The Importance of Usability

Jul 1
07:20

2010

Felix Hazel

Felix Hazel

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or "Why Users Are Leaving Your Website"

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Regardless of its style or category,The Importance of Usability Articles any website's success hinges on its ease of use. According to Jakob Nielsen, an eminent usability expert, "If a website is difficult to use, people leave."

A website should:
  1. State plainly what it offers.
  2. Be easy to navigate.
  3. Be easy to read.
  4. Offer answers to user's questions.
  5. Load quickly and consistently on a variety of browsers and devices.
Since there is no standard on how websites should be designed, it's up to the web design agency to infer what users will expect given a client's particular content. Through experience and testing, the agency can determine the best design, all while maintaining the brand's message. A good web design agency should be spending 10% of a project's budget on usability testing.

Nearly universally users assume that:
  1. A link to the home page, usually in the form of a logo, is available in the upper left.
  2. Pages have descriptive headers or titles announcing which page a user is on.
  3. Text is legible. Printed in high contrast, appropriately sized, and careful typeset.
  4. Load times will be short, or a progress bar will indicate loading if necessary.
  5. Navigation is placed near the logo, either at the top of a page or down the left side.
To aid ease of use, a designer should:
  1. Avoid drop-downs or other expanding menus (with the exception of large fly-outs.)
  2. Use modal windows where applicable to prevent unnecessary page changes.
  3. Use breadcrumb trails make large websites easy to understand. For example, a listing on eBay for a truck wheel would include the following note near the top: "eBay Motors > Parts & Accessories > Car & Truck Parts > Wheels, Tires & Parts > Wheels"
  4. Offer a search tool, preferably located in the upper right, for users to quickly navigate large sites.
  5. Use style-based elements, optimized images, and minified code to reduce load times.
By designing a site with usability in mind, the user's experience with a brand is greatly improved. The user will have more confidence in the brand, and be willing to spend more time on their site, which translates to increased sales.