30 May 2002
Empower your website with usability

Many websites vanished during the dot-com crash because they failed to factor in a small, but important detail during their development - usability.

Web usability is the measure of the quality of the user experience when interacting with a website.

Its goal is to attract people to a site and convert them from one-time visitors to regular users.

And many websites think aesthetic graphics and flashy designs should be used to draw users.

But most users regard them as irritants because they are irrelevant, time consuming to download, and interfere with user experience.

They also do not justify the time and money invested in them.

For a website to be successful, it has to first understand user behaviour.

So what do web users really want?

In reality, users just want to reach their goals quickly and easily.

And usability is the keyword to satisfying users' needs and keep them coming back to your site.

It has been known to boost website returns and cut costs, by improving online experience through efficiency.

Keeping pages and graphics simple, and making sites easier to navigate and use, are cheaper options that will produce greater benefits for companies.

And usability is extremely vital for e-commerce sites.

It is very important to be able to lead customers to the checkout quickly and easily.

Bad user experience can hurt and affect a company's brand and bad design can kill websites.

According to usability expert Gul Amir Khan, a senior consultant with MicroUsability, the first 30 seconds users spend at a new site are very crucial, as this is when they decide if it has any relevance to their needs.

The homepage, which is the most important page on websites, must provide immediate solutions.

It has to show what the site is about and what users can do there; otherwise users will most likely abandon it.

And losing users means lost revenues.

Factoring usability at the pre-development stage will eliminate future expensive and unnecessary redesigns.

And don't underestimate the importance of simple issues such as colour, font and layout.

Collectively, they have a huge effect on customer usability - which is reflected in return on investment and sales through a site.

According to Mr Khan, the right colour balance, teamed with a simple and consistent layout, will make text more readable.

Mr Gul Amir Khan has carried out many usability workshops, which highlight usability guidelines and techniques, as well as website evaluations.

To find out more about these usability workshops and strategies for online effectiveness, visit www.microteams.com.