Business Website Usability

Usability relates to more than just how a website looks, but how it performs. More specifically, it focuses on the user experience and how "user friendly" the website is.

However, usability is an issue that is given little to no importance on many websites including business sites. This, in turn, has a negative impact on the business itself. If a user cannot figure out how to find the information they require from your site then they will choose to do business with someone else.

Fortunately, usability testing is neither complicated nor expensive to implement. The easiest solution is to devise a simple series of tasks for users to perform and run a few trials. These tasks can be as simple as "find out information on product X" or "find out how to contact the company". For e-commerce sites tasks could include placing an order for a product or finding information on shipping policies.

The important factor in usability testing is to pay attention to the user's behavior as opposed to their opinions. Many times people will prefer not to reveal they had difficultly performing a task, perhaps feeling they are to blame as opposed to a poorly designed site.

Once you have tested your site, fix problem areas, then re-test it. Continue to refine the design and usability of the site until there are no usability issues and the end-user experience is both pleasant and efficient.

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