If you have a pre-existing site wtih web analytics running, reviewing your data in preparation for website usability testing can be very helpful.

For a simple example, look at these three pieces of data pertaining to in your site’s pages:

• Time Spent on Pages
• Most Popular Pages
• Exit Pages

For Time Spent, look at the top 3 each for least time spent and most time spent. For most popular, pick the top 3-4 and the same for Exit Pages.

Now, when setting up the test plan, without forcing it, have your testers reach these pages and make sure you take extra careful notes on the pages you previously identified. The way your testers interact with these pages may give you insight into why they are the most popular (or most popular to leave your site from), or why so much or so little time is spent on them.

Who knows, on one of your top exit pages, you might have a hyperlink to an external site that doesn’t open in a new window, so people might accidentally be leaving your site.

Keep in mind this is just a sample project of what you can do with your web analytics data combined with usability testing. For more in depth work:

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