Valeo Marketing

Website Usability Tips – Part 1

/in /by
  • Avoid  showing animations on an e-commerce website. You do not want to distract users when they are ready to place orders on your site and need to concentrate.
  • Always prefer a consistent navigation & layout so that your website  looks clean. Avoid being too creative while setting the navigation so that the user can instantly find information that he is looking for.  A traditional layout with 2-3 columns with a header and a footer is still the most ideal one. Don’t forget to use CSS for all elements including the navigation & the layout.
  • Users don’t like scrolling on a web page. Vertical scrolling is still tolerable, but horizontal scrolling is an absolute no-no. Different  users use different screen resolutions so it is best to keep the  site in 800×600 pixel size as this format works well for most users.  Also keep your most important information above the fold (the screen that shows without scrolling). ´Above the fold´ is a term  borrowed from the traditional newspaper publishing industry which denotes the space above the fold of the newspaper as a premium space.
  • Reasons  for not using background music on your site:
    • Using  background music in websites was considered a hit in the mid 90’s,  but not anymore. Such a practice now might make your website look amateurish, tacky and unprofessional.
    • Not  every one has the same music taste.
    • It  slows the site download and is a waste of bandwidth for your server (and money that you pay for that extra bandwidth) as well as the  user.
    • Not every  browser & operating system may support your multimedia format.
  • Keep the information on the website as approachable as possible. You can achieve this by minimizing the number of steps (clicks) to all  information pages. This ways the visitor is least likely to abandon the page and reduces the bounce rate of your website.
  • If  you have query forms on your website, keep the form as compact as  possible and avoid being too curious by asking too many questions.  Remember, that most visitors are lazy and tend to quit the websites  with complex forms and move on to websites with easier registration  processes. Using radio buttons is a good idea as they help you to  keep the form as objective as possible.
  • With  more and more people using wide screen monitors, it’s important to accommodate this aspect into your website design plan. If someone has a widescreen monitor, your website will tuck at the left hand  side of the screen, and everything will look off-balance. So make  sure you make your website center aligned.
  • If  you are to add only one feature to your website to enhance your website usability, you should add Yahoo! Or Google website search.  The search button is sometimes the first object your visitor’s  desire on your website. Specially if it’s an informative blog and the user is looking for a specific topic amidst a huge blog archive.  The search form should be placed above, in the top right corner of your website.
  • To  make it easy for users of the website, its a good practice not to make your visitors enter the same information again if he changes the page and comes back to the same page. We can recall the data entered by simply storing session variables.
  • Don’t be over creative by using unconventional flash navigation  interface.You don’t want your customer to puzzle over how to operate  your complex user interface. All you want is to make the visitor  focus on your product, ideas or information or whatever you are  featuring on your website. But if you get in their way by doing  strange things, then be prepared for some high bouncing traffic.