1. Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.
2. Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages.
3. Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.
4. Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.
5. Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn’t recognize text contained in images.
6. Make sure that your TITLE tags and ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate.
7. Check for broken links and correct HTML.
8. If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a “?” character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few.
9. Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number (fewer than 100).

If your website is difficult to use, visitors will leave. If your homepage fails to clearly state what your company offers and what visitors can do on the site, they will leave. If users get lost on your website, they will leave. If a website’s information is hard to read or doesn’t answer their high-level questions, they will leave.

Clear Enough?

For brochureware sites, usability could be the lost sales lead of the year.

The first law of e-commerce is that if users cannot find the product, they cannot buy it either.

For intranets, usability is a matter of employee productivity. Time users waste being lost on your intranet or pondering difficult instructions is money you waste by paying them to be at work without getting work done.

Is it time for a site redesign?

Usability is a web design term on how easy a site’s user interface is to use. The word “usability” also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process.

There are five elements of Usability generally defined:

1. Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?
2. Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?
3. Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?
4. Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?
5. Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?

How is your website’s usability?