On Sun, May 24, 2009 at 3:02 PM, f_friel <ffriel@...> wrote:
> We've a mobile web site and we're getting a lot of visits but stickiness is
> something we're concerned about. How do we ensure users come back.
>
> We're considering hiring a user experience expert to review and provide
> feedback and recommend changes.
>
> Some questions:
> - Is this worth while? What should we pay?
> - Is hiring someone the best approach? If not, what is?

Caveat: this is a service that we provide, so I'm biased. You can find
info on our service here:
http://www.littlespringsdesign.com/blog/expert-review/


Reading a bit into your situation, it sounds like you are in need of
feedback, preferably of user research. If you have the internal time
and expertise, you could set up a cheap user research program.
Options:

1. In-person interview-based usability testing with a combination of
new and existing users. This will get you the best results; you'll
have detailed information on how users are perceiving your product.
Drawback: it's expensive (US $15k or more, outsourced, per study) and
converting the research results to design recommendations (thus
getting the most out of the study) should likely be done by a
designer.

2. Create surveys for existing users. This can be cheap, but it's got
a bunch of drawbacks.

3. Hire somebody to do a design review. If you can get somebody with
good UX/design expertise and deep mobile expertise (unless you are
just sending to iPhone, then more normal expert web designers could
suffice)

4. Full-time hire. Can be great ... but it'll cost you a
professional-level salary.

FYI, a typical project for us, including design & research, costs less
than a year's salary. There are exceptions ... but then there are a
lot of projects at the lower end.

And in general, I fully agree with Mike. I have watched clients
cherry-pick what we have to say. Then, when it blows up in their face,
they have to re-invest (and deal with the lost opportunity), re-design
... and do pretty much what we said originally.



~~~~~
Barbara Ballard
Skype: barbara_ballard
Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard
email: barbara@...
1.785.838.3003