Good websites are designed to be both easy to use and attractive. When visitors come to a website they don’t want to have to think about how to accomplish whatever it is they came for. They shouldn’t have to search for links or content or the right button to click.
Well designed products have buttons in the right places and use pictures, symbols and actions that people intuitively feel comfortable with. The same is true of websites. People expect search boxes to be in a certain place (usually upper left) and Submit or Next buttons to be on the right (it helps to think of advancing web pages like turning pages in a book).
Good website usability doesn’t necessarily have to be difficult. Take a look at your website. Does everything feel like it’s in the “right” place? If you’re not sure, ask some customers and colleagues to try to accomplish some specific goals. For example, if you have an eCommerce site, ask someone to purchase a product for a specific purpose – like a gift for their kid’s birthday. How easy is it for them to find an item that fits that purpose? How appealing was the product on the page? Were they able to find the information they needed to make an informed purchase? Were they able to actually make the purchase? Get their feedback on whether anything seemed difficult or out of place (usability is the practice of methodically testing how users interact with something and then using that information to arrange items to make it easier to use).
Having a well designed website is important because it will affect how many sales and leads you are able to generate from it. If customers can’t find what they need from your site, they are likely just to go somewhere else instead.
(photo by tashmahal @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: usability, website design, good websites, business, design
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