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| Relevant Links: |
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UseIt.com
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| - Jakob Nielsen, the guru of usability, shares his
thoughts on usability. A great site to pick up tips from. |
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Web Accessibility Initiative |
| - pursues accessibility of the Web through five primary areas of work: technology, guidelines, tools, education and outreach, and research and development.
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RNIB Campaign for Good Web Design |
| - the RNIB urges all companies to take the necessary steps to improve the design of their online services. |
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Bobby |
| - this free service will allow you to test web pages and help expose and repair barriers to accessibility and encourage compliance with existing accessibility guidelines. |
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Website Usability
What is Website Usability?
Usability addresses the relationship between websites and their visitors. In order for a website to be effective, it must allow intended users to accomplish their tasks in the best way possible. The same principle applies to computers, manuals and other software. In order for these systems to work, their users must be able to employ them effectively.
What Makes a Website Usable?
Website usability depends on a number of factors; including how well the available functions (eg product search, online customer service) fits user needs, how well the flow through the site fits user tasks, and how well the response of the website to requests fits the user's expectations.
Even the most insightful designer can only create a highly-usable website through a process that involves getting information from people who actually use it. Usability is the quality of a system that makes it easy to learn, easy to use, easy to remember and easy to correct when making mistakes.
We believe that helping people do their work in an effective and enjoyable way should be the top priority in website design because if a product is not usable, people will not use it.
Why is Usability Important to My Company?
From the customer perspective usability is important because it can make the difference between visiting a website & either enjoying the process or being frustrated. From a company perspective usability is important because it can mean the difference between the success or failure of a commercial website.
Given a choice, people will always tend to return and buy from a site that is more user-friendly.
How Do You Achieve a High Level of Usability?
The key principle for maximizing usability is to use a planned design process - progressively improving the design from early stages to final production. The evaluation steps enable the designers and developers to incorporate customer and company feedback until the system reaches an acceptable level of usability.
The preferred method for ensuring a high level of usability is to test actual customers on a working system. Alternative methods include user testing on system prototypes, a usability inspection conducted by experts, and cognitive modelling.
How Can I Learn More?
There are usability courses offered in a variety of usability areas, from introductory to advanced tutorials, and including user testing, graphic design, and prototyping techniques.
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