08/ 10/ 2004
Over the last 10 years the Internet has become an essential part of the way companies do business. These days, it’s as important to have a Web site as it is to have a phone book listing. Unfortunately, many Web sites are riddled with perplexing navigation and unclear priorities that leave users confused and frustrated. What’s the solution? It’s time to review your site to see if it fits today’s standards of usability.
“Usability is the ease with which someone can use your Web site to do a particular task and get the expected results based on what they currently know,” says Mary Elges, a creative designer with Tallán, a custom technology solution company based in Glastonbury, Conn. “To have a high usability factor, your site has to be intuitive.”
Usability is one of the most important aspects of your Web site because it not only will save you time and money, but it will also drastically increase the effectiveness of your site.
“When a site is designed with usability in mind, there is a large drop-off in the need for user training and expensive help desks to answer questions from confused Web users, and it drastically reduces the need for future rewrites,” Elges says. “In addition, usability noticeably increases the lifespan of your Web site, since most rewrites are due to poor usability issues.”
Here are five simple steps to help your business ensure its Web site practices good usability.
Identify the users: “Know who your users will be. Pinpoint their ages, sex, education and computer experience. Then create user scenarios to ensure that the priority tasks they will perform on your Web site will be intuitive,” says Elges. “This will help you gain foresight in how to develop tasks, Web flow and the most likely ways this user intuitively navigates and views page components to complete the given task effectively.”
One way a site can be better tailored to your audience is through usability testing during the design phase. See what processes work and which ones are a struggle for your users. Some testing up front can save a lot of headaches in the end.
Identify the purpose and goals: What is the overall goal of the Web site? Is it simply to provide information about your business (brochureware) or is it set up to provide e-commerce? By defining the purpose and goals before you start on your Web site, you will ensure the correct selection of site navigation, prioritize tasks appropriately and get the correct message out. In addition, your purpose and goals aid in the choice of the appropriate navigation style, page layout, graphics utilization and what technologies should be used.
Identify the tasks: “Write down all of the tasks on the site and then rank them by priority, frequency and what type of flow would be best suited for the task at hand.” says Elges. “A good idea is to work out the task flow on paper, called paper prototyping. This is also an excellent time to start usability testing with your paper prototypes to see if they are comprehendible. Usability testing at this stage identifies many pitfalls before development even starts. This saves both time and money, and oftentimes a future rewrite.”
Identify the environmental challenges: If you know that some of your users will face environmental challenges, you need to make sure that your site is accessible with the equipment your target audience will have at hand. Sites with a large target audience must consider accessibility issues and design content to be read by screen readers, handicapped or mobility-impaired users and the older user.
Identify the technology: “The technology that users utilize varies drastically and is in a state of constant evolution,” says Elges. “When deciding what to put on your Web site, remember what technologies your target audience will be using. If you are targeting general consumers, remember that many of them may still be accessing the Internet via dial-up. If this is the case, animation and streaming video will be excruciatingly slow to view and can cause these potential customers to visit a competitor. One way around this is to build a site that lets the user select the preferred bandwidth to view pages. If this isn’t cost effective, then design your Web site for the lowest common bandwidth and sacrifice some flash for usability.”
Elges says most Web-site problems occur when content is improperly structured and tasks are not laid out clearly and intuitively. “If users visit your site and can’t figure out how to find information, they’re going go to another,” she says. “This is why businesses shouldn’t put off making sure that their sites are up to par for usability. If your site has never been reviewed for usability, do it now. If you’re building a site, take the time to do the usability study. Every day that goes by with your company having an ineffective Web site means another day of lost business.”
Mary Elges is Creative Designer with Tallán, a professional services firm providing customized technology solutions to Global 2000 and brand name online firms. She is an Adobe Certified Expert, CIW Master Site Designer, Macromedia Flash MX Certified, and has a degree in graphic design and can be reached at mary.elges@tallan.com.
