Ciao Adds to Web Optimisation Partnership

Ciao Surveys has extended its partnership with Yuseo, a specialist in the ergonomics of interactive systems. The firms' e-Performance Observatory solution will now analyse users' experience of e-commerce high-tech web sites in the UK, Germany and France.

The solution offers an assessment based on the actual experience of web surfers, who are tested under real-life conditions of web site use. It uses a proprietary 'WebBehave' tool to record and analyse user behavioural in real-life browsing conditions, and can identify the immediate drivers for the optimisation of existing web sites.

The Observatory assesses web sites according to 10 metrics: quality/reliability, trust/security, product offer, available information, image before, image after, perceived performance, measured performance, usability and loyalty-generating potential. Last September, it was trialled in France to measure the performance of several of the country's major online supermarkets.

For the latest test, more than 3,600 Internet users evaluated 14 high-tech commercial sites. Each participant carried out eight identical online tasks, after which, information about how the participant 'felt' about each site was collected to highlight any differences between what they said and what their behaviour had demonstrated.

Ciao Surveys supplied and managed the respondents participating in the study, which was conducted by Yuseo.

'Regaining the trust of a dissatisfied web site visitor is increasingly costly, with a negative impact on brand image that is hard to quantify, and an unpredictable ROI,' explained Yuseo Director, Jean-Pierre Le Borgne. 'In providing a perspective founded upon actual behavioural patterns, our observatory can help companies make informed decisions and avoid making inaccurate projections.'

The partners are online at www.yuseo.com and www.ciao-surveys.com , while their solution has its own site at www.eperformance-observatory.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.