Does your website pass the usability litmus test?

Posted by gigglemedia under Web usability

Usability is a key factor in determining the success of your website. When designing and writing content for a website, consider how your site is perceived when a user clicks through from a search engine result.

If a user lands on your website and cannot find the information they need within seconds, he/she will likely leave and move onto a another site.

So how can you give your website a fighting chance?

The usability litmus test

According to the renown usability expert Jakob Nielsen, there are three key questions a user must be able to answer within the first thirty seconds of viewing your website:

• Who are you (the business)?
• What do you (the business) do?
• Where do I (the user) go next?

If a user cannot answer these three questions in thirty seconds or less, it’s time for a website redesign.

Who are you?

Eye tracking studies show that the first place a user looks at is at the top left area of a website. This is why most websites have their company logo positioned there. The placement of the logo in the top left also helps orient the user while building brand awareness.

What do you do?

Do you cut hair? Do you offer advice? Do you plan events? Tell the user what you do or can offer simply and immediately, they do not want to decipher it from tag lines or jargon. If your business sells tangible products, an image captures more than words.

What do I go next?

In the seconds it takes a user to collect the above two pieces of information, the next thing a user wants to do is achieve their goal – whether it be browsing your products, reading advice or making an appointment. This calls for a clear navigation menu, well organised information and call to action items that catch a user’s attention.

User expectations

For more complex websites, issues such as security, accessibility, interactivity and compatibility will also need to be addressed. Your business type and target audience need to be considered alongside usability.

Users visiting ACME Property Lawyers website will have different expectations to when visiting ACME Fashion Label. The former is expected to have a lot of text based content that should be easily found, the fashion label website has the luxury of heavy image content, some Flash animation and the associated longer load time.

Of course, a as a web designer we want to challenge these expectations and standards. If done in the right way, the result is outstanding; however, a lot of the time we must remind ourselves that the standards exist for a reason and have come about from other people’s failed trials and pushing of boundaries.

What you should do to improve usability:

• Ensure your navigation is clear and consistent across all pages.

• Declare a title for all of your web pages.

The page title is the headline for the webpage in a search results listing – the more specific it is, the more likely it will be clicked-through e.g. our page title for the Blog section is “Giggle Media: Websites and Web Design for Small Businesses | Blog – The Buzz”

• Write the right way for the web. Organise and break your content into proper headings, subheadings, lists and paragraphs. This ensures your content can be easily skimmed.

• Use images where relevant to convey a message but do not over do it.