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Web Usability: The Basics
What is web usability & why is it important?
Web usability is about making your website in such a way that your site users can find what they're looking for quickly and efficiently. A usable website can reap huge benefits on to your website and your business.
* Every £1 invested in improving your website's usability returns £10 to £100 (source: IBM)
* A web usability redesign can increase the sales/conversion rate by 100% (source: Jakob Nielson)
Your website has to be easy to navigate
Users have gradually become accustomed to particular layouts and phrases on the Internet, for example:
* Organisation logo is in the top-left corner and links back to the homepage
* The term 'About us' is used for organisation information
* Navigation is in the same place on each page and adjacent to the content
* Anything flashing or placed above the top logo is often an advertisement
* The term 'Shopping cart' is used for items you might wish to purchase
There are numerous other conventions like these that enhance your website's usability - can you think of some more?
Don't underestimate the importance of these conventions - as the Internet matures we're getting more and more used to things being a certain way. Break these conventions and you may be left with nothing but a website with poor usability and a handful of dissatisfied site visitors.
Pages must download quickly
Usability studies have shown that 8.6 seconds is the maximum time web users will wait for a page to download (source: Andrew B. King - Speed Up Your Site). As of March 2004 just 25% of UK web users had broadband (source: UK National Statistics) so it's essential for optimal usability that your website downloads quickly.
To speed up the download time of your website we recommend you do three things:
* Use CSS and not tables to lay out your web page
* Use CSS and not images to create fancy navigation items
* Read this article about how to speed up the download time of your web pages at http://www.webcredible.co.uk/speed
Information should be easy to retrieve
We read web pages in a different manner to the way we read printed matter. We generally don't read pages word-for-word - instead we scan. When we scan web pages certain items stand out:
* Headings
* Link text
* Bold text
* Bulleted lists
Did you notice that images were left out of that list? Contrary to the way in which we read printed matter, we see text before we see images on the Internet. For optimal website usability don't place important information in images as it might go unnoticed.
Restrictions must not be placed on users
Don't prevent your users from navigating through the Internet in the way that they want to. For example:
1. Every time a link is opened in a new window the back button is disabled. Approximately 60% of Web users employ the back button as their primary means of navigation (source: Usability Interface). If you do this then you're preventing 60% of your users from using their primary navigation - now that can't be good for usability.
2. Don't use frames to lay out your website. Frames can cause a number of usability problems, namely:
* Disabling the back button (see above)
* Bookmarking not possible
* Impossible to e-mail the link to someone else
* Problems with printing
* Users feel trapped if external links open in the same window
* Search engine optimisation issues
There are lots of other ways that websites can place restrictions on its users, ultimately damaging their usability - can you think of any more? Just think back to the last time a website really infuriated you - what annoying thing did it do to make you feel that way?
This article was written by Trenton Moss. He's crazy about web usability and accessibility - so crazy that he went and started his own web usability and accessibility consultancy ( Webcredible - http://www.webcredible.co.uk ) to help make the Internet a better place for everyone. They offer fantastic accessibility & CSS support packages, which you can read all about at http://www.webcredible.co.uk/support .
Building Your Website to Save You Money
Does your website make you any money? Does it SAVE you any money?Websites are more than just marketing tools, out there in Cyber-Land effortlessly promoting you and your products. While that's great, why not use that same website to save yourself some money?How? Well, while I don't know your particular situation, I can provide you with some thought-provoking ideas that you can take back to your web designer for more input.Reduce your support costs.It is often cheaper, easier, and more effective to support customers over the Internet than through more tradiditonal methods such as telephone and direct mail. Services such as instant messaging and Get1on1 (www.get1on1.com) provide immediate chat facilities to current and potential customers.Corporations can support their employees and business partners over their corporate intranets, keeping them informed and soliciting their feedback. Providing documentation for perusal saves time and reduces labor on your email server.Providing a map to your location can save your receptionist valuable minutes on the phone explaining turns and streets, freeing her up for more important tasks.Including a forum on your site can bring people of a common industry or interest together to discuss upcoming events, current problems, and other interesting ideas and thoughts. These forums can grow very large very quickly. And, in the meantime, your website traffic increases. Stick an ad on the forum and bring in more sales from people that you already know have expressed interest in your industry.Interested in reading more ways to increase your sales and save money?Visit http://techlh.com/why_web.htm and read our full storynow!
A Beginners Guide to Web Page Design
Designing your own successful web page can seem difficult and nearly impossible if you do not do a little research first. The reason you need to know the basics of web page design is because the design of your website will actually influence whether or not people continue to visit your site and ultimately, whether they will buy from you or not. Obviously, a lot is riding on your website design so it is worthwhile to take this seriously and put some effort into doing it right the first time.
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No Matr How Goud The Infomation...
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