Want to improve your website ease-of-use? Then learn how to do a website usability evaluation. We’ll show you how to do a basic review of your website usability with this 3 series article.
Read time for this Part 1: about 5 minutes…
Learn what usability issues are common and you can become adept at avoiding the things website visitors find frustrating.
First, be aware of the 11 common categories of usability evaluation:
- navigation
- functionality
- control
- help and support
- language
- feedback
- consistency
- error handling
- workflow support
- visual clarity
- window management
Second, let us briefly touch upon each of these 11 categories.
Usable website:
Navigation means your visitor can clearly determine his current location within the website structure, a search function is available, a sitemap is provided, there is a consistent link to the homepage from every webpage and access from the homepage to every other webpage exists.
Functionality means each item of functionality is clearly labeled; common functions are available on your site – without forcing the customer to visit another site to complete an interaction, and special plugins are not required for these functions to operate.
Control means your webpage download time is kept under 8 seconds, all web browsers are supported, graphics have appropriate alternative descriptions, your visitor can proceed through the website in a natural manner and can easily cancel or exit a process.
Help and support means your website provides a help section that is concise and relevant.
Language means your website only employs terms that are understandable by its audience, and jargon is avoided.
Feedback means your website provides immediate, succinct messages for all interactions requiring submission of a form or access to a database requiring a wait, and contact details are readily accessible.
Consistency means your website maintains the same colours for active and visited hyperlinks, only one term is used to describe an item, menu items match page titles and conventional terms are used to describe common functions such as “search” or “submit.”
Error handling means the likelihood of errors occurring on your website are eliminated; and if there are errors, a clear, simple, concisely-stated escape is provided.
Workflow support means your visitor is not forced into unnecessary actions.
Visual clarity means your website uses sufficient white space to support a clear layout and no unnecessary animation or multimedia is used.
Window management means your website avoids opening multiple windows or web browser instances, as this generally confuses visitors and can “break the back button.”
Next article in this series, we will look at real examples of each of these 11 categories of website usability, with some practical advice on how to proceed with your learning process.
So, have a look at your website and see if you can find some usability pros and cons!
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S Evangelou 22 October 2008
Student It Website Usability Review
Need a professional website usability evaluation? Contact us today.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I appreciate the information as I am always looking to learn new things in general but especially if it will help my website and blog.
Thanks for your comment, Cliff. Do let us know if we can be of assistance.
Regards
Scott
This is a very useful article, especially for people like me who are new to website management.
Glad it helped, Mutuelle. Be sure to subscribe to our feed (by reader or email) for the next articles in the series.
Regards
Scott
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