Usability

Part 1: What is website usability?

In their book “The Flash Usability Handbook”, Ka Wai Cheung and Craig Bryant define usability as being:

“Usability measures how intuitive, efficient, and pleasurable the experience of using a(n) application is, as well as how effective the application is in achieving a user’s end goals.”

Website usability is about ease of use for the website visitor, inasmuch as the website is user centred, in other words, designed with the user in mind. Web pages load quickly, layout and colour draws the eye to important content so that information is highly visible as well as broken up into sections that do not overload the user’s attention span. This way the user finds three things:

1. Page layout is familiar and uses a recognisable grid pattern to group content. The visual design is pleasant and not only enhances the page content, as distinct from distracting the user it also highlights the key components.

2. Page controls such as hyperlink navigation and any on-page applications are designed to be intuitive and efficient: that is, the user knows that they are obviously user controls (for example underlined or labelled button hyperlinks) and all content is easily reached.

3. Page content, whether information or entertainment, should be easy to read and easy to look at, as well as laid out in sections which are easily scannable by the eye for highly visible keywords in headings and subheadings. Point form information in lists is preferable to large blocks of text.

 

Visibility:
            Text on web pages should be written in a colour that highly contrasts with the page background. The use of a non-serif font for small text such as paragraph text is easier to read. Both page and paragraph headings should reflect any sub-content. Cluttered content, all in the same font and colour is tantamount to useless.

Consistency:
            Consistent page design reduces the strain of memory load on users. In pages displaying a non-familiar interface the user is subjected to learning a new interface whereas familiar designs elicit previously learned activity in a seamless user experience.

Feedback:
            When the user clicks an hyperlink or other page control the response should be immediate enough so that the user is aware that the browser is responding to the click even it is merely a page loading or request being processed message that precedes the actual event.

Accessibility:
            It’s a good idea to offer users various methods of achieving the same result although not all at once so as to confuse users. Text links as well as drop down menus are an obvious example. The site should not only permit users to easily navigate the site but should also help them to secure the information or product they seek.

Descriptive navigation:
            All user controls such as hyperlink navigation should be self descriptive. This is to say that the name on the hyperlink must be a good description of the intended destination. Every part of the website should be accessible from every other part. No more than 3 clicks away is the “standard”. This may not be possible on extremely large sites. If navigation controls are grouped according to type, the navigation burden is eased. On very large, popularly visited sites, the use of AJAX and Rich Internet Application technology can be employed to deliver various navigation sets upon user demand.

Effective Design:
            Pleasant looking, eye-catching web pages are more pleasing to the user than garish or even bland web pages. Images should be there to enhance any textual information rather than merely for decoration. Layout is familiar, destinations are accessible thus the consistent design affords the user control of the site via a seamless, almost invisible user interface. The user will not only enjoy their visit to your website, furthermore, if it contains content of interest to them they will probably return.

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Part 2: How is usability identified and or used within the development of a web site’s lifecycle?

Identify user requirements:
            We must be aware of what are the users’ needs, as well as the users’ goals in utilising our website. Destinations that are likely to be popular should be given high visibility. Server logs can verify which destinations are the most popular. Canvassing likely users as to what they require would be a good start. Investigating the way other websites are constructed is also helpful, in some cases, of what not to do.

User testing:
Apart from adherence to the usability guidelines stated above which focus the website design on the requirements of the user, the only real way to ensure website usability is to employ user testing. User testing should be employed at every milestone of site development. One may not be able to afford professional testers but at least one can get a few friends or colleagues to test the intuitive usability of the site. Canvassing target user groups can be helpful in quantative terms but only real user feedback provides qualitative user information.

Correct any problems:
User testing supplies the developer(s) with results. These results should be employed in correcting any discrepancies the user testing discovers. Unused results are a waste of time. User testing tells us what we are doing correctly as well as identifying any problems that will require attention.

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Part 3: What are the benefits of conducting usability tests and to whom are the results beneficial and why?

Symbiosis:
The site is made to service the clients, the benefit of which is that the clients via a pleasant experience, easily find and get what they came for, and later on ... they return.

User testing, properly implementing any necessary changes, benefits both the owner(s) of the site and also the users; it is also of benefit to the website host inasmuch as the web server hardware receives less unnecessary use and besides this, usability testing benefits your suppliers since you will be ordering more products to cope with the demand of sales induced by the user centred web experience that results. However, the main intended benefits of usability are that one does not waste valuable time creating a useless or partly useless website that is like a storefront with no customers. Like an amazon women's shop in an all male town.

The users benefit since the site is an easy, non-stressful user experience so this means that the site owner(s) also benefit because the site is used for its intended purpose by its intended audience. If customers/visitors remain on your site because your site suits their purposes, which is the reason the site was uploaded in the first place, it is because the customers are getting what they want which means that you, the site owner are also getting what you want; that's business. Without this symbiosis, you've made a website for yourself, so there is no need to upload, you can view it at your leisure on your own pc.

If I may be permitted to finish with a quote by June Cohen regarding the planning of websites:-
           
“… whether you like it or not—whether they like it or not—users are in control of their own web experience. If they can't find, understand, or navigate your site, you've lost them. And you've lost.
Your web site, then, isn't for you. It's for your users. It should be organized the way they think and written in a language they understand.”

Thank you,
t3rry.

Quotes:
Ka Wai Cheung and Craig Bryant, “The Flash Usability Book”, Apress, 2006, ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-59059-594-7, ISBN-10 (pbk): 1-59059-594-7

June Cohen, “The Unusually Useful Web Book”, New Riders, 2003, ISBN 0-7357-1206-9

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