I made a change on my site today that made so much sense to me. It would make things better for my visitors and allow them to visit more pages.

After making the change, I watched my stats plumment. Visitors went to fewer pages and spent less time on my site. It doesn't make sense, but the numbers don't lie.

This teaches me again that I have to rely on my stats instead of relying on my rational thoughts. It also reminds me how important it is to have a good states program on my site.

It also reminds me of a time I walked into my health clinic.. They were trying to get visitors to use a new self check in kiosk so they had a huge sign and a flashing red light with a big red arrow pointing toward the kiosk. Honestly, I didn't see it as I preceded to the check in counter.

This was probaly due to force fo habit, but it is amazing to me that I didn't see or read the sign. If I had seen and read the sign, I would have used the self check in kiosk since I don't enjoy talking to the front desk staff at my clinic.

If we put a big red arrow on our sites with a flashing "click here" now call to action, it makes sense that people woul dlook at it and click it. However, the reality is that we have no idea how the user's eyeflow will go on our site unless we test it.

What we think makes sense often does not hold true when put to the test. We need to keep testing and makin changes until something works.