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Web usability: The basicsTrenton Moss What is web usability & why is it important Web usability is about making your website in such a way that your site users can find what theyre looking for quickly and efficiently. A usable website can reap huge benefits on to your website and your business.
Your website has to be easy to navigate Users have gradually become accustomed to particular layouts and phrases on the Internet, for example:
There are numerous other conventions like these that enhance your websites usability - can you think of some more Dont underestimate the importance of these conventions - as the Internet matures were getting more and more used to things being a certain way. Break these conventions and you may be left with nothing but a website with poor usability and a handful of dissatisfied site visitors. Pages must download quickly Usability studies have shown that 8.6 seconds is the maximum time web users will wait for a page to download source: Andrew B. King - Speed Up Your Site. As of March 2004 just 25% of UK web users had broadband source: UK National Statistics so its essential for optimal usability that your website downloads quickly. To speed up the download time of your website we recommend you do three things:
Information should be easy to retrieve We read web pages in a different manner to the way we read printed matter. We generally dont read pages word-for-word - instead we scan. When we scan web pages certain items stand out:
Did you notice that images were left out of that list Contrary to the way in which we read printed matter, we see text before we see images on the Internet. For optimal website usability dont place important information in images as it might go unnoticed. Restrictions must not be placed on users Dont prevent your users from navigating through the Internet in the way that they want to. For example: 1. Every time a link is opened in a new window the back button is disabled. Approximately 60% of Web users employ the back button as their primary means of navigation source: Usability Interface. If you do this then youre preventing 60% of your users from using their primary navigation - now that cant be good for usability. 2. Dont use frames to lay out your website. Frames can cause a number of usability problems, namely:
There are lots of other ways that websites can place restrictions on its users, ultimately damaging their usability - can you think of any more Just think back to the last time a website really infuriated you - what annoying thing did it do to make you feel that way
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