Usability of Webdesign
Usability adds a lot to the success of certain web designs, if done correctly. But what exactly does this mean? Nowadays a majority of people have at least two different online devices, which in turn, have different screen sizes. In order to gain good usability within your website, you need to create a good ease of access of your website on a number of technical platforms, while also perfecting features of your web design; menus, hyperlinks, search bars etc.
There’s a lot to take into consideration when trying to produce a website with good usability, but I’m going to highlight five main things that you should particularly focus on. These are clarity, learnability, relevance, credibility, availability and accessibility.
It’s essential to maintain clear communication with your users throughout their experience of your website. Being clear and concise avoids confusion among your audience and makes them feel more comfortable and welcomed on your page, which in turn gains their trust in you as a business. This matter is also aided by use of a simplistic webdesign that doesn’t include an overwhelming amount of information, but perhaps photographs, illustrations and white spacing instead. It’s also vital to take your headings and subheadings into account when thinking about your layout; having what they need right there in front of them without them having to question. With regards to the text you do have on your page, you need to make sure it’s completely relevant and not rambling off on an unnecessary tangent, otherwise users will get bored and leave the site.
It’s also really important to maintain use of familiar webdesign attributes you have learned about through your own experience as a user. We, as users, get used to certain design concepts that become familiar to us over time from visiting website to website, therefore by you adapting these familiar grounds within your design consistently, you are familiarising your users, further making them feel more invited to your website. It becomes less time consuming for your audience as they will naturally expect the features your website includes, and be able to glide through the navigation of your website, adding a great user experience!
Linking back to the vital use of clarity, it’s also critical to always have relevant information. If what you’re saying doesn’t have much to do with your overall concept then everything else in your design will be ruined. You should think about your chosen target audience and what it is you want them to know and act upon when they click onto your site.
If you don’t include use of credibility in your website, you lose the trust of your users and your whole site pretty much goes to waste. To maintain this factor you should always include an ‘About Us’ portion somewhere on your page; this will allow your audience to find more out about you and gain a relationship with you and your story. As well as this section, you should also devote another to social media platforms you have perhaps set up alongside your website, so your users can explore and learn more about you furthermore.
Availability and accessibility is an aspect to your website that’s pretty mandatory among any others. It basically means you need to always make sure your website etc. is working properly — no broken links or rejected screen sizes or slow connections — because if users try to visit your website and it isn’t functioning, they will most definitely not be back. By monitoring your up-time you will most likely avoid this problem. It’s important to do this so that no flaws will be present when you have people trying to load your web-page.
