Working With The Web - Usability
Previously on the Chamber blog, we’ve looked at the importance of accessibility for websites. Now, we can have a quick look at web usability.
What is usability? Well, as the name suggests, it’s all about making websites easy to use. If they aren’t, people will simply leave. There is always another website just a click away that’s just a little bit easier to navigate around…
There are several ways to make a website more user-friendly. If you are developing a new website, usability should be considered from the beginning, just as accessibility should be. Think about the structure of your site -
- how easy is it to get to information?
- are your links clearly named?
- are you using words and terms that only your staff would use? (All companies develop their own language - your web visitors probably won’t know this)
- has your copy been written especially for the web? (We’ll look at this in more detail in another article)
- are buttons and links obvious?
- is your site searchable? You can always manually input top results for popular search terms to make sure users get the right information.
In terms of content, think about what information people will need, then make it available and easy to find:
- Who are you?
- What do you do?
- Where are you?
- How can you be contacted?
- Who are your senior staff?
- What goods or services do you provide?
- Where can people buy your products?
What you think is important may not be the same as what your customers actually want. That’s why a key element in usability is user testing. At best, this should involve asking a range of your website users to come in and try and complete a number of tasks (finding specific information, making a purchase, contacting your staff etc). From their experiences you can see where your site can be improved. At the least, you should canvas your customers to see what they would like from your site, then do your best to meet these needs.
Obviously, this is only the briefest of introductions to usability. A lot of it is simply common sense, yet many sites still fail to follow the simple rules. Follow the links below to learn more about how you can make your site more user-friendly.
The fundamentals of usability from Jakob Nielsen
