Tips From the Usability Meetup in Raleigh, North Carolina

There was a great meetup I attended a few weeks ago to discuss web usability. Ashley Berman Hale and Phil Buckley were the organizers who presented some helpful usability tips.

Here are the notes of the Meetup:

Usability: On the Web & On Your Site

Usability is “Task Oriented” and should enable momentum so users can complete tasks
Allow search capabilities so a user can expand or refine their search
Users need to understand where they are. Use breadcrumbs, multi-tier navigation and good cross-linking.

Applicable Examples

Show price: Don’t wait until it goes into a cart or make them call
Use detailed descriptions: Good for end-user and SEO
Use simple language
Have clear labels and links
Unclutter your design, using goog images, clean font, etc…
Consistent navigation that is easy to understand
Easy shopping cart process (minimal steps)

Usability: Do I Really Need To Pay Attention To This?

Yes, if you users can’t find it, it doesn’t exist
Search engines will mimic what they think people want/like
Use W3C standards (alt tags, logical headers, 1-click away)
SEO vs Usability: Good usability almost always will trump SEO
Bad User Interface + Long Checkout Process = High Bounce Rate
Understand who your site is targeting (Demographics)

Usability: How Do I Figure Out What Actually Works

Look at your Analytics:

Where are people leaving?
Are they getting to the important pages
What content are they easily getting to?
Goals – Where are they being abandoned
Check site logs and errors

The 5 Second Test

This was my favorite part of the entire presentation. The idea is to find someone that has never seen your site before and have them look at it for 5 seconds.

Ask them:
Do they understand what the site is about?
What they sell?
What actions are you suppose to complete?
What demographic is the site targeting?

Because user have such a short attention span online, you have 5 seconds to capture your user. Doing this test can give you feedback on certain design related issues you have to work on.

Usability: Show Me The Money!

Don’t call your products “products, call them exactly what they are
Great Usability = increased links, traffic, rankings, and conversions
If better usability can increase conversions on your site from 1%-3%, then sales just went up 100%-300%

If you have attended a recent Meetup and would like your tips featured on StayOnSearch, let us know.