At\u00a0\u00a0we like to keep in the loop with the very cream of cutting edge web developers to maintain involvement with the latest technological developments across the web, whether it be in\u00a0,\u00a0\u00a0or\u00a0amongst many other facets. A recent drink shared with the\u00a0guru\u00a0\u00a0got us thinking about\u00a0and the standard web user, and what we can do to optimise sites to meet the needs of the customer alongside the requirements of the search engines.<\/p>\n
A\u00a0\u00a0is as important, if not more so, than the layout of a shop.<\/p>\n
Think about it – as a shopkeeper you have to think carefully about where you are going to put your goods. \u00a0Just as it\u2019s useless in a shop to have an inaccessible aisle that can only be reached via a back door behind the counter, it\u2019s pointless filling pages with good content if they are unnavigable for the normal web user. It is also important to make sure your products are clearly labelled and carefully positioned \u2013 you might want your best deals to be somewhere prominent and obvious with a nice big price tag, your items might be carefully placed so related items are nearby, or some offers might be near the checkout to target everyone as they leave. It\u2019s exactly the same with your ecommerce site: your\u00a0should be carefully thought about to target specific users and promote certain deals or articles.<\/p>\n
\u00a0is often an afterthought for website developers, possibly too concerned with their SEO or content to think about layout and the navigation of their site. We would recommend anyone interested in this, if they haven\u2019t already, to check out\u00a0\u2019s \u201c\u201d.<\/p>\n
So what are the main things to think about with web usability design? Here\\’s just a few top tips from\u00a0:<\/p>\n
A normal web user is very likely to judge a book by its cover. Scrap that, not just normal web users – we\u2019ve all done it, and probably still do. A site with a clear layout and an original look should attract a user\u2019s spring-loaded attention span and grab them to stay on your pages but if its full of boring text or uses a standard and uninteresting format they\u2019ll be on their way.<\/p>\n
If the keywords a user is looking for are nice and clear in the basic layout of your homepage the user is also more likely to stick; they\u2019ve found what they want so there\u2019s no reason to leave. After all, the web world possibly the most indiscriminant democracy in the world \u2013 if site and its web design are good, it doesn\u2019t matter who made it and when.<\/p>\n
Other aspects are also surprisingly vital. Colour schemes for one: look around the web and have a look at the colours in use on sites. Sites targeting more the female population will generally have softer colours like pale blues and pinks, shops will often have attention-grabbing colours like oranges and greens whilst more user-driven sites will generally be more solid colours like reds and blues. Take a look at the colours on the Mothercare site – as a shop they’ve targeted a dark and solid blue as their banner, with basket links a very clear red:<\/p>\n
Whereas a company like Wikipedia, being more of an informative site, have chosen a softer and much elss in-your-face white and grey set-up:<\/p>\n
You’d probably be surprised that as much thought goes into website colour schemes as it does in painting your bedroom!<\/p>\n
One of the tried and tested systems in basic web usability design is the banner. It doesn\u2019t take too much browsing to find a site with a nice standard navigation banner at the top \u2013 the Mothercare site is a prime example:<\/p>\n
You can see with this site it\u2019s very easy for the user to find what they want with the clear and concise keywords in the banner. Other sites might try something different, maybe a sidebar or similar, but the top banner gives sites an excellent framework for their web design and a uniform structure to work all the other pages around. Some sites go for the double bar \u2013 click through to a heading and you\u2019ll be given a new series of choices below the old banner. This is great for usability as it puts all the options on a plate for the typically web user. Essentially, some form of uniform navigation toolbar in a prominent position is a near-must for any site.<\/p>\n
For web usability, nothing beats navigation for importance, whether your an ecommerce site, one that relies on advertising to make money or indeed a non-profit site. An easy navigation to get around the site, helped by a banner or similar, is absolutely essential when it comes to\u00a0.<\/p>\n
First and foremost, don\u2019t hide things! A link might be obvious to you, but a standard web user might struggle to find a \u201cregister\u201d button or the \u201cadd to checkout\u201d option which could cost you a return. Web users have some amount of patience but not that much. How many times have you been to a site and failed to find the login or register button?<\/p>\n
You\u2019d be surprised how widespread this problem is. Steve Krug has a great way of putting this, referencing his \u201creservoir of goodwill\u201d. That is to say, most users have a certain amount of loyalty to the site they are on and will persevere for a while to find what they want if they think the site to be valid. Unfortunately, bad navigation and unclear links will quickly drain the reservoir and once it runs out they\u2019ll be off quicker than a banker to the Bahamas.<\/p>\n
Give the user what they want too – you can tempt further sales in ecommerce with an accurate \u201crelated items\u201d list, indeed with other sites a \u201crelated articles\u201d or \u201cfind out more\u201d link will invite further clicks. Think about Amazon’s “Users who bought this also bought…” section, it is a great means for targeting a specific audience for a product. Reviews are also great \u2013 the effect of a positive review towards a sale is often invaluable in securing the return, but a negative one can help too as the user moves on to a more suitable product and feels more trust in the site.<\/p>\n
Try things out! Google analytics will enable you to track and record any traffic changes that come with adapting the site so test and test again. Obviously you have to give the site amendments chance to build up a reliable set of results, but once you have a few hundred independent users\u2019 numbers you can usually tell if something is working or not. It\u2019s well worth doing \u2013 moving one article or shop item to the prominent part of the page might replace a lesser performing one or one link might not be doing so well now it\u2019s been there a bit and users are bored of seeing it. New content will keep your returning users back and give the site a fresh feel \u2013 indeed it often makes it feel like a new site!<\/p>\n
So there\u2019s just a few things to think about in optimising your website\u2019s usability and design \u2013 it\u2019s important to be adaptable and both proactive and reactive in creating your pages. A fresh and inviting looking website is brilliant, but it needs to be backed up by easy and clear navigation. By testing things out you\u2019ll soon root out a good foundation \u2013 but as with all optimisation, there\u2019s always things that can be improved!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At\u00a0\u00a0we like to keep in the loop with the very cream of cutting edge web developers to maintain involvement with the latest technological developments across the web, whether it be in\u00a0,\u00a0\u00a0or\u00a0amongst many other facets. A recent drink shared with the\u00a0guru\u00a0\u00a0got us thinking about\u00a0and the standard web user, and what we can do to optimise sites […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-development"],"yoast_head":"\n