What is Web Usability?
If you have a website, the bottom line is that you want it to be useable to your web visitors. Otherwise, you are not maximizing your potential to sell and promote your products and/or services. This is the basis of the concept of web usability.
The theory of web usability states that you need to make your site simple for users to understand. If people have to spend a great deal of time figuring out what your website is all about, they may give up and look elsewhere. You also want to make it easy for users to navigate towards the content that you want them to see. The ideal website will have a design that the user feels is intuitive. Web visitors do not mind clicking on links; they just want their experience to be easy and understandable.
Now, of course, if you have an ecommerce site, your intention is to sell products. This means that you need to have a clear, easy-to-understand process through which people can buy goods. If your web visitor cannot understand what you sell or how to add products to the shopping cart, you have a problem. In this case, you obviously going to generate far fewer sales than you would if your website was simple and easy to follow.
The general consensus is that while fancy, complex websites are interesting, they can confuse your web visitors. Perhaps a muddled website will even end up driving your customers away from your site forever. People also like websites with as little noise as possible on them.
A common slogan that is used to define web usability is “KISS,” which stands for ‘keep it simply and stupid” or “keep it simple, stupid.” You want your user’s web experience to be as simple as possible. This means that if your website visitor wants to search something on your site, there should be a clear and easy way to search. If you have text for people to read, it should be as minimal of an amount of text as possible.
When considering how your website should look and function, these theories of web usability should be seriously considered. The goal of a website is typically to promote a product or service. If you have a great looking website that no one can figure out how to use, you have ultimately not achieved your goal.
JYD – Calgary Web Design
, Calgary Web Design
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