quality assurance tester.
Programmer
Programmers are responsible for the
functional aspects of your Web site.
Skills and Training
The background of programmers is diverse. There are few
acknowledged accreditations in the industry. Many excellent
programmers are self-taught.
The speed of technological changes requires programmers to become
lifelong learners or face the prospect of skill obsolescence. Some
programmers are focused on the presentation of information to the
end user and are adept at scripting languages that make up the
front end (i.e., the visual portion of the software application
with which the visitor interacts).
Others concentrate on the representation, storage, and
manipulation of the underlying data that make up the back end
(i.e., databases and algorithms).
Specific Overlap
Any functional changes to your landing page or Web site may
potentially require programming support:
- Mouse rollover behavior.
- Reconfiguration of form elements based on visitor actions.
- Capturing additional information (changes to the database).
- Business rules and logic.
- Changes in the flow through your pages.
- Reorganization of the area where you collect data (and the
order in which you collect it).
- Processing any new Web-based forms.
Common Issues
Programmers tend to be poor user interface designers, graphics
designers, and copywriters. They think only in functional terms. If
a certain capability is technically possible, they usually won't try
to optimize or improve the user experience.
Landing page changes touched by programmers are often very
unappealing to your visitors (with the consequence of lower
conversion rates). So you must be specific in your quality control
and testing about the details surrounding any changes that the
programmers make. This includes background colors, fonts and font
sizes, form field order and layout, text labels, and error messages.
The best way to deal with this problem: have detailed
specifications for the required functional changes. Include
screenshot mock-ups of the proposed designs. Also, spend time
sensitizing the programmers to the subtleties of good design and
emphasizing its importance.
On the other hand, programmers are often very receptive to
empirical real-world data. If you can show them that a design option
actually performs better than an alternative, they will likely be
enthusiastic about finding more options like the successful one.
System Administrator
Your system administrators keep your server
network running and operational. They're responsible for Internet
connectivity, Web server load and demand, keeping software up to
date, data backup, and computer security.
Skills and Training
System administrators usually come from technical backgrounds.
They're often detail-oriented and keep track of a large number of
operational details and procedures related to their job duties.
Specific Overlap
System administrators will be involved in the following ways in
your test:
- Moving from the staging to the live environment.
- Rerouting traffic for the test.
- Reviewing the proposed testing technology and implementation
requirements.
- Certifying that personal or private customer data isn't
disclosed during testing.
- Ensuring that network security isn't compromised by the
testing.
- Assuring that server loads and Web page loading times aren't
significantly affected by the test.
Common Issues
Choosing a particular tuning technology or testing company
partner involves technical elements, so system administrators will
typically want to get involved. They will vet the underlying
technology and project implementation procedures in a lot of detail
to understand the impact that it will have on their domain. In some
cases, they have veto power over choosing certain kinds of tuning
technology approaches.
Part of the system administrator's concern has to do with control
over the hosting and presentation of the alternative tuning elements
during the test. Some testing technologies rely on outside hosting
of site elements on the Web servers of the testing company.
This is often strongly resisted by system administrators, because
they can't guarantee the security or response times of another
company's Web servers. Other technical approaches allow all new
content for the test to reside within the technical environment of
the landing page. Alternative tuning elements are also hosted on the
company's Web servers. This is much more likely to put the system
administrator's mind at ease.
Other concerns of system administrators center on security and
data integrity. They want to make sure that your testing method
doesn't introduce any new vulnerability. This includes inadvertent
disclosure of private customer data (such as e-commerce credit card
information or personal contact information).
These issues are usually easily addressed if you review the
proposed technical approach in detail with system administrators, or
arrange for them to talk directly with the technical staff of the
proposed testing technology company that you're considering using.
Quality Assurance Tester
The quality assurance (QA) tester ensures
that all proposed changes to your Web site function properly before
being released as part of your live site.
Skills and Training
Most QA positions aren't full-time. Typically, they're project
based (e.g., parts of a complete Web site redesign process).
Consequently, QA staffs have a variety of backgrounds and may spend
the majority of their time in other roles, such as Webmaster,
graphics designer, copywriter, or marketing assistant.
Specific Overlap
QA should always be involved in the tuning process after the test
plan has been implemented (and before the changes are moved to your
live site prior to the commencement of data collection). Once
problems are uncovered, they're sent back to the implementation team
for rework.
Common Issues
It's important that the person assigned to perform QA isn't the
same person who oversaw the implementation of the test. Otherwise,
there's a clear conflict of interest and a tendency to shortchange
the QA testing process.
Your landing page optimization should be based on a formal
written test plan document that defines the specific elements and
values to be tested. As soon as the test plan is completed, you
should independently create a QA plan to go with it.
The QA plan should note all important design and technical
constraints for the proposed test. The QA tester should use this
plan to make sure that all variable values are independently tested
and that all key combinations of variables are also considered.
QA testers are supposed to be detail-oriented. This is a
requirement for the role. However, some people take things a bit too
far. They refuse to sign off on any deviations from the original
test plan that are even a little bit out of compliance.
At this point, you must often make a judgment call about whether
the discrepancies are likely to significantly affect the outcome of
the test. You may have to overrule the QA tester and accept the
state of the implementation.
Summary
Not all landing page tests will require the full cast of
characters I've discussed in these four columns. Depending on the
scope of your test and the size of your company you may be able to
start small and build on your initial successes. As you involve more
people, you just need to think about their training, motivations,
and concerns. I wish you good luck and higher conversion rates!
- Tim Ash, Search Engine Watch
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