Usability and functionality of a website are two elements that decide how accessible a website is for an average Internet user. One has to remember that the usability of a website in itself isn’t the goal but a mean that helps create a successful Internet service and makes it possible to access information fast.
That’s why the designer has to cleverly combine the business objectives of the ordering party with the needs of the website’s users. That’s because it’s mostly them who need to be won over by the website, which is actually something that can be achieved with usability, ensuring that prosaic, often unpleasant tasks (such as registering or logging in) won’t be cumbersome to the user.
User Experience (UX)
The thing that covers all the aspects of interaction between the user and the company (corporate website or store), their services and products is user experience (UX). The requirement of UX is to satisfy the consumers’ needs.
What also matters here is simplicity and presenting the products in a way that makes them desired by the users. In order to achieve high-level corporate offer UX, it is required for many areas to seamlessly intertwine, or converge: technology, marketing, graphic and utility design, as well as interface design.
What are the most common Usability errors?
However, it is a common occurrence for projects to have usability-related errors. That’s because creating websites isn’t such an easy task. Among the most common errors on a website and misguided ideas are:
- No prices (in the offers of available products)
It is one of the most serious and most annoying errors from the website user’s point of view. Another error is to only make the prices available after registering and logging in. - No option to sort or look for products
The problem mostly involves online stores. Having to browse through pages upon pages of products might discourage the most persistent Internet users. Clients should be allowed to apply additional dictionary conditions (like manufacturer or color) so that they can quickly reach the products they’re looking for. - Important information only available as PDF files
Leaflets in the PDF format make a good supplementation of an offer available through traditional websites. However, the information included in them should also be available in form of traditional www pages. - Using underline for elements that aren’t links
It is especially important for text formatting. It disrupts the page layout and makes it harder to navigate through in-text links. - Poor www page optimization
Long loading times of pages overloaded with images have driven away more than one page visitor. Poor optimization of PHP code, databases or SQL queries themselves may also slow down a website significantly. - Blocks of text without formatting and highlighting
Lack of text formatting and highlights makes it much harder for the user to understand the offer’s text. As a result, plenty of visitors lose patience and interest in the website. - Intro page
In 99% of cases, such page is not needed by anyone and doesn’t contribute to the website. A “Skip intro” link doesn’t change anything, and a long-loading animation can only drive the visitors away. - Page under construction
Dead links within a website and empty sections can successfully drive away even the greatest fans of a brand. - Confusing link names
Anchors (link texts) should be named in a way that doesn’t make it difficult for an Internet users to understand where they lead. - Pop-up windows
All kinds of obtrusive ads and notifications definitely discourage from checking a website out. Nobody likes them.
CONCLUSION: The above list is merely a tiny snippet of errors and problems that Internet users have to struggle with every day. Websites with this type of errors won’t achieve the expected success.
