Web Site Usability Studies

Recent research has shown that it takes only 7 seconds to lose a web customer. Thats right seven seconds! Due to poor design, when that web user leaves your website, your website has been subconsciously flagged as not satisfying the user and all that prospective business, with one click, vanishes to the competition, perhaps forever.

Website Usabilty Studies will prevent that. Though good web design is not a formula, successful web design can be formulated via good methodology. It doesn't matter how much budget you spend on a website, if the message, focus and direction is unclear, then the user gets lost and leaves. Good website design must foremost concentrate on usability and on what the user is expecting and what the site should be delivering.

• Web Content must be clear and relevant. Do not try and offer irrelevant information to those who don't need it. Data organisation is important and must be delivered in a way that has meaning to the web user.
• Layout must be designed with scan reading in mind. With the amount of information presented before them, the user must be able to quickly scan read the content, and with visual cues, be able to click through to more detailed content where necessary.
• Convention and form must be adhered to within a web site. This goes beyond just text. Color, Shape, and Positioning all play a part in leading a web user from one item to the next intuitively.
• The underlying purpose of any web page is to convey a message. This is to inform and entice the user to go to the next step. If the webpage is cluttered and doesn't have a 'focus' the message that is given is 'muddled'.
• Web Pages must be accessable. Only frustration results in the web users experience if there are dead links or if web pages load too slowly. Pages must be optimised to load based on the target audiences technical characteristics profile.

With all this in mind you can see that a lot more goes into website design than first meets the eye. A lot of web builders can build good sites, but most are never able to build GREAT sites. The reasons are clear to those who know. If you need a website that does what it should, and delivers a clear and direct online experience that grows your internet brand, call us or send us an email. Your money will be better spent!