3 Steps to Usability by Drew Stauffer
3 Steps to Usability
Websites are built for specific types of viewers and must appeal to a definite
target market. Users must be able to view your site, scan everything, and
immediately understand what the website is about. Similarly, for maximum
usability, your website has to appeal to the needs of search engines. Usability
comes down to three main areas: site design, page design, and development. If
carried out properly, these elements will bring both users and search engines
to your site and keep them coming back for more.
Site Design
Site design starts before the user ever views your homepage. The download speed
of your website can immediately spark the user to click on another site.
Excessive graphics or graphics that are not properly optimized for the web can
slow down the load speed of any website. By avoiding this concern and designing
your website with your user's goals and needs in mind you will create a more
positive user experience. Similarly, thinking about the navigation, how the
site will work, and why users are coming to your site will give you greater
insight to what you need to achieve when designing a new website. Don't let
design elements be a usability handicap. Placing pertinent information in
highly visible sections of the site will be most effective and will ensure that
the design is functional as well as aesthetically pleasing.
Page Design
Page design consists of graphics as well as content. The overall visual
impression can easily lead a user to an uncomfortable experience if the graphic
placement is not thought out. Contemplating meaning and presentation is a
challenge that every designer and developer must face everyday. If graphics are
just thrown onto a page with out any thought they could confuse and distract
users are dilute the message you are trying to convey. Usability is about
making the user feel at ease. Noticeable navigation and scannability of call to
action areas makes your message very clear. Users will scan pages only reading
headlines and titles until they see something that catches their eye. Cleverly
written headlines will draw more users every time and keep them on your website
longer. Users are scanners and scannability is key to any website design. Take
a moment and scan a page on your website for 3 seconds. Are you able to
understand what your company is about? Are your key elements prominently
displayed? If not, you need to think about the structure and organization of
the page design. Consider the meaning of your site and its purpose. To maximize
overall usability, the information on each page needs to appear in a specific
order. For example, if there were no graphics in your website, you would want
the page structure to look like an outline. If the structures of the key
elements are in place, then it should be very easy for a user to understand
your site. For example, websites like craigslist
get thousands of viewers a day. This traffic doesn't stem from the site's
visual appeal, but from its ease of use. Even if it is your first time on the
site, you can still easily navigate to what you're looking for. This is part of
the success of craigslist and other Ugly
Websites that Work
.
Development
The development is possibly the most important step in the exposure to your
website. Designing an attractive website is useless if no one can find it.
Placement on the search engines is the vital lifeline that maintains any online
business. That visibility is determined by how well your website is catalogued
by the major search engines. Developing websites with web standard code allows
your website to be as accessible as possible. Proper code means giving all of
your headings H tags, using style sheets for all of your formatting, and using
proper HTML and XHTML markup for all other elements. In order for your content
to appear semantically correct, the proper web standards must be applied to the
development of the website. You want the most important information to appear
closest to the top when search engine spiders come to crawl through your
website. Making your website accessible and usable to search engines is just as
important as usability to your viewers.
Proper development and structure of your content should look similar to this:
Main Topic (H1)
Subcategory (H2)
Aspect of subcategory
Aspect of subcategory
Subcategory (H2)
Aspect of subcategory
Aspect of subcategory
This outline structure is useful for both search engines and users. It is
logical and easy to scan.
Using web standard compliant code also allows you to reach the largest number
of viewers with and without disabilities. Attributes such as alt text, for
example, make it possible for screen readers to vocalize text to blind users
where graphics are used. The mass retailer Target Corporation recently became
aware of the importance of this development step after being smacked with a
lawsuit for failing to make their website accessible to users with
disabilities. The Target website did not contain the proper HTML markups that
disabled users commonly depend on to browse the Internet. Proper site
development can also ensure cross browser compatibility and improve your site's
usability on portable devices like cell phones and PDAs. Designing with web
standard compliant code reduces the amount of headaches when it comes to
testing your site's overall usability because more browsers recognize web
standard code rather than clunky hacks.
Site design, page design and development of all websites go hand in hand. You
cannot have a successful website without each of these elements being carefully
thought out and constructed, from the text that goes into each button to where
you place the content on every page. All too often, people jump into websites
and just want to get something up online. However, the days when simply having
a website was an accomplishment are gone, and a half ass effort simply won't
cut it. To make a positive impression today, your website must be informative,
professional, and above all, usable. Focusing on proper website design, page
design, and development are the 3 essential steps to creating a functional and
successful website.
About the Author
Drew Stauffer and John King started
Wildfire Productions in 2003. Focusing on web standards and usability,
Wildfire develops custom websites for their clients that out perform their
competitors.
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