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A Cheap Alternative To Broadband?
Are you a dial-up user looking for a faster connection, but don't like Broadband prices? If so, you should take a look at a new service called OnSpeed, which has received rave reviews in Internet technology publications. What OnSpeed does is to...
Five Reasons To Buy VoIP
Believe it or not, there are still a few people out there who
just don't get it when it comes to VoIP. With services like
Skype, or Google Talk, it is easy to confuse what a true VoIP
plan really is.
Skype, Google Talk, and the like would be...
Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) Port Forwarding
One thing that I love about all news windows products is the remote desktop features. I previously used PCAnywhere but I find that remote desktop is now almost as good, would like to see a file transfer like PCAnywhere has, but remote desktop is...
Streamline Your Website Pages
Squeezing the most efficient performance from your web pages is important. The benefits are universal, whether the site is personal or large and professional. Reducing page weight can speed up the browsing experience, especially if your visitors are...
VoIP - What Is It And Why Do I Need It?
In the dynamically changing world of technology, VoIP (Voice
Over Internet Protocol) is one of the latest and potentially
greatest wonders ever created by the human mind. Watch a techie
show, read a techie magazine or talk to any cyber dude and...
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Web Usability: The Basics
What is web usability & why is it important?
Web usability is about making your website in such a way that your site users can find what they're looking for quickly and efficiently. A usable website can reap huge benefits on to your website and your business.
* Every £1 invested in improving your website's usability returns £10 to £100 (source: IBM)
* A web usability redesign can increase the sales/conversion rate by 100% (source: Jakob Nielson)
Your website has to be easy to navigate
Users have gradually become accustomed to particular layouts and phrases on the Internet, for example:
* Organisation logo is in the top-left corner and links back to the homepage
* The term ‘About us’ is used for organisation information
* Navigation is in the same place on each page and adjacent to the content
* Anything flashing or placed above the top logo is often an advertisement
* The term ‘Shopping cart’ is used for items you might wish to purchase
There are numerous other conventions like these that enhance your website's usability - can you think of some more?
Don't underestimate the importance of these conventions - as the Internet matures we're getting more and more used to things being a certain way. Break these conventions and you may be left with nothing but a website with poor usability and a handful of dissatisfied site visitors.
Pages must download quickly
Usability studies have shown that 8.6 seconds is the maximum time web users will wait for a page to download (source: Andrew B. King - Speed Up Your Site). As of March 2004 just 25% of UK web users had broadband (source: UK National Statistics) so it's essential for optimal usability that your website downloads quickly.
To speed up the download time of your website we recommend you do three things:
* Use CSS and not tables to lay out your web page
* Use CSS and not images to create fancy navigation items
* Read this article about how to speed up the download time of your web pages at http://www.webcredible.co.uk/speed
Information should be easy to retrieve
We read web pages in a different manner
to the way we read printed matter. We generally don't read pages word-for-word - instead we scan. When we scan web pages certain items stand out:
* Headings
* Link text
* Bold text
* Bulleted lists
Did you notice that images were left out of that list? Contrary to the way in which we read printed matter, we see text before we see images on the Internet. For optimal website usability don't place important information in images as it might go unnoticed.
Restrictions must not be placed on users
Don't prevent your users from navigating through the Internet in the way that they want to. For example:
1. Every time a link is opened in a new window the back button is disabled. Approximately 60% of Web users employ the back button as their primary means of navigation (source: Usability Interface). If you do this then you're preventing 60% of your users from using their primary navigation - now that can't be good for usability.
2. Don't use frames to lay out your website. Frames can cause a number of usability problems, namely:
* Disabling the back button (see above)
* Bookmarking not possible
* Impossible to e-mail the link to someone else
* Problems with printing
* Users feel trapped if external links open in the same window
* Search engine optimisation issues
There are lots of other ways that websites can place restrictions on its users, ultimately damaging their usability - can you think of any more? Just think back to the last time a website really infuriated you - what annoying thing did it do to make you feel that way?
About the Author: This article was written by Trenton Moss. He's crazy about web usability and accessibility - so crazy that he went and started his own web usability and accessibility consultancy ( Webcredible - http://www.webcredible.co.uk ) to help make the Internet a better place for everyone.
Source: www.isnare.com
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