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Web Site Usability

Web site owners should consider the needs of their customers when designing web content. Sites can be redesigned with more customer usability and convenience in mind.

Author: Angela Baca

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Your business web site could be the most important way you interface with customers. You should rethink the design of your business web site with customer convenience and usability as top priorities. How do you improve a design to which you are already attached? Here is a simple discussion on web site usability, including tips for improving how customers interact with your web site.

Customers Don’t Want to Think

Steve Krug, author of “Don’t Make Me Think—A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability,” explains his foremost tip for web site usability. “Don’t make me think…It’s the overriding principle—the ultimate tie breaker when deciding whether something works or doesn’t in a Web design…I should be able to ‘get it’—what it is and how to use it—without expending any effort thinking about it.”

If your customers are thinking too hard because your web design does not work naturally with their instincts for where to click, it is time to go back to the drawing board.

Customers Hate Feeling Intimidated

Site interconnectedness (or where to click) is one aspect of web usability. Your content can also intimidate your customers. For example, customers want to understand your terms (i.e. your headings for categories of information) and the language in your explanations and web articles. You can balance plain language with the need to communicate with customers in the language of your business. If your business caters to a knowledgeable niche audience, your site readability considerations are different from the readability needs of general users.

Customers Want Reliable Information They Can Find Quickly

The click-through usability of your web site means that people know where to click without thinking or feeling confused. When they have successfully clicked and arrived at their destination web page, your customers should find reliable information. For example, your product or service descriptions should accurately inform customers what they need to know before buying. If you provide consumer-oriented web articles, these articles should provide good tips and information. Do not pack your web site with cheap content (including text of questionable value).

Your Customers Want to Return for a Similar Experience

There should be some consistency to your web site design. Once customers get used to your site, they want to return for a similar experience. From the web design perspective, that means you can make improvements to your web site, but you do not want to redesign the whole site so frequently that customers visiting every few months must view an updated tutorial to navigate the site. On the other hand, your site should provide a navigation tutorial for users who typically rely upon that usability tool.

Your Customers Want to Contact You When They Have Problems

A good web site should also have an easy way for customers to receive customer service. Customers want timely responses to their customer service questions such as billing concerns and technical questions such as why they cannot access their account.

When you improve your business web site for higher usability, you are doing your customers a great service. It is worth investing in the services of a web design expert or usability consultant if you have the budget for this valuable service.

About Author

Angela Baca is a freelancer, writer, blogger, and entrepreneur. Since fall 2008, she has been ranked in the Top Ten Most Prolific Writers at Constant-Content.com.

Article Source: http://www.1888articles.com/author-angela-baca-20669.html