Website Usability Consultants and Testing

The top two most overlooked points during the development of a website are the lack of search engine optimization and a web design that fails to account for website usability. Flashy websites rarely impress anymore, especially if the visitor does not know where they are in the site and cannot find the information they are looking for.

Common Web Usability Problems

Website usability testing involves evaluating a site to assess how easy it is to use. It is an important factor that is usually taken for granted, particularly among more complex websites.

In addition to navigational issues (getting around the website),  website usability also entails several other common usability problems.

	Browser window size
	Splash pages (the intro homepage introductions that say "click to enter")
	Failure to account for the limited color possibilities on computer monitors
	The poor interplay between flash websites and slow modems
	Endless typos are a sure way to lose business and credibility
	Website navigation: Is it difficult to get around or even find the buttons?

Web Usability Consultants

As web usability consultants, we can help you solve these problems. Note that sometimes it is easier to re-design a website than it is to re-structure it based on what is currently in place.

Navigation through a website is a crucial aspect of web design. Unless you have a one-page website, you will need a web usability analysis of your site's design.

Regardless of whether your site is 20 pages or 20,000 pages, if it was built to disseminate information or sell products in a dymanic e-commerce system (including a shopping cart), if people find it hard to use, you will lose out.

Ask the Correct Questions

Whether you are a small business owner or report to a board of directors, you must ask one crucial question: What does your website say about your business? Always remember that a website is the modern version of a brochure. All companies would prefer thick, attractive, colorful, content-rich documents to a one-page brochure that was printed on plain paper with little useful information on it.

When visitors come to your website, they should not have to be educated about how to get around. It should be fairly obvious from the get-go. Website visitors do not want to read a manual on how to get to the information they seek on the site. It should be within a few clicks of reach.

The faster a website user can get to their destination within the site, the better. A site's ease-of-use design, speed of download, and clean appearance all have an effect on the visitors decision-making process.

We have an in-house series of tests that must be passed and we can set-up focus groups for larger projects.

Reality Speaks for Itself

Our website usability consulting is backed by Internet researchers. Here are what some of them have said about Internet surfing behavior:

"More than 83 percent of Internet users are likely to leave a Web site if they feel they have to make too many clicks to find what they're looking for."
(Arthur Andersen, 2001)

"A bad design can cost a Web site 40 percent of repeat traffic. A good design can keep them coming back. A few tests can make the difference." (Kalin, 1999)

"In a 1999 study of Web users, respondents were asked to list the five most important reasons to shop on the Web. Even though low prices definitely do attract customers, pricing was only the third-most important issue for respondents. Most of the answers were related to making it easy, pleasant, and efficient to buy. The top reason was "Easy to place an order" by 83% of the respondents." (Nielson, February 1999)

We urge you to contact us for more information on our web usability testing and consulting, and website services.

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