The nine most important aspects about website usability

February 24th, 2008 · No Comments

Whether you have an ecommerce site, a company website, an online tool or even a weblog, usability is very important. Website usability is decisive for your success. When the usability is bad, new visitors will leave immediately; this means a high bounce rate and your visitors will never return. When your usability is good, visitors stay longer on your site gather more information, buy more and will return to your website next time.

In this article I give you nine aspects how to improve your website usability:

Hyperlinks
Make sure hyperlinks look like hyperlinks. Often web-designers don’t like those “ugly” blue underlined words. You have to remember there is only one item important. That is; visitors are used to it and they will get confused and leave your site if they don’t recognize a hyperlink immediately. So, don’t be too creative. When you really want to be distinctive, make sure visitors recognize the hyperlink. Also make sure that the color will change when visitors have clicked your hyperlink.
Navigation
All visitors must understand your website’s navigation immediately. So make sure that the structure is clear and simply to understand.
Orientation
A deep website means your website has a lot of pages in different layers. Visitors should now where they are and have a navigation to get back. You can help your visitors with click-paths. So they won’t get lost. An arbitrary example of a click-path is: Home-Gentlemen-Trousers-Jeans
Home
Visitors expect a link to your homepage in the upper left side of your website. Don’t be the creative artist by putting the link elsewhere or even nowhere at all. This kind of creativeness will only frustrate your visitors.
Position of Parts
Make sure that all parts are placed where they belong. For example, put your logo in the upper left side and immediately insert a link to your homepage. Another example; Visitors like the toolbar in the upper right side of your website.
30 seconds rule
A new visitor should know who you are, what you are doing and what they can do on your website within 30 seconds. It is wise to ask strangers to test your website.
Searching
About 50% of your visitors like to use a toolbar in stead of trying your navigation. Make sure there is a decent toolbar for these visitors.
Speed
All visitors hate waiting even for a flashy presentation. Many studies have demonstrated that flash intros don’t have any surplus value. The only exception is when you are selling flash intros. This means you can skip all superfluous items in order to optimize your website’s speed.
Size
Often designers like small letter-types. Remember, visitors will leave when they have difficulty in reading it. Conclusion; make sure you use an 11 dot size at least.

Summary
There are nine aspects of website usability which are quite easy to implement. When you have implemented these items your bounce rate will drop and visitors will stay longer on your website. This means that website usability is decisive for your success.

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