Bog topic #5 Usability

When designing a website a designer needs to decide what is more important to the success of the website; extravagant design or usability.
An extravagant design can be appealing and bring a “wow” factor, but might be difficult to navigate.
A usable design can be an incentive for the user to explore the website in more depth which could result in better sales, but might also be considered boring.
Just like there are many studies on how people shop there are companies that study how people surf the web. Etre.com shows an interesting video on how this happens. http://www.etre.com/usability/eyetracking/showme/
Designing a usable website means designing a site that is:
Easy to navigate and read
Makes the user think he/she is in control
Has certain “key” anchor points
Easily accessible
It is important that the user can get from point A to point B without too much thinking. As such the following should be avoided.
Hidden links
Un-organized content
Complicated instructions
Sign-up restrictions

Greg Edwards has a blog called eyetools http://blog.eyetools.com/ in which he states that small decreases in viewing can cause significant drops in click rates ( the amount of clicks a link gets compared to being viewed) which can result in a significant drop in sales. It is important to get the viewer to the right place fast.

One thing many designers might not think about is color blindness. About 1 in 20 people are color blind and a website that uses colors that are hard to see can be a very frustrating experience. Here is a tool that can be used to show how an image might look like to someone who is color blind http://www.etre.com/tools/colourblindsimulator/

A checklist might help with creating a usable site for your client. I found one on the web, http://www.usereffect.com/topic/25-point-website-usability-checklist it is divided into 4 sections addressing;
Accessibility
Identity
Navigation
Content