Usability
Usability - helping yourself by helping your users help you
"On the Internet, it's survival of the easiest: If customers can't find a product, they can't buy it."
Jakob Nielsen
My experience in the online industry does not stop at producing sites for the Web, but surfing for and through them as well. Like you and your clients and customers, I too am a web user who wants to enjoy the online experience. There is nothing quite as bad as a site with poor navigation, seeing ten words when a just couple will do, and links that lead you into a dead end or a massive graphic or PDF file that crashes your browser.
The key aspects of usability are:
- Navigation. Like a good road map, well-structured navigation will guide your visitors through your site - taking them where they want to go, and where you want them to go.
- User Focus. It's your business, but you'll get nowhere without your customers. Usability is all about putting yourself in their shoes. Tell the user where they are, and what is coming next.
- Layout. There's nothing worse than a site where you can't find what you want. There's a place for everything, and everything should be in its place.
- Clarity. Have you even been to a site and not been able to tell the difference between a title and a link? Too many icons, too many colours? Simple clarity can work wonders.
- Consistency. A consistent style and layout immediately familiarises the user with the site and how it works - making them more likely to come back.
Creating a usable site
Creating a usable site shouldn't be daunting. There are no complicated technical questions that need to be asked or issues that need to be addressed, and all that is required is a knowledge of your customers and what they want from your site. And the best way of acquiring this knowledge? Just ask your users. From getting your wife, mother or brother to navigate your site through to conducting a fully-blown customer survey, user feedback is invaluable in the planning process - known as User Centered Design (UCD).
Placing a greater emphasis on usability not only retains your existing customers, but generates new ones. It is the simplest way of maximising your online business potential and ROI. With all sites I build, these considerations are included in the planning and development process.