Usability is an integral part of any website and is just as important as accessibility and search engine friendliness. So many websites are shooting themselves in the foot with poor usability by making it difficult for users to navigate, access material, and even purchase products. Why then, do so many websites simply ignore the usability principles set out? Is it lack of knowledge, awareness, or skill? We’re going to be looking into the possible reasons for poor usability in this article.

First, a bit of background on usability and why it’s important. We’ll also mention a few examples of things that can be done to improve usability and discuss the principles and best practices.

Website usability refers to the ease of use and interaction between a user and a website. This is reflected by the design, layout, structure, and the way in which the user interacts with the website. Of course, different user demographics vary from website to website and so the type of language used and principles will vary.

How often have you visited a website and been unable to locate the information you were looking for? Did you ever visit the website again? The chances are, you didn’t, and the reason for this was probably due to a lack of usability considerations. As a web developer, it’s vital to make sure visitors don’t get frustrated and leave the site - especially an e-commerce website which relies on visitors to make a profit. Website owners are literally throwing money away by not investing a little time to make their website more user friendly. User experience is so important!

So then, what can be done to a website to improve the usability? There are various principles and best practice guidelines set out by usability experts. Two of the most well known and respected experts are Ben Shneiderman and Jakob Nielsen. I will not discuss these principles in this article, however, to give you an idea of the sort of practical things that websites should be doing I have complied a short list below. For more information on the experts and principles see the links at the end of this article.

Practical Usability Principles
These practical usability principles will need to be interpreted to suite the type of website and audience, and are meant as guidelines to illustrate the kind of things we mean when discussing website usability.

Many principles have been derived from extensive research (location of navigation) and others have come about from best practise based on what visitors are used to (colours of links).

1. Provide informative feedback for errors and interactions.
2. Create a sitemap.
3. Logo should link to the homepage and appear in the header.
4. Site search should be in the top right of the page.
5. A breadcrumb trail should be used to show the current position from the homepage.
6. Pages with lots of content should include a “Back to Top” link.
7. Colours of links and text should be consistent.
8. Design and layout must be consistent throughout the site.

Why is usability overlooked?

Usability and accessibility concerns have been around for as long as the first website, however, accessibility has only been taken seriously over the last 3 years or so (and even now inaccessible websites far out weigh accessible ones). Why then, has usability been left behind?

Not a legal requirement
Usability is not a legal requirement and never will be. Therefore website owners do not have a legal obligation to take usability seriously or face prosecution. Widespread accessibility issues were only really taken into account once the DDA had been amended to include website accessibility.

Lack of awareness and appreciation
Many website owners and developers are simply unaware of the usability principles and the effect it can have on a website. Some simply fail to see the importance. There is a lot of overlap between usability and accessibility, and so people may think that an accessible website is also a usable website - this is not the case! Accessibility guidelines do not state that the search bar should be in the top right of the page, however, they do specify the colours for links.

Lack of skill
Applying usability principles to a website is typically very easy - with the use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), design elements can be changed site wide in a matter of minutes. There is no real skill involved other than an understanding of layout, design, and coding. The main skill lies with interpreting the guidelines correctly rather than actually applying them.

Laziness
The final reason is pure laziness. It takes time and effort to research and analyse the principles to see how they can be applied to a website. Usability does not directly help with search engine optimisation and accessibility so why bother? Tell that to your visitors that have left your site in frustration vowing to never come back!

Summary

Usability is a vital part of a website which is often overlooked. Whether it’s because of a lack of awareness, the fact that it’s not a legal requirement, or just laziness - usability should be taken very seriously. With the latest Web 2.0 websites, usability is becoming more of an issue and hopefully usability will become just as important as accessibility and search engine optimisation.

For more information on web usability please contact us on +44(0)1202 315285 or info@acmultimedia.co.uk. Learn more about AC Multimedia.

Usability