I hope all is well. I thought I'd drop you a line saying Hi, as a couple of your students have contacted me recently. It's always fun reliving the good ole' days of 411—I guess it wasn't really that long ago! Anyways, it sounds like a couple of your students are doing web-based projects, so I wanted to throw a couple of awesome tools your way that are right up your alley.

 

CrazyEgg ( http://www.crazyegg.com/ ): Provides a visual interface for tracking a ton of user interaction issues including a heat map to see where the most-clicked areas of a specific webpage are, plotted points on a screenshot of a page showing exactly where users are clicking, and percentages of which links are being clicked the most (all overlaid on the page you specify). The advantage of the tool is to be able to track data for usability testing to ensure the site was being used as intended.

 

ClickTale ( http://www.clicktale.com ): This tool actually records the length of a user's entire visit at a website. From start to finish, when a new user gets onto the site, a script is run to track every movement of the user. This tool could be instrumental in making usability adjustments and improving your product. 

 

Anyways, we love the tools, so I thought maybe you could pass it on to the web nerds of 411 (or otherwise). I'm on the verge of starting a business with 2 other guys. We're close to going out on our own. I'll keep you posted if you're interested.

 

Take care,

 

e

 

Eric Prugh

Tech Lead & Developer

Outside Source Design

eprugh@outsidesource.com

p: 317.842.4853

c: 317.460.0936

 

www.outsidesource.com