You probably have a lot of tough stuff to learn and think about at work on a daily basis. Petty cash, cash flow, flow charts, annual reports, TPS reports, imports, exports, inventory, outventory... it's chaos out there in the business world. So today I'm going to talk about something deliciously unambiguous. No curve balls here. What I'm going to talk about is exactly what it sounds like it is.
And our topic is...usability.
Which deals with...you guessed it...how usable a website is. In other words, is it easy to use? Or is it hard to use?
Who Cares About Usability?
Well, for starters, your website visitors (a.k.a. your potential customers). They actually care about it A LOT. When web surfers visit your website, their expectations are probably all similar – they all want the website to be easy to navigate. As they click around, they are going to find out that either A) it is easy to use or B) it is not easy to use. If it's choice “B,” the wussy visitors will click the “X” immediately and travel to one of your competitors' websites. Meanwhile, the brighter, more adventurous, and more determined visitors may stick around for awhile, but as their frustration levels increase, they too may opt to leave the site.
The middle of a shopping spree on your website is no time for natural selection to take its course. You want ALL the customers, including the lazy, tired, and easily confused, to make it to the checkout without quitting.
Okay, So Apparently It's Important...But How Do I Increase Usability?
Since this post is just an Intro to Usability, I'll just say this – the simplest websites to use are simple. Too many choices and unnecessary bells and whistles can distract and confuse visitors to a site. Now, that's not to say a website with lots of functionality can't be usable, too, if it's been designed correctly. But I'll save that for another entry.
For now, the takeaway is this – Usable websites are easy to use and navigate, customers prefer usable websites, usable websites are simple and straightforward, and IntelliSites loves to design websites that are simple and straightforward.
It's that simple.
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