What is 'usability' and why is it important?

Website 'usability' is the science behind how people use and operate websites. Usability techniques are generally the results of scientific studies, like eye-tracking analysis, conducted on people as they use websites.

Making your site easy to use

Clear and structured navigation systems, minimal use of Flash technology and adherence to standardised conventions are essential to ensure your site visitors can navigate and understand your site as quickly and efficiently as possible.

An example...

One of our clients had an e-commerce site for nearly four years. During this entire time they were plagued with phone-calls from people saying they couldn't order from the site. Their previous web agency had exhausted every possible avenue of investigation and were never able to uncover technical errors or malfunctions. The client was rightly concerned. For every shopper that phones about a website problem, there will be hundreds that simply abandon and go elsewhere.

When we took over the project, we conducted a few simple usability tests and uncovered that, to order a product, it was necessary to select a 'quantity' from a menu that was in a completely incongruous place - not where users would expect to find it at all - and were consequently missing it completely and therefore unable to make their purchase. We moved the menu and the customer complaints disappeared overnight.

Simple, common sense techniques

It's simple, common-sense usability techniques like this that we build in to every one of our websites to make them as effective as possible for your potential customers.

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