Categories: Articles

Tara O'Doherty Wants To Know: How Usable Is Your Website?

Many years ago I had the pleasure of speaking at an Internet Marketing Conference after Tara O’Doherty. Tara is the National Director, Usability Group for Fjord Interactive (a division of Cossette) and has two huge skills:
One, Tara is probably one of the best online marketing speakers out there and two, she is an expert at explaining what’s happening online and how to make the experience better.
Tara sits on the e-Marketing Council of the CMA – Canadian Marketing Association (where I am as well), and she recently allowed the CMA to publish a tremendous article and usability checklist entitled, How Usable Is Your Website?
Here’s a sneak peak:
“Back in 2003, Forrester Research conducted an evaluation of 158 Web sites and documented alarming failure rates for various web tasks – from nearly 50 percent to almost 90 percent, for tasks including consistent navigation, page layout, accessibility and guided searches. The sad news is most companies are consistently making the same mistakes they made back in 2003.”
Tara’s article is a must-read. If you build or design websites, there really is no excuse to not have her 2005 Website Usability Checklist within view at all times.
You can view the entire article here: How Usable Is Your Website? By Tara O’Doherty.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.