Hello again - Thanks for your comments from last month. This month we cover website users (or visitor).The average website user is goal driven - they are looking for something, and want to find it in the shortest time possible. A well designed, usable website with appropriate facilities can help them. Usability is the art of simplicity.
When planning your website, focus on your customers, their requirements, and how they quickly and easily they can achieve their goals once arrived on a page. This is at the heart of usability. Giving this its deserved attention will also help you get the most from your visitors. As you well know, your visitors are very important to you, regardless of they have come via word-of-mouse, Search engine results, Pay-Per-Click or adverts. Here are just a few no-nos for you to think about:
- Don't use flash, JavaScript or other OTT methods for navigation. Some users wont be able to navigate and you will hinder Search engines too.
- Users don't like to have to wait for 'splash' screens. These might be introduction animations with 'Skip Intro' buttons. Avoid them.
- Users don't need loads of flashy graphics and dynamic attractions. Your web pages are NOT adverts! They are already on your page and you already have their attention.
- Don't throw pop-ups or ads at them - It will only annoy and push them away.
Here are a few points for usable and effective business websites:
- Give users a Search Facility for visitors to locate information quickly
- Give users a Site Map to show all (well-named) pages
- Make Navigation and Menus clear and constant. Define links and visited links Clearly.
- Keep contact info on website template so users can contact you by alternative methods if they wish.
- Use helpful error pages - They do occur!
- Use flash and other multimedia with care.
- Comply with web and accessibility standards from the W3C
How you logically structure the information on the your web site as a whole (a discipline often called Information Architecture) is an important step to helping visitors navigate your site with ease. This structure often takes shape after thinking about the business itself (business products, services, industry knowledge, events, news etc) and how you want to present this information and any website facilities to your customers.(And potential customers!)
To follow up on an idea from usability Guru Jacob Neilson, remember that visitors spend most of their time on other websites, not yours. The implications of this are that visitors expect your website to behave in a similar way to most other websites out there. So if you want to be unique and different - Be careful - You will turn users away of your site does not behave as they expect.
We offer a comprehensive reporting service for websites, including in-depth usability analysis, so please do get in touch of you are interested.
All the best - Until next month,
Woody
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