Download - The impact of usability on your website

The Impact of Usability on Your Website

Allyson Shoshana, Project Manager, Design Spike®, Inc

Agenda

■ What’s usability?■ Understanding visitors to your website■ Writing & formatting for the web■ Images & layout■ Search & navigation■ Social media

What is Usability?“Usability is all about making a website easier to use for a customer…creating a usable website will make customers happy…[and] will make you more money

as a website owner.”Neil Patel – Crazy Egg

Why do you care?

■ 94% of people reject a website based on bad design○ Only 6% of rejections were content related

■ 75% of people will leave your site for a competitors if they can’t find what they want quickly

■ 88% will not return

Photo from NOTCOT.com

Photo from Optimum7.com

The Commandments of Website Usability According to Will Hall

Thou shalt not forget mobile users

■ 45% of companies rely on desktop sites only■ 25% of web users only use smart devices■ Some say by 2014 mobile internet use will trump desktop■ Local mobile searches will exceed desktop by 2015 ■ Mobile traffic is increasing by 3.5% per month

The 10 Commandments of Website Usability According to Will Hall

Thou shalt make links obvious

■ Users scan pages for links “What can I do next?”■ Use a color that is reserved for clickable links only■ Change color of visited links

Bonus: use appropriate link text: “Download Map” vs “Click Here”

Warning: don’t overuse keywords text as link text


Watch this link!


Nothing happened, did it?

Thou shalt use high-contrast text

■ Your content is your message; make it readable■ Difficult reading > frustration > negative association with

brand■ Not just elderly: poor screens, lighting■ What does your site look like in greyscale?

Bonus 1: Backgrounds behind text: only when fadedBonus 2: contrastrebellion.com

http://contrastrebellion.com/

Thou shalt use clear navigation

■ Be conventional (seriously)■ Be terse■ Use your words, not your icons (mystery meat navigation)■ Streamline (minimize items)■ Highlight current nav item > reinforce user’s model of site

structure

Bonus: reinforce navigation with breadcrumbs, headings

Thou shalt not commit the sin of visual noise pollution

■ Too long to find what you are looking for■ Your customers will leave and shop elsewhere■ Visitors get lost■ Not scannable■ Ugly

Thou shalt not veer from thy site’s established typography

■ Too many fonts, too distracting■ Not readable■ Confuses visitors■ Visitor cannot figure out what content is valuable and what is

not

Bonus: avoid “bad” fonts; don’t use display fonts in body text


via Laura Jean Karr

So, what’s your website visitor looking for?

Image via University Of Mexico

Ask Yourself:

■ Who’s your customer?■ What do they want from you?■ What service do you provide to them?■ What do you want them to do once they get to your site?■ How is your content helping them?■ Is your website about you, or them?

Humans don’t read,On the web that is

■ 79% scanned■ 16% read

Why should you care?

Well………they’re ignoring most of what you think they are reading.

We spend 69% of our time staring at the left side of your

website

We spend 80% above the fold (wherever that is, these days)

So what’s a website owner to do?

■ Important content goes first (paragraphs & sentences)■ Skip the fluff - NO ONE READS IT■ Capture their attention, fast■ Don’t center text (this drives Will crazy) ■ Keep headers left

Are you writing for the web, or for

yourself?

■ Visitors read less than 20% of the words

■ Higher literacy = more the scanning, SNAP!

■ Lower literacy = more plowing through the text

Formatting Content:Use Headers and SubHeaders

Formatting Content:Include Keywords in Headers or Bold Text

Formatting Content:Use Numbered or Bulleted Lists

Formatting Content:Use Significant Words in Headings

Formatting Content:Use Images of High Quality

Formatting Content:Images Control Where We Look

Formatting content is the new black

Tips to remember

■ Use H1, H2, H3 for headings, sub-headings■ Include keywords in headings or bold (some of the time, use

restraint!)■ Use numbered or bulleted lists■ Omit words

Leverage Social Media with Your Website

■ Use social sharing buttons - make ‘em visible■ Make your content shareable and easy to share - click to

tweet■ Use social media where it makes sense■ Set up Google+ profile and Rel+”Author” Tag ■ Use images people want to share

Thanks!

Download - The impact of usability on your website

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