Lately I’ve been getting lots of calls from people who have a website but aren’t quite getting the traffic out of it they want. There are many factors which effect a website’s success. Search engine optimization, which I talked about a few weeks ago here, is a big part of that. Last week I also mentioned website usability and I’d like to expand on this a bit more.
The “Mom Test”
According to wikipedia website usability is the art of making a site easy to use without any special training or direction. In other words, the website should be intuitive. I like to call it the “Mom test.” If my mom can figure out my website or app without calling me 5 times for direction, then it has great usability!
Let’s face it. No one wants to work to use your website. Website users need to be spoon fed your content.
Here are a few examples of usability practices. Contact info is usually expected at the bottom of the page or somewhere in the header. You wouldn’t want people to have to hunt for that so it is common practice to put it where it is expected. Back buttons on a web app are expected to be in the top left corner. One last example is to have the logo clickable to the home page.
Now that we know a bit about usability, here are a few tips to improve your website usability.
5 second rule:
This is the one I see the most and is also the most destructive. The home page of a website is the most crucial page. You need to capture a visitor’s attention quickly before they get distracted and move on. The inclination is often to cram the home page with anything and everything they might need, rows and rows of text, ads and popups and so on… The end result is a barrage of info that has no focus or clear path for the user to follow. More likely they will leave and remember nothing of what they read. The 5 second rule dictates that the home page give the user a basic overview of who you are that they can digest in 5 seconds or less. If they want to know more, that info is also available just a simple click away.
A Consistent Design
Our brain picks up colors and styles without us knowing. For example, when we see red and yellow, we think McDonalds. This process is called branding (read more about it here) and is much more in depth than we are going to go into here. But the basic premise here is that you need a consistent design on your website. Website users should know and trust that you are who you say you are. A consistent design gives a subtle feel of professionalism and stability.
I often see clients who get carried away with “the shiny.” “The shiny” is my term for the newest fad or style that is trendy and invokes the thought, “I must have it!” While it is important to keep your website current and modern, it is also important to be consistent with your design and theme. If you are constantly adding new pages without any theme consistency, users will be confused and lose confidence in your site.
Skimmable Text
This is similar to the 5 second rule but applies to all content. Usability testing shows that few users actual read page content but rather skim. A good website design will facilitate this process with clear and keyworded headlines and short paragraphs. I prefer my headlines to be bolded and in a different color, which good white space around to “rest” the eye.
Along the same lines, content should be concise and simple. Less fluff, more meat. Numbers should be written numerically (1000 instead of one thousand). Use bulleted lists, charts or other text formatting when appropriate.
Images in the Text
Images are a great way to reinforce your idea as well as help out the particularly lazy readers. They also can help with SEO when done properly so win-win!
