There are a number of ways to learn about your site's audiences. Many of them are expensive and time consuming - focus groups, interviews, and personas for example. Here are three relatively cheap and easy ways you can learn more about your audiences.

Utilize Your Site Statistics

Earlier this year, the University of Baltimore (UB) conducted usability testing on Drupal's admin interface with web developers already familiar with other CMS in the same space, but with no prior Drupal experience.

I attended the latest IxDA DC event and listened to Todd Zaki Warfel present his InterVu research framework.

In May, Forum One's Web Executive Seminar entitled "Putting Online Audiences First, Again and Again" focused on the application of user-centric techniques to capture audiences' perspective throughout the lifecycle of a redesign. One of the speakers, Kira Marchenese, gave an enlighting presentation on various approaches to usability testing.

On Thursday, May 8th at the Press Club in downtown D.C., a handful of organizations will discuss how they approached user-centered design tactics during their redesign efforts. Hosted by Forum One, the distinguished panel includes:

I've been hearing people misuse a common UCD term, saying User Testing when they mean Usability Testing. Semantics, you say? Not so.

In 2003, Jakob Nielsen reported that, on average, a usability redesign could increase desired metrics by 135% (based on a study of 42 site redesigns). Fast forward to 2008, Jakob reports in a similar study that gains have dropped to 83%. Why? Usability has become a standard online, making the possible impact smaller than 5 years ago. And it seems that usability budgets have not increased.

I recently participated in a UIE webinar on personas. The presenter was Steve Mulder, consultant for Molecular, and author of The User is Always Right. Here are some of my take-aways.

DEFINING A persona is: