Web Usability

Introduction
• Usability is a critical issue for the WWW
– If your site is difficult to use - people leave
– If it is not clear what is offered - people leave
– If it is hard to read - people leave
– If it is unattractive - people leave
– If it is boring - people leave
– If they get lost - people leave
– If they get frustrated - people leave
– If it doesn’t work the way they are used to – people
leave
 Use of Back Button
• If you find that people use the back button on your
website a lot of times, It means that the design is
not telling the users where to go and they are
making mistakes in navigation.
 Information Layout
• Jackob Neilson conducted a study about how
people read web pages.
• His main conclusion …

They DON’T
 Information Layout

“People rarely read Web

pages word by word; instead,
they scan the page, picking
out individual words and
sentences.” Jackob Neilson
 Information Layout

“They found that 79 percent of the

test users always scanned any new
page they came across; only 16
percent read word-by-word” Jackon
Neilson
Prime Area of Web Site
Prime Area of Web pages
 Navigation
Navigation, can be defined as the set of
actions and techniques that guide users
throughout the app or website to fulfil their
goals successfully.
Fifteen Mistakes to Avoid in Web
Usability
 1. Above the fold
Are the name of your business and purpose of your
website immediately obvious to visitors? When
visitors land on your website, they expect to quickly
see who you are and what you offer. Make sure the
name of your business and your products and/or
service offerings are prominently displayed on your
home page.
1. Above the fold
 2. Speed
Does the website load in three seconds or less on
desktop, tablet AND mobile? According to one
research, 47 percent of consumers expect a web page
to load in two seconds or less, and 40 percent of
people abandon a website that takes more than three
seconds to load. Site speed killers include clunky
code, images that are too large, and too many
external calls to cloud services. Use Pingdom’s
Website Speed Test or Google’s PageSpeed Insights
tool to analyse speed.
2. Speed
2. Speed
3. Responsiveness
 3. Responsiveness
Does the website look good and perform well on
all devices? A “responsive” website works equally well
on desktop and mobile. For example, people who visit
your website on their smartphones should not have to
pinch, zoom or swipe just to view the content. When
the user clicks on a menu or selects an action, the site
should respond instantly. A responsive layout adjusts
according to screen size, offering an optimized
browsing experience. Use Google’s Mobile Friendly
Test to see how your websites scores.
3. Responsiveness
3. Responsiveness
 4. Intuitiveness
Is it obvious what the user should do on the
website? Make a list of five to 10 things the user
might want to do on each page; if it’s not obvious
how to easily accomplish each action item, fix it. The
content on your page should generally go left-to-
right, and then top-to-bottom. Put the most
important information (or the most likely action
items) at the top left, and take it from there.
 5. Navigational Simplicity
Is it easy for users to make their way around your
website? They shouldn’t have to think too
hard about how to get from here to there and back.
Make sure the main navigation appears on
every page and always gives a way for the user to return
from the path they’ve taken to reach
any part of the website. At the very least, include a link
to the home page and other major
sections of the website to allow for immediate
movement through the site. Avoid using too
many menus and menu options.
5. Navigational Simplicity
 6. Readibility
Is the text easy to read and does it scale? It’s not
easy to read fancy, script-y fonts and text
over a background that doesn’t provide enough color
contrast. Stick to three or fewer easy-to read
typefaces and a high-contrast, text-to-background
color combo. If in doubt, you really
can’t go wrong with black text over a white
background. And make sure the browser’s zoom
function works on your text.
6. Readibility
6. Readibility
 7. Scannability
Can user quickly and easily scan the website for
information? People don’t want to read
too much to find what they’re looking for on your
website — especially on the home page. Keep
the text short and snappy, with plenty of whitespace,
so they can scan the page to take in its
information at a glance.
 8. Cleanliness
Is the Website copy clear and error-free? You’re
striving for simple and accurate. Typos,
missing words and bad grammar are major hits to
your website’s credibility. If you’ve got
a proofreading buddy or, better yet, a professional
proof reader and/or copywriter. At the very
least, be sure to read and re-read the copy if you’re
the only person writing it and publishing it
on your website.
 9. Elegance
Is there plenty of whitespace? Whitespace,
negative space or empty space, is your friend.
To use a retail analogy, high-end stores feature wide,
friendly aisles; junk stores cram things
together. The same philosophy holds true for your
website: Use whitespace as a primary design
element.
9. Elegance
 10. Branding
Do the website’s colors align with your brand’s
personality? Your website is the go-to place to
showcase key branding elements, including your
logo, fonts and color scheme. These are the visual
cues that help anchor your online presence across
multiple platforms - like your website and various
social media channels. 
10. Branding
 11. Contact Info
Is it easy for prospective customers or business partners
to reach you? Your Contact page is one of the most important
sections of your website - a portal for turning prospects into
customers. Make it as good as it can be. Unless you have a truly
compelling reason not to do so, provide at minimum a phone
number and email address. If you have a physical location,
include a mailing address and map. Then take it a step further
by putting your primary contact info on every page of your
website.
11. Contact Info
 12. Search
How well does your website’s search feature
work? Great job if your search feature is spot-on.
Not quite there? Make the investment into getting it
fixed.
 13. Timeliness
Is all the information on your website
current? Make sure that business contact
information, service offerings, prices - essentially, all
the information on your website - remains up-to-
date.
 14. Annoyances
• Does your site include any features that many users
find annoying? Some of these features might include:
• Pop-up menus. While pop-ups can serve a business
purpose (such as capturing newsletter signups), they
are generally a usability nuisance. Evaluate the need for
pop-ups on your website, and look for alternative
solutions.
• Autoplay. If your website automatically plays music or
videos when the home page loads, it’s time to turn
those features off.
 15. Error Handling
• What happens when someone goes to an
invalid URL or moved/missing page? If they
see a nice error prompt that leads them to the
right place, give yourself a pat on the back. Great
work. Next best? A customized 404 Page Not
Found message. Not so good? A default 
404 Page Not Found message. In that case, stop
whatever you’re doing and get your web guru to fix
your error handler immediately.