Usability Check List

Web usability is now a big issue and concern not only for web designers and online marketers but also for SEO's as user behavious can have a direct effect on a sites search engine rankings.

We have put together this quick usability check list to guide you on the right path to creating a usable and friendly site that people will find easy to read, use and navigate. These are the vital ingredients needed to create a usable web site.

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Download Time
Page Layout
Browser Compatability
Headings
Navigation
Search Function
Static Site Map
Content
Simplicity

Download Times

Page Download time is a big issue even today. The fact of the matter is that people are inpatient and on the web, fresh new information is only a matter of clicks today. If you'r site doesn't give the user what they want, when they want it, ie right NOW!, then you will probably lose that visitor before they have even had a chance to see your site.

To make sure download times are kept to a minimum make sure that images are the correct size and are optimised for the web. Far too often huge high quality images are stuffed into a tiny space on a web page which causes a site to load much more slowly than it needs to.

If you aim to make a fully downloadable by a 56K Modem connection within about 5 seconds you will be on the right path for download times. There is a nice article on search engine guide all about reducing download times.

Here is a nice download calculator to see how long it would take to download a file of a certain type. To work this out for your site add up all of the files and images on one page, that includes javascript and css files, add up the file sizes and put the resulting size into the calculator. You may get quite a suprise!

Browser Compatability

Browser compatability is still a big issue today. Despite a lot of effort for web standardisation and some good attempts to bring things closer together, we still have browser compatability issues. This means that one browser may display things slightly differently to another, or in some case not at all!

This is why a web site should always be developed with cross browser compatability in mind and tested in Internet Explorer and Fire Fox at the very least. Different computer systems, screen sizes, screen resolution and colour depths all play a part in the user experience. Testing is essential.

Rekying on the latest versioon of Macromedia Flash Player to include the latest function is great as an application but consider that not everyone will have the latest version of flash player. This means your flashy new site might not be visible to 90% of the people that try and use it!

Google Analytics gives you a host of data here. Compare bounce rates between Internet Explorer and Firefox. Check with Mac and Windows systems and different screen sizes. If you identify a large diffence in bounce rate you have probably uncovered a browser or system combination compatibility error.

Page Layout

Page layout is important as people come to expect things to be in a certain place on a web site. It is a parady that design usually dictates something new and imaginative but for web design it is important to stick to convention.

This means a content in the center of the page, a header at the top, navigation across the top or on the left, a page title, a logo in the top left hand corner and some other design features that make all of it look attractive.

Google gives a heat map of people's focus on a web page. Whilst this particular image is about Google AdWords views the smae applies to general use of a web site. This shows how important it is to attract people's focus to the right areas of the page at the right time.

Page Headings

Page Headings keep a page focused and help to split it up into manageable chunks. On the web people don't read all of the content on a page they scan through. This is why having a bold heading is important and useful for attention grabbing to each specific section.

Site Navigation System

Navigation is one of the most experiamented areas of web design. The onue has been on creating something dynamic and funky but it should realy be on keeping it simple and usable. There are some drop down menu systems that only work on Windows and Internet Explorer. This cuts out a lot of people that could be spending money on your site.

I like to load sub menus permanently into a seperate pane if I have to use them at all. There is a three click rule that says you should be able to find what you want on a site within three clicks from the homme page. Can you do this on your site? This is brings us neatly onto the reasons for having a site search facility on your site.

Site Search Facility

Like I said, people are lazy if they can't find something they will click elsewhere. But all those lazy people who couldn't be bothered to click through several pages on your site might stick around if you put up a site search facility. This lets them put in exactly what they are looking for and if a match is found you have kept a visitor that you would have otherwise lost.

Static HTML Sitemap

A static HTML sitemap is a good thing to include as it lets a search engine index all of the files you have on your site easily. But it has another classic and now almost antique function of letting users have a quick over view of the site. It is a map of your site thus it is called a "site map".

You can easily layout all of the pages on your site for visitors to see. If you have a very large site you can create sectional or sub site maps. Google recomends keeping links on a page to below 100. You can also add an XML sitemap to further helps search engines find all of your pages.

Good readable content

Once you have kept a visitor with good design and layout you must have good readable content. If the content is not readable and engaging a visitor will simply click back and go else where. You don't want this at all so you had better write some good content!

Effective use of CSS is good to help form the look of a site. An important thing with your content is to use a sans serif fon't as it is much more readable. Also note that upper case letters take 50% longer to read than lower case letters. This means that all of your capitalised headings are taking people longer to read!

Right small paragraphs and keep them focused to a specific topic.... I'm still talking about writing content here so I must be doing a reasonable job right?

Simplicity

I am a big fan of the KISS theory or method - KISS = Keep It Simply Stupid! Some of the best inventions in the world are increadibly simple ideas. By keeping web sites simple they do not appear too busy and don't distract a user or cause visitors to get confused.

Make it Useable to Make it Successful

Having all of the creates products and content in the world will not help you at all if your site is not user friendly. User behaviour is a major factor in a web sites success and now influences search engine rankings. As an SEO, you simply can't afford not to pay attention to web usability.

Read some of the resource below and learn more about this important aspect of web development.