Everyone has had a bad experience with a web site. They couldn’t find what they were looking for. They couldn’t buy that gift for their loved one. They just couldn’t understand how to complete a request form. Must online users don’t know what usability is but they know for sure when something doesn’t work. Since the dawn of the Internet, usability has become part of the Internet vernacular as web sites and applications have become so prevalent and commercially important. So what is usability?
“Usability: refers to how well users can learn and use a product to achieve their goals and how satisfied they are with that process.” Usability.gov
Usability is the qualitative measure of how elegant and easy it is to use a web site or application. Usability is not limited to the Internet. Sciences like human factors applies usability best practices to consumer goods, electronics, automobiles, heavy equipment, furniture and appliances to name a few. Thought leaders like Jacob Nielsen have created frameworks or best practices to follow when evaluating usability:
- Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?
- Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?
- Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they re establish proficiency?
- Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?
- Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?
Why Is Usability Important?
You know the rule about first impressions. They could be your last. This applies to your web properties too. Most web masters and digital marketers still don’t understand how important it is to design with your users in mind first – not your business. The mantra goes like this, “happy users are paying users”. If your web experience delights your users it becomes easier to sell the value of your brand and customer experience. If your web site frustrates your users it is very likely they will not return.
If you could identify one element or flaw in your site that could increase your sales by 20%. Wouldn’t you want to know? How about 200%? You would want to know for sure. Many mature Ecommerce sites invest in usability because they have learned that user satisfaction and ease of use can greatly impact what’s most important to their business – the bottom line. A small change to improve usability could mean thousands in new revenue.
What about your staff? You may have an Intranet or internal web-based applications your staff may use on a daily basis. If they don’t function properly this could add up to inefficiencies and lost production. So good usability can reduce costs and improve productivity.
Incorporating Usability Into Your Business
There are many methodologies that can be used to incorporate usability into your web site design project. User-centered design methods engage user needs in the very early stages of web design. They consider user’s needs and behaviours through tools like personas, focus groups, and surveys. Usability testing is a great way to see how actual users may interact with your site. If done early in the design process you can identify and eliminate potential design hazards. It is also a good idea to do periodic tests to ensure your site is still performing as it should. Web site analysis is much overlooked or least understood by many web masters. But looking at the data can identify potential usability flaws in navigation, forms and other web applications.
It is also good idea to establish usability best practices for your organization. If you manage multiple large web sites, best practices can ensure consistency in ease of use across all of your properties. It puts rules in place in how content and functionality is presented eliminating any guess work and ensuring predictable outcomes in the user experience.
Some organizations employ usability experts to help with their site management. Smaller organizations can hire freelance information architects or usability engineers. Larger organizations may want to hire full-time experts. Encourage your web master to take usability training. There are many local and national organizations that provided usability workshops. Community colleges and universities also provide courses in information architecture, usability and human factors. Having that expertise on your web team can be very valuable.
