An easy-to-use web (with good usability) is much more likely to succeed; Internet users want easy-to-use websites, do not want complications or need much time to understand a web or access information.
But … how do we get it? How do we make easy the difficult, understandable the incomprehensible and clear the confused?
In this article we will talk about the criteria of web usability that must be used to make a web easy and comfortable for the user.
What are the laws of usability? 5 Basic pillars
There are many usability rules for different projects and different situations, but there are five basic pillars that must always be kept in mind when studying the usability of a website:
- Speed: The pages of our website must load quickly (not more than 4 seconds)
- Structuring: Our website must have a clear and constant structure in all its screens.
- Intuitiveness: The user must be able to navigate through the web intuitively.
- Compatibility: The web must be compatible for all browsers and devices; Should be displayed correctly on all platforms.
- Update: The content of the web must be updated and be dynamic
As we have said, these are the main laws of usability, on which we must base ourselves, but there are also a series of usability rules that we must keep in mind and that are related to these laws.
The 10 main usability rules are:
- Graphic design: The graphic design of the website should be careful, clear, attractive visually and in line with the theme.
- Avoiding animations: Animations distract the user and slow the loading of pages
- Navigability: The user must be able to navigate through the different screens in a clear and easy way
- Content: The content must be relevant and related to the topic. To make it easier to read and understand texts, it is recommended to follow the rule of writing a paragraph for each idea.
- Images: The images must be related to the content, be of quality and with a good resolution. The relationship between text and images on each screen should be adequate: lack of images and excessive text can produce monotony and fatigue; And an excessive number of images can cause distraction and detract from the text.
- Rule of the 3 clicks: The user should not need more than three clicks to arrive at the information that looks for. Preventing errors: We must try to prevent possible mistakes; To study all the cases that can be given.
- System information: We must inform the user of what is happening at any moment, where it is, what will happen, if there is an error for what reason, … Control of the user: The user wants to have freedom and control over their actions; Does not want to be forced or want to get unexpected results.
- Accessibility: We must try to ensure that our website can be visited and used satisfactorily by as many people as possible regardless of the type of hardware, software, language, geographical location …
Criteria by device
The usability criteria that we will use in our web will not be the same for all the devices in which it will be used; That is to say, depending on the device we will meet some usability criteria or others.
We will make a version of the web for each device since the user who will visit our website will not have the same needs if you do it from a desktop computer than if you do it from a mobile phone.
To ensure that our website offers good usability is recommended to perform from time to time a web audit.
What criteria should we use in an audit?
- Loading time
- Legible and contrasting font with background
- Device Compatibility
- Browser Compatibility
- Objective of the web clear from the beginning
- Suitable graphic design
- Corporate identity
- Intuitiveness
- Structure and architecture of information
- Relevant and related content
- Relevant and related images
- Navigability
- Featured Top Sections, Functions, and Options
- Categorization
Menu system and submenus - Search engine (if applicable) and results page
Forms - Contact
- Information pages
- System information
- Accessibility
As we see, there are many aspects that influence the usability of a web page and is that, usability is a determining factor in the success of a web page as it is the users who will use it, so we have to do Our web is easy and comfortable, by and for them. If we could summarise in 4 sentences the web usability that a user expects could be:
Make it fast
( loading time)
Do not make me think
( clear and intuitive )
That interests me
( relevant and related content )
I can use it on any device
( compatibility and accessibility )
Do you want to hear it for yourself?
Improve the usability of your web platform, mobile application or software, observing users, discovering what obstacles they encounter and listening to what they really think when browsing or interacting with your digital product. See how users give their opinions on Checkealos usability tests.
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