Normal Modes specializes in website usability reviews. We identify opportunities to increase revenues, cut costs, and generate goodwill with customers — even in this difficult economic environment. Our goal is to make the experience of interacting with your website enjoyable for the customer so that you can accomplish your business objectives. Everyone wins.

We offer three levels of progressively rigorous website usability reviews:

• Level 1: Eye Tracking Heatmap & UX Review
• Level 2: Usability Audit
• Level 3: Comprehensive Usability & UX Review

Level 1: Eye Tracking Heatmap & UX Review

An Eye Tracking Heatmap & UX Review includes:

• Simulated Eye Tracking Heatmap of the homepage, and
• High Level UX Review.

Eye tracking heatmaps are an objective way to understand what people focus on at your website. Because these maps require interpretation, we pair eye tracking heatmaps with a high level user experience (UX) review of the site including an analysis of the site's strengths and weaknesses.

Level 1 UX Review Components

• Heatmap
• Heatmap data analysis
• Initial impressions of the website
• What we like
• What confuses us
• Conclusion & suggestions

This is a short report that generally takes 2-3 days to produce.

Level 2: Usability Audit

Usability Audits include:

• Simulated Eye Tracking Heatmap of the homepage,
• High Level UX Review, and
• Usability Audit.

Using 80 best practices from our Website Usability Checklist, we assign a priority and severity rating to your website's performace - a simple performance metric that everyone in your organization can understand.

The graded usability audit is a thorough, high level audit of your website. This assessment generally takes 1 week to produce.

UX Review Components

• Heatmap
• Heatmap data discussion
• Initial impressions of the website
• What we like
• What confuses us
• Conclusion & suggestions
• 80+ point usability audit, with grade (Are you an A+ website?)

Level 3: Comprehensive Usability & UX Reviews

Comprehensive Usability Audits include:

• Simulated Eye Tracking Heatmap of the homepage,
• High Level UX Review,
• Usability Audit,
• Detailed findings about specific issues in your website,
• Suggested enhancements, and
• May also include, as necessary, design patterns, competitive analysis, information architecture reorganizations, and wireframes. (Extensive work beyond the scope of the evaluation may carry an additional charge. Additional charges require client pre-approval.)

Our comprehensive reviews include an analysis of how your business objectives integrate with a good user experience. Heuristic evaluations are an inexpensive tool for discovering problems that will likely be encountered by a user.

In addition, we will frequently include competitive analyses and design patterns in reviews. Competitive analysis helps identify minimum user expectations, and design patterns are a useful approach to tackling recurring UI challenges.

Normal Modes Comprehensive Usability Audits contain detailed information that is relevant and actionable now. This is a long report, generally 40-70 pages, and takes about 3-4 weeks to produce.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should you hire Normal Modes?

The principal of our company has over 13 years of professional web experience, including work with high profile, Fortune 500 e-commerce websites. We have practical, boots-on-the-ground experience with what works and what doesn’t. We’re skeptical of fads and meta activities that produce little measurable value. Our team members are pragmatic by nature, and we have a healthy appreciation for both what’s possible and what’s probable.

Because we genuinely enjoy what we do, we’re detailed and thorough. But Normal Modes doesn’t just analyze and criticize — we provide detailed recommendations to resolve your user experience problems.

What can I expect from a report?

Usability reviews typically focus on a few key areas based on a specific scenario or task.

Our reports include a basic expert review (referred to as a “heuristic evaluation”) and suggested user experience enhancements. We also include, when necessary, reviews of the information architecture, high level process flows, competitive analyses, and paper prototypes.

Reports include detailed descriptions of the findings along with demonstrative visuals and a suggested priority ranking.

For an additional fee, we can also present UI design mock ups, information architecture reorganizations, and wireframes. Interested in usability testing? Let’s talk about the methods that would work best to meet your business goals.

Do you have a complete report sample?

A sample report is available - check out the Charles Schwab Mortgage Services Usability Review.