Web Usability

Web usability does overlap with web accessibility. However, it differs from the latter by looking at how all users interact with web sites rather than those who are specifically disabled.

As such, it needs to be considered as a separate topic.

Anybody can design and publish a web site. It's even claimed that there are more web pages than there are people in the world! Given the sheer number of sites out there, your ultimate goal should be to have an effective site.

For those who prefer to "Do It Yourself", there are many web design tools available and it is relatively easy to create a site that contains some very impressive graphics. But do fancy graphics make a difference?

Most people who out-source their web sites choose a web designer based on price and portfolio. But is a fancy design necessarily an effective one?

Web design is complex because it exists to allow communication between people via computers. Yet some studies have shown that:

  • Over 40% of online purchase attempts fail
  • 50% of new visitors do not go beyond a site's home page
  • Less than 10% of visitors revisit a site.

Why?

Sites like Amazon and Expedia are extremely successful, so what are other sites missing?

The answer might be web usability.

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What is Usability?

Usability is defined as "A measure of how easy it is for a user to complete a task".

On a web site, this is a means of measuring how easy it is for a visitor to find a specific piece of information or buy a certain product.

Web usability can be divided into five areas:

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Why Is Usability An Issue?

Simply having a web site does not guarantee a competitive advantage.

Potential customers have many choices. Not only are there plenty of other web sites out there but they also have the option of obtaining items, information or services, from real people either by telephone or in person. Web sites, by definition, lack the human touch so they have to work much harder in other areas to entice people in.

Web surfers may automatically classify sites based upon their perceptions of how complex the site appears to be rather than how complex it actually is in reality.

Fancy graphics and presentation may not always impress them and any novelty value soon wears off. The downside to overly fancy presentations is that they may contribute towards an increased perception of "this site is going to be difficult to use".

Site functionality and service quality, on the other hand, rarely fail to impress long term

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Determining Site Functionality And Service Quality

Site Functionality

Service Quality

Service Quality is defined as the extent to which a delivered service level matches customer expectations.

Factors affecting perceived service quality include:

Design Considerations

  1. What information needs to be stored?
  2. How should this information to be organised?
  3. What methods should be used for retrieving the information?
  4. How should the information should be displayed?

One major factor within any web design project is the general impatience of web surfers.

People will abandon a web site if it is slow to download, they get lost or if they feel that the site is difficult to navigate.

The faster speeds of broadband compared to dialup haven't reduced this impatience. In fact, anecdotal evidence suggests that, if anything, broadband surfers are becoming even more impatient!

Just ask yourself whether you want a great looking web site or you want a web site that your customers find easy to use and love to visit again and again.

If you choose the latter, then web usability has to be an important part of the overall site design process.

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