Seven Guidelines for Website UsabilityYou can't break the rules till you've learned the rules
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Tony Baker October 30, 2007
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Usability, as you hopefully know, is all about making sure that the
people who come to your website can find the information or product
they want, and ensuring they can find it quickly, efficiently, and with
minimal hair-tearing.
Unfortunately, some people just don't know the guidelines, or
just don't follow them. This can lead to a lot of frustration on the
part of the user, and if users are frustrated, then chances are good
they won't be back to your site. Whether you're building a new site or
redesigning an old one, here are a few usability tips you should be
keeping in mind.
Website usability tip #1: Consistency
Consistency is one of the most important aspects of usability.
The page style, text style, colors and navigation should be consistent
throughout your entire site. Not only does this help with usability,
but it will also help with building your brand online. By using those
visual cues throughout your site, people will know exactly where to
look for the links they need, and they'll always know for sure that
they're still in your site.
Website usability tip #2: Navigation
According to Jakob Nielsen, a usability expert, a good navigation system should answer three questions for your users:
Where am I?
Where have I been?
Where can I go?
Keep your navigation consistent throughout your site, and this is one
case where it's okay to be redundant. Provide multiple ways for your
users to find what they're looking for, such as text links, graphics
links, a clearly marked search function and a site map, just to name a
few. Also, cookie crumbs (home > products > Product Name >
features) are a good way to let visitors know where they are on your
site and how they got there, so it's easy for them to go back if they
need to.
For more on useability, check out this post from Midwest Business Tips:
http://smbtips.blogspot.com
Website usability tip #3: Content
Yes, pretty pages are a plus, but if there's no meaty content to the
pages, there's no reason for users to come back. Don't dump big blocks
of text on your site. Break it up into smaller paragraphs, and organize
your content with headings and subheadings so that people who are
skimming the site can quickly find what they're looking for. Giant text
blocks only serve to give people headaches.
Either stick with a light background and dark lettering, or a dark
background with light lettering. Contrast is the key here. Use a sans
serif font (like Arial) for the regular copy, and don't make it too
small. Don't make your information difficult to read, unless you really
want to drive people away from your site.
And proofread, proofread, proofread. Nothing will damage your credibility quicker than blatant grammar and spelling mistakes.
Website usability tip #4: Images
Yes, you've got that gorgeous flowery picture that you just
HAVE to have on the background of every page. But did you ever stop to
consider how distracting it could be, or how the color changes in the
picture could obscure the text on top of it? Unless you really know
what you're doing, steer clear of background images.
For all images, make sure that you have appropriate ALT and TITLE
attributes. This is the text that shows up in an image box before the
image loads, or appears when you mouse over the image. Not only will
this increase usability, especially for people using text browsers or
site readers, but it will also increase your keywords, which makes
search engine spiders happy.
Website usability tip #5: Custom error page
It happens to the best of us. Pages get removed from sites.
Links get changed. Sections get taken down and updated. People enter
file names wrong. No matter the reason, it's entirely likely that
somebody visiting your site will click on a broken link. If you have a
custom 404 error page, then you have a chance to let your users know
what happened, redirect them to a page that might have what they were
looking for, or just take them back to your home page.
Plus, that way you can keep your colors and branding consistent, even
on the error page. It's much more professional than having your site
host's 404 page show up when somebody clicks a broken link.
Website usability tip #6: Contact and feedback
You should have a clearly marked contact page, and there should be more
on there than just a form "contact us" box. Let your users know who you
are, where you're located, and give them options other than just email
for getting in touch with you. If you do have a form, clearly note what
information you require and make sure you don't require information,
like ZIP codes, that international users won't necessarily have.
Website usability tip #7: Testing
Not everybody using your site will be from North America, have a
monitor with 1280 x 800 resolution, and be surfing via Internet
Explorer. You'll have international users, users with older, fullscreen
monitors, users on dial-up, users on Macs, users on PCs with Firefox or
other browers, blind users with site readers, you name it. That's
always something to keep in mind and a big reason why you need to test.
There has to be usability across all platforms, not just the one you
use to build your site.
Get real people to test your site so that you can get an idea of how
users will experience it, and you can fix any problems before it goes
live. Usability testing is the only way to make sure that your site
fits both yours and your users' needs. That way, you can find out what
works and what doesn't, and can adjust your site so that everybody has
an enjoyable, pleasant experience browsing your site.
For a few more tips on optimizing your site, check out this post: Five Ways to Optimize Your Website for Universal Search.
Website usability is a vast, important topic, and it's nigh impossible
to cover all the applicable points in just one article. However, one of
the most important things to remember about these guidelines is that
they are just that: guidelines. You won't get in trouble with the
Internet Higher Authorities if you don't slavishly adhere to them. Just
keep your users in mind with your site design. The easier it is for
them, the better it will be for you. |