[dropcap]M[/dropcap]ost businesses usually neglect usability when creating their website. However, this is one of the critical factors that affect the success of any website and must never be overlooked. With good usability, the performance of any website will be enhanced and the chances of success boosted. There are different ways in which you can enhance the usability of your website. Discussed below are some of the factors that a user-friendly website must possess
Fast loading time
Nothing annoys website users more than a website that takes hours to load. Slow speed is one of the major reasons why new visitors will leave your website and this negatively affects search engine rankings. For good usability, you must ensure that your website loads in 4 to 6 seconds. The expectations of customers change over the years. A typical website visitor will wait for a few seconds for the webpage to load and if it takes a long time, they will move to a competitor’s website.
Mobile compatibility
Today, many people use mobile devices to access the internet. As a result, creating a mobile-friendly website is a necessity. If your website is not mobile compatible, you will be missing out on thousands or even millions of important visitors who can, in turn, become actual customers. If your website is inaccessible on mobile devices, you should create a mobile version of it in order to avoid missing out on the mobile web users.
Accessibility toll
A well-designed user-friendly website should be accessible to all internet users, including the elderly, disabled, and blind. These internet users normally use screen-readers to access the internet. By following the 508 website accessibility guidelines, you will have simple web design techniques that you can apply to ensure that your business or personal website is easily accessed by on-screen readers. This will make your website to be available to a bigger audience and this will positively impact your business.
Browser consistency
Even with the evolution of modern browsers over time, some inconsistencies still exist in how websites are interpreted by various browsers. Most businesses overlook browser consistency when developing their websites. Unfortunately, this is a problem that affects even the most reputable businesses as a result of neglect. It is important to ensure that your company website behaves and appears consistently on all the major browsers that people mainly use, for example, Opera, Safari, Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer.
Contrasting color scheme
A good website will have the best contrast between the content and the website background. This is a crucial web design principle that must never be overlooked. With a good contrast between the background and text, your content will be easy to read and comprehensible; for example, you can have a white background and black text. Lack of contrast will make it challenging for visitors to understand or even read your website content.
Excellent information architecture
How information is presented and organized on a website is crucial for good usability. Today, it is important for websites to provide a wide variety of resources and information to attract their target audience. Your website sections and categories should be carefully planned and information presented in a manner that makes it easier for users to find what they are looking for. When developing a website, a Web Design Company should always think from the perspective of the target users. This is especially important for companies that offer lots of content on their website.
Adherence to web design best practices
A website that follows relevant web design standards and best practices is usually more dependable and robust. This will ensure that a website has a faster loading time and it will appear consistent across different devices and browsers. In addition, it makes it easier for the owner to locate any problems and even troubleshoot when the need arises.
Well-formatted and easy to scan content
Most internet users will skim through webpage content instead of reading every word from the top of the page downwards. When scanning through key parts of the entire page quickly, internet users can determine whether the information is relevant to their immediate needs. Therefore, companies should always put this in mind when formatting their content. You can make it easy for your users to scan through your webpages by using paragraphs, headings, sub-headings, lists and bullets to break up your text.
Effective navigation
Another aspect of website usability is good navigation. Simple JavaScript and HTML menus usually work best and are consistent on all platforms and browsers. It is also essential for navigation to be free of clutter. This is why you need to restrict the number of menu items on your website. If you have a big website that has several pages and sections, then you can use sub-navigation or drop-down menus. Continuous advancements in JavaScript and DHTML libraries, for example, Ajax and Motools, have opened doors of new possibilities for designing innovative navigation systems to enhance usability.
Security
Security is one of the major concerns of web visitors today. You must ensure that your website adheres to all the industry guidelines and standards. Your website should be secure and use SSL encryption. For any forgot password feature, you must provide a password reset feature that asks for security questions for the user to answer. For websites that have user registration features, businesses must ensure that the user passwords are encrypted and they are not displayed using plain text.
Reliability
Users are always looking for a website that is reliable. Your business website should be accessible wherever and whenever a user wants to check you out. A good website should also be up and running for 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. You do not want your visitors to search you up and end up with a 404 error. Reliability of a website is what will set your business apart from your competitors.
A website is an important tool that you can use to market your business, products, or services and boost the success of your business. If you are designing a website, you must ensure that it is usable and likable. With good website usability, you will provide a seamless experience for your visitors and boost your chances of success. Usability is one of the crucial factors that sets apart professionally designed websites from the rest.
