Good. Bad. Ugly.
You know a good site when you find it. You also know the bad ones. Usually, it’s the usability that gives you your first impression.
Usability is the base element for any good Web site. Yet, all too often, Web sites spend most of their energy on the appearance of a site without much regard for its usability. Frank Sinatra said it was ‘love’ and ‘marriage.’ Well… we say it’s ‘design’ and ‘usability.’ You can’t have one with out the other.
So, what exactly is this crazy thing called Web usability?
Basically, Web usability is the creation of Web sites that users want to use, with minimum amount of effort, time and frustration. Ultimately, you want each of your users to have the perfect experience on your site, or at least one that helps them in getting what they want.
Okay, fine, we know what usability is, but how do we make sure our site is usable?
Honestly, it is really not that complicated! Here are some simple things we have done on our Web sites to help make them user-friendly (note the bullets):
- Alphabetical indexes of Departments and Services
- Consistent navigation on every page
- Site search engine that includes a description of each returned link
- Oops! Page: A customized "File not found" error page
- We don’t use unnecessary “noise” like background images, hundreds of colors, animated banners and buttons and such.
- We DO move important items to a more visible position, such as the top of the page and add images to the item to attract the user's attention.
We’ve got the whole usability thing down now. But how do we know it is working?
If you want a great Web site, you must TEST its usability. Just because no one has complained about your site doesn't mean that all your visitors are using your site effectively, efficiently and to their full satisfaction.
Some good (and bad) examples. Let's discuss the following sites. Let us know what you like and dislike:
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