4.3.1 Introduction to usability
Usability is a very important yet somewhat under-rated factor in the success of a web site. The sites listed above are the two best sites about web usability. Poor usability is critical to running a successful e-business. According to Forrester Research two of the consequences of bad design are:
Losing approximately 50% of the potential sales from a site as people can't find what they need
Losing repeat visits from 40% of the users who do not return to a site when their first visit resulted in a negative experience: (quoted in a usability.gov)
And Jakob Nielsen of useit.com writes:
"Studies of user behavior on the Web find a low tolerance for difficult designs or slow sites. People don't want to wait. And they don't want to learn how to use a home page. There's no such thing as a training class or a manual for a Web site. People have to be able to grasp the functioning of the site immediately after scanning the home page — for a few seconds at most." (quoted in a usability.gov).
People use the Internet differently than they use other media. As a rule, people generally go online to get things done and if they shop online, they expect rocess to make their lives simpler, not more complicated. Go to usability.gov and click on the link “Usability Basics” to get a good overview of the issues related to usability.
There are a few sometimes counterintuitive rules to follow:
Use text and text links instead of graphics whenever possible. People avoid graphics because (in theory) they associate graphics with advertising. “Eye tracking” studies keep track of where a person looks while visiting a site – every study I’m familiar with confirms this fundamental fact. People don’t look at graphics.
If you insist on using graphics, make them look like a button. Don’t assume people will know to click on it.
When you use text links, make them descriptive. Don’t be clever. Be obvious instead. There are two reasons for this. The first is that people want to know where they are going before they click on a link. If they don’t understand it, they won’t click. They’ll also be annoyed if they follow a link that doesn’t take them where they want to be taken. For example, when I ran the newspaper web site, the printed newspaper had a news section called “Connect” which ran once a week in the business section and it was about technology. They wanted to put the section online and insisted on using a link that said “Connect”. When you think about it from an online visitors perspective, calling it “connect” is a bad idea because it has a very specific connotation online. Rather than thinking “Oh…the Connect section from the N&O!” A much more likely response would be “Connect to what?” These days, style sheets mean that your links don’t have to be underlined, which they were when the web first became prominent. It’s usually a good idea to make a link look like a traditional link – blue text and underlined. This isn’t really a rule; it can be broken sometimes. Consider it a suggestion.
Avoid “Flash” introductions. These are animated graphics that appear on the home page of some sites that you are expected to sit through before being able to do anything.
The best question to ask yourself is this: Does this graphic/animation make it any easier for my customer to buy from me? Does it convey information that can’t readily be conveyed in print?
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