Top 10 Website Usability Check-list

Have you ever wondered about the importance of website usability?

Imagine a website to be like a boutique or a café, but in our case, there will not be any sales assistants or baristas!  How will you deliver excellent customer service through your website? Are your customers able to find what they seek without the help of service staff?

Website usability ensures that your customers are able to navigate through your “boutique” on their own, and to enhance their “customer” experience.

Try googling “website usability checklist” and I am sure there are 101 search results educating the masses with their notes and reasons of website usability.

Here is mine and I will tell you why.

1. Company’s LOGO should be prominent.
Your logo is your identity. It informs the users on who you are. It should be placed at a location where users expect it to be. In this case, it would be the top left hand corner of your website.

2.  Navigations are easy to find.
Navigations are easy to find, navigations SHOULD be easy to find. They are like a map through your “boutique”. Most navigation bars are found at the top of the screen.  In cases where a horizontal navigation does not suit your design, your navigation bar should stand out in your homepage. Apart from the above, your navigation should be kept short and straight to the point.

3.  Hyperlinks are easy to find
This goes the same for hyperlinks. Well, your links need not be shouting, “CLICK ON ME!”, but rather, users simply need to know that this is a link. Smashingmagazine.com wrote, “Blue is the best color for links”. I will not disagree and Google is a perfect example of that.

However, we should also put our web designs into consideration. I will say, as long as there is contrast for your links and it blends in perfectly with your design, you are good to go!

4. Layout of your information.
Let us not be greedy and overwhelm your website with information. Chances are that your users will not be able to absorb the information.

In an eye tracking study which was used to show the reading pattern of most user:

Users do not read your content word for word; rather, they would read the first paragraph and scan through your website in the pattern of the letter “F”. This also shows us on where the important information should be placed at. Interesting!

5. Black text, White Background – the popular choice
Black text against a white background is a popular choice for most web designs. It makes reading easy and comprehensible. Most importantly, it gets your information across.

6. Font size and font type.
“What font type should I use in web design?” I am sure this is and will always be a popular debate. According to hobo, you can scroll down to survey statistics and it will show you the preferred choice of font types. Notable type designer Zuzana Licko once said, “We read best what we read most.” Hence, it is best to stick with common and clear fonts that the users are familiar with. Be it Helvetica, Arial, or Microsoft Sans Serif.

As for sizes of fonts, let us not torment our users, nor shall we test their eye sight with text that are meant for ants!

A good font size, I would say, would be 10 points. Comfortable to the eyes and legible.

7. Images Have Appropriate ALT Tags
Naming your image alt tags is not only helpful for the users, it is also essential for search engines to understand your image.

8. Loading time – optimizing your website
Let’s face it. Any website that takes more than 5 minutes to load is unbearable. With the current internet speed we are offered, users expect the websites to load quicker. Hence, always optimize your website to reduce loading time. Even with Flash and add-ons, your website should not take more time than a smoke break to load.

9. HTML Page Titles Are Explanatory
HTML Page Titles should be kept unique, informative and should appeal to the users. This will appear in search engine and will determine if the users will click on your link or move on to the next link.

10. Last but not least, check for broken links.
The feeling of going to a boutique only to be informed that the item is out of stock, is disappointing. The same goes for our websites. It is essential to run through the website to make sure that there are no broken links. No users will like to be greeted by a 404-not-found-page.

My advice? Check, check and triple check.