Usability
The best place to start with this topic, really is to address;
Usability can be summed up by the following goals of:
- shortening task accomplishment time,
- reducing numbers of mistakes made,
- enhancing learning time, and
- improving system user's overall satisfaction.
Why is it important?
Millions of web sites offer users information, goods, services, and entertainment. However, many sites are difficult to use, don't work properly and ultimately don't attract or retain users.
This means that they are loosing revenue!
You can ignore usability, but why would you?
Improving web usability slightly increases your site's revenues, membership and readership. More importantly if your competitors are investing more in usability and gaining customers, why wouldn't you be?
Take a look at the most successful web sites like amazon.com and cancer.gov. They are all easy to use, provide security, promote trust and privacy and have good content.
Sites that have poor usability are not popular with users as they dont give users their wants such as information, products, services in a usable manor. End result - users go else where to more usable sites and companies loose profits to competitors.
So what now?
IBM is a leader in web usability. Read the checklist they provide and find out the tips and tricks to making your site as usable as possible
