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CSIRO discovery tech will show marketers where websites are losing customers

Sydney user experience specialist Sitback Solutions has won a battle to take new CSIRO technology that shows marketers where their websites are failing to the world.

The agency won the tender to take the software, developed by the government scientific research arm’s digital innovation group, Data61, to the world.

Paul Armstrong, founding partner of Sitback, said the unique Australian-developed software, LATTE enabled companies to find the ‘cold spots’ – specific areas of a webpage where websites were losing customers.

Sitback partner Paul Armstrong says CSIRO software could change how marketers design webpages

Sitback partner Paul Armstrong says CSIRO software could change how marketers design webpages

The agency won the exclusive, three-year deal in a competitive tender.

“The technology Data61 have developed is world-leading and Sitback is delighted to have been selected by CSIRO to bring it to market,” Armstrong told Mumbrella.

“It works well on larger websites where you have lots going on and the owner can’t really track what is going on.”

Sitback has already started working with the software, using it with the NSW Department of Health and also doing early work with one of its major clients, Subaru.

Armstrong said the plan was to introduce Australian businesses to the CSIRO software before then taking it overseas to the UK and US.

“If you have an underperforming site it will uncover where the problems are,” he said.

“It identifies the the behaviours where people are getting lost.”

Among the elements LATTE can discover are ‘cycling’ where users find themselves returning to the same pages because they are having trouble finding the next step. It can also show where people drop off a site to use Google to make comparisons mid-transaction, a behaviour that can see a company lose business to a rival right as it is about to secure a sale.

It compares the sequence and duration of page visits to patterns that denote user frustration or an inability to easily find information such as jumping to a Google search after loading four or five pages in succession.

Armstrong said that the opportunity to win the worldwide rights to market the CSIRO innovation came as a surprise.

“We have global commercialisation rights to adapt it to different markets. So a year ago we stumbled on the tool and the CSIRO had expressions of interest in market and we showed them that we have a team that can really develop it.”

Simon Dunstall, research director, Decision Sciences at Data61, said he saw huge potential for the software helping companies avoid the pitfalls of design mistakes.

“A good website enhances an organisation’s reputation for delivering information and services that are customer-centric and fit-for-purpose,” Dunstall said.

“While aesthetics are important, it is even more crucial to ensure that the required functionality of a website – which can include delivering complex advice and supporting key customer interactions – is properly aligned with the needs of customers, and that frustrating user experiences become a thing of the past.

“LATTE helps identify areas where a user has become disoriented, misdirected or disengaged, so that information and site structure can be updated to avoid website cold spots.”

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