Have you ever heard of the term usability? The basis behind usability is simple: make sure the your website is as functional as possible for your customers. That's it - easy, right? It's good customer service and it's a way to help your customers to find what they're looking for on your website. If this is such a simple concept, why are there thousands of tutorials and websites that are dedicated to helping businesses achieve usability? The concept of usability is easy, the reality of usability, however, can be much more difficult. These tips, however, may help dramatically improve your usability level.
Before Your Site Launches
Have a new company? Just finishing a site redesign? Either way, a usability study is an absolute must before you ever even consider going live. Don't worry, it doesn't have to be a difficult concept. The goal here is to get real users to test your design and find the bugs that might keep users from accomplishing their goals once they visit your site. You, quite literally, want to find out how "usable" your design is. If you're an existing business with an email list, offer the chance to beta test your site to a few customers on your list. Attach a reward to the process, and you're likely to get a lot of customers who are interested. If you're a start-up, consider doing a little social networking to get some real users. Talk to Facebook friends or LinkedIn buddies who might be willing to take a closer look at your new site and see what they think.
After launch
While it is extremely important to make sure the you do a usability study before you launch a new website, customer usability is actually something you should look at as an ongoing process. Encourage your customers to get involved in improving your website design. Constantly ask for critiques and feedback so that you can make sure that your site is as good as it can possibly get, and so that you can make sure that you are meeting all of the needs your customers currently have.
Upgrading your technology on your website can be fine, but make sure you think about usability here as well. Progressive enhancement is what you're after, and you want to make sure that your site looks good at the core level and that everyone is going to be able to use it. For example, if you were to input a program that not all browsers can handle, you will be alienating some users. Make sure that you test all new technology on every browser possible so that you can avoid alienating any customers.
Utilizing Resources
If you look online you will find that there are literally thousands of websites devoted to improving usability on your website. You will also find that there are hundreds of print, and e-books, that are devoted to the exact same topic. Staying on top of all of that research may be tricky, but doing so can ensure that your website stays user-friendly at all times.
Keep in mind that perfection isn't always going to be possible, but that doesn't mean you can't strive toward it in the world of usability. Aim for the best, then maintain your site as often as possible to improve your level of usability as you move forward.
Before Your Site Launches
Have a new company? Just finishing a site redesign? Either way, a usability study is an absolute must before you ever even consider going live. Don't worry, it doesn't have to be a difficult concept. The goal here is to get real users to test your design and find the bugs that might keep users from accomplishing their goals once they visit your site. You, quite literally, want to find out how "usable" your design is. If you're an existing business with an email list, offer the chance to beta test your site to a few customers on your list. Attach a reward to the process, and you're likely to get a lot of customers who are interested. If you're a start-up, consider doing a little social networking to get some real users. Talk to Facebook friends or LinkedIn buddies who might be willing to take a closer look at your new site and see what they think.
After launch
While it is extremely important to make sure the you do a usability study before you launch a new website, customer usability is actually something you should look at as an ongoing process. Encourage your customers to get involved in improving your website design. Constantly ask for critiques and feedback so that you can make sure that your site is as good as it can possibly get, and so that you can make sure that you are meeting all of the needs your customers currently have.
Upgrading your technology on your website can be fine, but make sure you think about usability here as well. Progressive enhancement is what you're after, and you want to make sure that your site looks good at the core level and that everyone is going to be able to use it. For example, if you were to input a program that not all browsers can handle, you will be alienating some users. Make sure that you test all new technology on every browser possible so that you can avoid alienating any customers.
Utilizing Resources
If you look online you will find that there are literally thousands of websites devoted to improving usability on your website. You will also find that there are hundreds of print, and e-books, that are devoted to the exact same topic. Staying on top of all of that research may be tricky, but doing so can ensure that your website stays user-friendly at all times.
Keep in mind that perfection isn't always going to be possible, but that doesn't mean you can't strive toward it in the world of usability. Aim for the best, then maintain your site as often as possible to improve your level of usability as you move forward.
About the Author:
Are you looking for custom web development? Then look no further than Moonrise Media as they have the expertise in the mobile, social network web development, custom web application programming, and more.
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