News | Website usability article in Business Update
How user-friendly is your website? That's the question being asked by web design specialists, greensplash.
The Hartford-based company say more businesses are looking towards the web to generate new business opportunities, but warn that companies must score high on usability to succeed.
Many businesses fail to think about the end-user when designing and implementing a website and often add things without thinking about the overall structure, which can lead to inconsistancies in the 'look and feel' and navigation.
Andy Dunn, Creative Director at grenesplash, said: "Website usability is absolutely critical to survival. If a website's information is hard to read or doesn't answer users' key questions, users get frustrated. In a nutshell, if a website is less than easy to use, users leave."
Usability measures everything about the users' experience from how satisfying the site is to use to how easy it is to remember. If done correctly, can increase customer satisfaction, reduce training and support costs and raise sales and revenues.
greensplash has years of experience in designing and devleoping websites and have come up with some usability tips:
- Consider how users will be interacting with the website - problems often occur when businesses don't consider the long term aims of the site
- Undertake research before implementing a new website, whether full a full usability study or information from the internet
- Seeking professional help on usability can make good financial sense
- Take time to plan the site's navigation, structure and functions