Usability refers to making your website easy for visitors to find information they require when they require it. A common misconception is that usability is expensive to achieve. While some multinationals do spend thousands of dollars testing usability, it is possible even for a small company to achieve usability without having a massive budget.
Here are 5 tips for usability in website design.
1. Tagline
A tagline is simply a motto or statement that represent an organizations mission and philosophy. The tagline needs to be the most obvious element on the front page of a website that should describe the website clearly in one phrase. Absence of a tagline makes it harder to keep visitors long enough to browse other pages.
2. Site Search
Site search is equally an important element on a website. When visitors are searching for something, they will typically search for a text field for them to insert their search term. You need to ensure that the search box is clearly visible and easy to use. It is also good to place it on top of the web page.
3. Avoid Using Extensive Graphics
Excessive use of graphics and other design elements are all equally bad for your website since they simply mislead your website visitors. Your aim should be only to improve the web page as opposed to just decorating it. In terms of usability, less is always more.
4. Using Site Maps
Site maps are a feature that is relatively new to websites whose role is to improve search engine optimization as well as web page navigation. Site maps are simply a structural representation of the architecture and pages of a website. A site map can be a document or a webpage listing all the pages on your website usually organized in hierarchical fashion.
5. Creating Easily Scan-able Webpages
If you wish to maintain the loyalty of your visitors and keep them on your website reading and interacting with content, it is important to create easy to read webpages. Usability tests have revealed that most users never actually read web pages but prefer to scan them looking for lists, bold or emphasized texts, or titles.
Conclusion
Usability is important if you wish for your visitors to have meaningful and productive interaction with your website. Follow the five usability tips for website design discussed in this article to ensure that your website serves its purpose of interacting with visitors properly. So when you’re looking for web development company, be sure to find one that knows how to incorporate good usability into their designs.
