Website Usability
Advantages of a Receptional Usability Analysis Report:
- Increased customer satisfaction: 'happier' visitors who buy / return / recommend to others
- Improved conversion rate / sales
- Enhanced brand image
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What is Website Usability?
The usability of a website can be defined as the ease with which visitors are able to achieve specified goals. Thus, a 'visitor friendly' site is one which engenders user satisfaction.
The user experience of commercial websites is becoming a key differentiator for website owners in an increasingly competitive market. You want visitors to find your site, use it, and be satisfied with the experience. You may wish them to stay on the site and work their way through several areas, you may want them to purchase from the site, return to the site frequently, recommend it to another user, or link to it. All of these actions are conditional on the visitor having a good experience when using the site - if they are frustrated or confused by the experience they have, it is very likely they will leave and unlikely that they will return.
Benefits for the visitor
- Easier access to information
- Easier navigation of the site
- Reduction of irritation factors
- A better overall experience
Potential Improvements
Content and page layout communicate what your site is about, the products or services you offer and your unique selling points. Potential usability considerations include reviewing whether the text is clear, relevant and informative. Do the colours provide adequate contrast for ease of reading? Is the site/page layout logical, and is it easy to find the information you are looking for?
Information architecture and navigation are some of the primary mechanisms that allow users to move around your site and find information on your products and services. Possible usability questions to ask might be is it easy to see where you are on a site, where you have been, and where you want to go? Are menus of services in the right place, and easy to use and consistent? If you don't enter the site on the home page, can you navigate to another part of the site easily?
Tasks and processes that users undertake are important considerations for any modern website and range from finding product information to filling in an enquiry form to purchasing products in your online store. Considering what your visitors will want to achieve on the site should drive factors such as the number of steps in a buying process or the information requested on contact forms.
Accessibility is a topic closely related to usability, and is concerned with the ability of different visitors being able to actually use and interact with your site. Is the site suitable for use by people with visual impairment or impaired motor functions, is it compatible with their screen reader? Can the site be accessed by different types of equipment and devices? There is increasing legislation in this area, and poor accessibility is artificially restricting the size of a potential market.
Receptional's Usability Analysis Report
With extensive experience of working with client websites, Receptional's consultants have a collective skill and knowledge which mean we are able to identify website usability problem areas.
When conducting a Usability Report, we create profiles of the typical users, and ascertain the type of requirements they may have. We will look at the tasks and processes visitors may perform on a particular site, and the typical navigation routes they may take. We use our own 'test panels', who are briefed on specific tasks, then observed whilst they carry out the specified tasks and processes. Some of the issues we identify may seem quite minor, but the cumulative effect of several small difficulties is often enough for a visitor to leave a site early.
The use of our tracking technology adds specific quantitative data to the qualitative observations of our test panels. We can see where visitors enter a site, how they navigate a site, what they look at, and where they exit.
The problems we identify with a site are often easily corrected, with minimal disruption and change to the look and feel of the site, however, the impact - in terms of customer satisfaction and conversion rates - can be dramatic.
