Who the Heck Cares About Usability?

Designing a website is not all about appearance, and this often comes as a shock to new clients who think color, design and personal preference are the most important pieces of the puzzle. It is often in that first design discussion that we find ourselves in the middle of a usability lesson, explaining to our client how people who visit their site are truly viewing it.

Your Users Care the Most
You have only seconds to capture the attention of your users, which means you only have seconds to lose them. If your site is a challenge for them, they aren’t going to stick around and muck their way through it. Usability is all about making your site simple, clear and even fun to use. Poor usability is the #1 reason you will lose eyeballs.

How Usable is Your Site?
To determine if your site is usable, you need to do some research. You can do some preliminary analysis of your site by reviewing some of the following usability checklists:

• Would Your Site Pass a Usability Assessment?
• 25-Point Website Usability Checklist 
• 15 Essential Checks Before Launching Your Site

Users know best
To do some truly effective research, ask some of your current users if they would provide some input. We highly recommend that you collect a half dozen or so clients and ask them to answer some of the questions from the usability assessments presented above. This will give you a real picture of how those outside your organization see your site.

Don’t just listen, fix it
If your users come back with critique, listen closely. Then do something about it. Don’t just say thank you and continue to let your site stand as it is. Consult with a web designer or usability expert, then make the appropriate changes to bring your site in line with effective usability. Not only will this help with new customers, but it will let your current customers know that you take your comments to heart.

The Golden Design Rule: Usability Before SEO

When designing websites for clients, it often amazes me how many clients consider SEO (search engine optimization) more important than the needs of a user. They want to stuff pages with keywords or deviate from web design standards in order to accomplish what they feel is more important — attracting more users.

Why put SEO before Usability?
Whether building a new site, or rebuilding an old one, all site owners have the same dream: to bring on a drove of users who will roam their site and hire them or purchase their products. After all, this is why you have a site, isn’t it? And most believe SEO is the key to obtaining more eyeballs through organic search. But attracting the users is only part of the puzzle.

A high jump rate tells the story
If they come but don’t stay, you’ve missed the opportunity to convert a new client. If for some reason your site isn’t user friendly, then you’re going to have a high jump rate that proves it, and then you might understand why you have a lot of people visiting, but very few inquiring about your services. The jump rate is the percentage of people who leave your site immediately after landing on a page. You can refer to your analytics software to measure your usability rating for your site.

Optimum usability keeps the eyeballs
When designing your site, the needs of the user should always come before SEO implementation. For example, if you are organizing your information architecture and trying to include your keywords into the headings, make certain it will make sense for your visitors. If your menu tags are long, or the terms don’t make sense, then you need to reconsider how it’s organized.

For example, let’s say you have a company that is in construction. You know many people search for construction under specific terms such as home construction, commercial construction, public works construction, etc. You should not create a menu structure that addresses each of these types of construction. It would be overwhelming for the user to navigate through all these words. Instead, you should have a menu item that talks about your construction services, and within the body of the page, describe the specific services provided. Or, have a primary menu item labeled construction, and have a sub page for each type of construction.

I have gathered together several articles that talk about usability. Many point to usability vs. SEO choices which you should consider on your site. Just remember the golden rule: Usability before SEO.

• Usability Crimes You Really Shouldn’t Commit
• Website Usability Checklist
• Would Your Site Pass a Usability Assessment?
• 10 Usability Nightmares You Should Be Aware Of

Say it in a heartbeat

One of the most evasive things to understand is what makes a good web design. If you have not created a website before, it seems easy. After all, you know what you like and you know all the details of your business.

A website begins with the homepage and the home page needs to bring a compelling marketing message in most cases. It should answer why should someone do business with you now or in the future? If a visitor can’t find this reason in the first 15 seconds, they are gone. So an effective home page should “say it in a heartbeat.”

To do this, a home page needs to have the right mix of images, white space and a few key words or ideas. Images that capture your competitive benefit remind your existing customers why they continue to use your company. They also immediately communicate what your potential customers will get “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

If visitors are interested, they will look further. A good site will be organized according to how your customers think i.e. by the problems you solve for them. To a customer, it is not really about what you do but about what they get. The ability to organize content or information architecture is not a skill that every web developer has. As you look for a developer, find one that has this skill and you will be miles ahead when your website is completed.

There are an infinite amount of style considerations that help you communicate your marketing message. Many of these will be discussed in our upcoming e-book about building sites Joomla. Stay tuned for updates.

How Do I Create My First Website?

A Web site has become an integral part of doing business. If you do not have one, you should. If yours is not effective, you need to change it. Here is a basic decision making process we suggest to assist you in planning a Web project.

1. Identify your customer profile(s).

• Who will be using your site?
• How often would they look online for new information related to your product or service?
• Does they rely on the web, print or both for information?
• If you have more than one customer profile or segment, do they differ in web usage?

2. Define how a Web site will effect your business.

• What is the multiplier effect of the web for your business?
• Is it a long term strategy or does it have immediate implications?
• Will it save time and resources within the company?

3. Research other Web sites for companies similar to your own.
Also research latest trends in new Web sites. Determine what options might be a good fit for your company.

4. Create an online Web strategy.
Your strategy will look different for each objective, for example:

• Become a destination online merchant.
• Create a virtual community to encourage collaboration and repeat sales.
• Providing a portal for information to support your customer base.
• Enhance references to your site to boost search engine performance.
• Become an online expert and enhance professional standing.

5. Decide how your web presence relates to the rest of your marketing materials.

• How do you create a cohesive, branded image?
• Are the same terms, sales concepts and customer service applied all around?
• How could you re-use your print copy for the Web?

6. What content should you have?
Determine what type of new content you need to implement your web strategy. Include in this assessment information from the stakeholders, subject matter experts and others that will affect the project timeline. Look at competitor sites and even ask your customers what they would like to see.

7. Create a budget that reflects what you can do now.
Be realistic in what you can afford, and then figure out what is most important to build. A budget is an integral part of web development. Without it you may build more than you can handle, and you may find you build more than you need.

8. Create your website team
Determine who in the company fulfills the roles to manage and update your site. Assign resources if your strategy involves activities that will need updating e.g. blogs, calendars, newsletter.

9. Write an RFP and Get Bids
Plan your implementation by evaluating which vendors and partners will meet your strategic and financial needs. Writing an RFP equals the bidding field so you know how each vendor would approach the same project. Review the resumes and portfolios of the web development company and ask pointed questions to determine if you want to hire them to build your site. Knowledge is power even more so in the Internet world. Put your business assumptions in your agreements so you have leverage if needed.

If you initially thought that you could never relate to the Internet, it should be reassuring that the steps above could be used in planning any marketing activity. For more ideas about how to manage your project, contact us at Landau Design.

Design Your Navigation From The Outside In

One of the biggest mistakes companies make when designing a website is labeling and organizing the information with the terms the internal company uses. It is very important when organizing your content to look at it from the user’s perspective, not the company’s.

How Do I Organize From the User’s Perspective?

1) Who are your visitors?
The first thing you do when creating your website is ask yourself who is coming to this site and why are they coming. What are their ages, computer experience, knowledge? What need do they have that you are going to fulfill? This gives you a picture of the user-types who will be accessing the information. Any time during the following process if you are unsure of how to organize your information, go back to this first question to get the answer.

2) How do we currently interact with these users?
What questions do they ask us to elicit information, and what information do we give in response? This is the beginning of understanding the labels your customers use in relation to your business. The receptionist in a company is often the best person to answer this question.

3) How do our users see our organization?
Now looking at the information that your users are seeking, consider how this information would be logically organized. Consciously put aside the method your company uses to organize this information. This is generally the most challenging part of the process since you are used to looking at your information in a particular way, and you must move back and take another perspective.

For example, if you were a physical therapist, you might not organize your information with the therapies you provide. Instead you may organize it by the physical challenges the users face, and within those pages talk about the therapies that apply to those challenges. In this way you’ve related the information to your users rather than how you related to the types of therapies.

4) Create an outline of how users would see the information organized.
Consider the categories and subcategories of information. Do not forget to include site basics such as how to contact your organization and brief description of your company’s purpose (even if you feel your clients know this already).

5) Label your categories.
This part is often tricky as different people within the company will have different opinions about which labels to use. Cutesy labels are definitely poor usability and should be avoided. Labels should describe the information that page contains, or at the very least be a branded term that your clients know the meaning of. Labels should always be the same part of a sentence (noun, adjective, verb) or similar phrase structures. Consistency in labeling makes your site predictable.

6) Ask some users for feedback.
Share what you have organized with typical users from your client base. Ask them for feedback. Be open to their responses, and allow them to assist you in creating a logical and easy-to-use organization of your information.