Timberline Interactive

My i-merchant column this month is on the benefits of honkin' big add-to-cart and checkout buttons. Size matters, baby!

I just finished re-reading Steve Krug's usability bible, Don't Make Me Think, which I recommend highly for anyone responsible for making their website a success. Not only is Steve's design and navigation thinking impeccable, he's also a lively and hilarious writer, and the book's snappy, well-illustrated look is a conscious example of the web best-practices he preaches.

I also read Avinash Kaushik's Web Analytics, An Hour a Day which is a passionate, smart and at times funny book. Now I need to drill down into a technical, hands-on Google-Analytics and Website-Optimizer-specific tome.

I'm in Dallas, Texas, right now, delivering a Google Analytics and Website Optimizer training to the brilliant and terrific team at Fifth Food Group.

You can make any website better -- lots better. The footprints of failed pages, bad usability, are all over the analytics. And when you identify and roll out a change, do it in Google Website Optimizer, so you can document a lift (or, in some rare cases, prove to yourself that your brilliant gut instincts weren't brilliant after all.)