How Can I Test Whether Customers Find My Website Easy to Use?
Test whether customers can use your website with realistic tasks, neutral observation and a simple issue log that prioritises blocked journeys.
Part of our guide: How to Improve an Existing Business Website: A 12-Month Plan
To test website usability, ask relevant people to complete realistic tasks and observe where they struggle. A general question such as “Do you like the website?” mostly produces opinions about appearance.
The aim is to understand whether someone can find information, make a decision and complete an action without coaching. Keep the session focused and make clear that you are testing the website, not the participant.
Choose tasks that reflect real decisions
For a service business, useful tasks might involve checking suitability, finding an example of similar work and making a harmless test enquiry.
Write a scenario without giving away the navigation label. “You need an office decorated outside working hours; find out whether this business could help” is more revealing than “Click Commercial Decorating”.
The website usability guide provides the broader principles. This exercise tests the journey across pages, not only the homepage.
Recruit people who resemble the audience
Choose participants with relevant needs and a range of familiarity with the subject. Friends who already know the website may unconsciously skip confusing steps.
A small qualitative round can reveal useful problems, but it is not a statistically representative conversion study. Do not turn a handful of observations into a claim about every customer.
Include relevant access needs and devices in the plan. The accessibility guide explains why usability testing and accessibility assessment complement rather than replace each other.
Use a short neutral script
GOV.UK’s moderated usability-testing guidance describes observing participants working through tasks and avoiding leading them.
A practical script for this website might be:
- “We are checking the website, not your ability.”
- “Please use it as you normally would and tell us what you are looking for.”
- Present one realistic task without naming the route.
- If they pause, ask “What are you expecting here?”
- At the end, ask what made the decision easier or harder.
Get permission before recording and explain how the notes will be used. Avoid collecting unnecessary personal information.
Observe without rescuing too quickly
Record wrong turns, unclear wording, missed controls and points where a participant cannot proceed. Separate what happened from your interpretation of why.
If someone is stuck, allow enough time to understand the problem before offering help. Then record the assistance, because the task was not completed independently.
Do not argue with their interpretation or explain how the interface was meant to work. That explanation may reveal exactly what the page failed to communicate.
Keep a severity log
| Observation | Effect on the task | Proposed priority |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiry cannot be submitted | Task blocked | Urgent investigation |
| Service area is difficult to find | Decision delayed or abandoned | High if central to suitability |
| A label causes a short wrong turn | Recoverable confusion | Improve when supported by repeated evidence |
| Decorative preference | No observed task effect | Consider separately |
These examples are illustrative. Prioritise using actual consequences and the business’s context, not merely the loudest comment.
Include the page, task, device, evidence and suggested next test.
Keep tests safe
Use clearly marked test details. Avoid real payments, appointments or customer records unless there is an agreed authorised test process.
If a form is involved, confirm where the message will go and remove test records appropriately afterwards. The form-abandonment guide helps distinguish confusing questions from technical submission faults.
A participant reaching a confirmation screen does not prove the business received the enquiry; check delivery separately.
Fix and re-test the important problems
Start with blocked or misleading journeys. Make a specific change and repeat the relevant task with someone who has not memorised the solution where practical.
If the issue is navigation or page structure, compare one-page and multi-page approaches. If the route fails because a destination is missing, use the broken-link checklist.
Make usability part of ongoing improvement
Add findings to the website improvement plan with owners and dates. Keep observations, decisions and test results together.
You do not need a large research programme to begin learning. A few carefully chosen tasks, neutral observation and a clear repair loop can expose problems that internal opinions and analytics alone leave unexplained.
Thinking about your own rebuild?
Tell us about your business, your current website and what you would like to improve. We will help you work out the next step.
