After 5 months of preparation and hard work, the usability course I’ve created has just gone for final review by some of my peers (and my target audience too)! As a usability professional, I know how critical it is to get user involvement throughout the development process to make sure you’re building what people want to use 
Right from the start, on a weekly basis, I have been working closely with small businesses, internet marketers, usability specialists and marketing experts to make sure this product is something my students will find beneficial to use as they enhance their own websites and develop their new user-centered design skills.
The course is made up of 18 “show and tell” DVD tutorials, 2 ring binders of printed visual information and a sample website as a case study which is a great way for the people who like to “learn by doing”. I created lots of different formats because all my customers will want to learn in different ways. I didn’t want to constrain them with “just a book” or “just a video”.
Why did I create this course?
I really wanted to create a course that gave website owners the skills and knowledge they need to create effective websites to meet their business objectives. So many times I had seen great people let down by a poor website.
I wanted to give my customers independence and confidence. I needed to explain that most of the work that goes into a website is the research of the users’ needs and preferences. The magic happens when a site owner focuses on creating a site that’s going to be engaging for visitors and be rewarding to use.
I absolutely had to get across that “creating a website” is not about technical things – that’s just the tip of the iceberg of the whole process.
I have seen so many people dread making a website because they fear actually building it so much, they never start, or assume they can only manage to do a half-hearted job – which is usually how it turns out.
Something had to be done. User-centered design shouldn’t just be something that eBay and Amazon know about.
Everyone wants an attractive professional looking website. But too often businesses think they need a GLITZY site with all the bells and whistles when what they really need is a functional site that attracts customers.
Creating a user-friendly website doesn’t require a lot of money or a staff of professional, high priced, designers. In fact, they can be the very thing that leads you to go overboard and miss the true point.
All you really need to know is what your customer wants and how to deliver it in a way that even a first-time visitor can understand.
How do I know this course will sell?
Internet marketers always say find the problem then find the information or products to solve that problem.
How did I know my target market are aware they have real problems with their websites, even if they’re not to familiar with usabililty techniques?
Well, I have been optimizing company websites for years, and every time I mention what I do at business networking events, (once we get past the initial hurdle that ”usability” isn’t about the techie stuff ), people want to corner me and ask for some suggestions for improvement for their site.
They always start by explaining “….our site isn’t working very well and we don’t know where to start improving it….”
I have bottled up all those years of experience and thousands of tips I have passed onto website owners and put them in this course. It shows you exactly how to improve your site and how to make it more effective for you and your business.
If you have any questions you’d like to ask me about the course, just post a comment and I’ll get back to you.
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An interesting point has come up – the transcript makes the course look more comprehensive when it arrives, but quickly becomes an ordeal if you have to read it – obviously what works in audio format will be experienced differently in print.
I think I shall rework the transcript into a summary of the video content instead, as a lot of the teaching is done by examples from real websites to get the point across quickly.
Looking forward to the next set of comments! Thanks reviewers, you know who you are