Let’s begin with one of the most importance aspects of usability in web design: The learnability, availability and accessibility of your website. If people are trying to access and learn your website and it does not work, your website becomes essentially worthless.
Importance of Usability in Design
Usability refers to how easy it may be for a visitor to use and learn to interact with an interface for web design. Usability and the utility will ultimately determine the success or failure of your website. Let’s begin with a few ways we can measure how usable a website is.
Effectiveness – Are your users able to compete tasks and achieve their goals?
Engagement – Is the Interface engaging by being pleasant, desirable and satisfying?
Error Tolerant – How many errors do your user make? Can they recover from these errors?
Easy to Learn – Can your users learn how to accomplish basic tasks quickly and easily?
Manage to Focus Users Attention
Users don’t read, they scan. People rarely read web pages word for word; instead they scan the page picking out visual elements and sentences. Users are also very impatient and insist on instant gratification. If your website is confusing or frustrating, your visitors will leave. Try not to make users think too hard. The web page should be obvious and self-explanatory so you can communicate effectively with your users.
Create a visual Hierarchy
Pages Should be designed in a way that creates visual organization for the user. Larger distances between elements can focus the user’s attention. Use space to your advantage by using white space so users can focus on the content.
Making your site navigable
Your navigation and menu structure play a very important and crucial role in the success or failure of your website. Navigation should make sense to your users. A visitor should be able to easily find the menu and not think extensively where they should click next to find the information they are looking for. Fewer menu options can also help your users quickly navigate. Having too many options can confuse visitors and make it hard for them to find information.
Vague and redundant phrasing can also create confusion for you users. Making sure your menu text is clear without context will ease navigation for both visual and non-visual users.
Creating conversion centered-design
Look to guide the visitor toward completing one specific action, using persuasive design and psychological triggers as devices to increase conversions. Calls to action should be clear and visually striking with copy that compels you to click the offer. They should be a couple of words at best, no more than five is ideal and action orientated.
Map out user driven stories and customer journeys to tell your story.
Story telling designs can be one of the most effective ways to grab user’s attention. Create a persuasive design that convinces your visitors that you are offering a great proposition that they need to take action on. Try to focus on influencing people’s behavior through product’s or service’s special characteristics.
Strive for simplicity
From a usability and UX perspective, simplicity is your friend. Focus on what’s important. If you don’t distract your visitors, they will be more likely to do what you want them to do. Why does simplicity work? Fewer distractions, clarity, simple coding, and faster loading are just a few of the benefits from keeping your designs focused and simple. Simplicity makes your site look cleaner and more visually appealing, while simultaneously making it easier to navigate.
Elements of the design should facilitate engagement. Encourage people to click, log-in, scroll, and engage with tangible elements on the page. Consistency is key to bringing the design together. Backgrounds, color schemes, typefaces, and even the tone of your writing are all areas where being consistent can have a positive impact on usability and UX.
Conclusion
Good usability does not usually happen quickly. It requires testing over and over again to attain the right result. It’s an iterative process. Remember, in the end the goal is to achieve a website that is clear, credible, learnable and relevant to the people who will be using it.
Map out user driven stories and customer journeys to tell your story.
Story telling designs can be one of the most effective ways to grab user’s attention. Create a persuasive design that convinces your visitors that you are offering a great proposition that they need to take action on. Try to focus on influencing people’s behavior through product’s or service’s special characteristics.