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Once your site has undergone search engine optimisation (SEO) and social media optimisation (SMO) you can be left with a well optimised site with lots of traffic, but still receive little business due to poor conversion rates.
Here at Quantum, our HCI specialists conduct a myriad of tests on your website's usability. Recording findings (both live on video and on documents), highlighting problems areas, and then passing this information back onto you.
Usability Optimisation Guidelines
Below are a set of very basic guidelines that should be followed in the design and methodology employed by your website.
Section A. Accessibility
This section contains not only traditional accessibility issues, but anything that might keep a visitor from being able to access the information on a website. If no one can load your site, or the type face is too small to read, all of the usability in the world won't matter.
1. Site Load-time Is Reasonable
Website pages should be under 100KB (60KB is even better). If a site takes forever to load, most people will just leave. Most people have broadband, but that makes patience even thinner.
2. Adequate Text-to-Background Contrast
Dark-gray on light-gray may seem stylish, but it's not very easy to read. Eyes and monitors vary wildly, so keep your core copy contrast high.
3. Font Size and Spacing
Slightly bigger is always better, opinions vary on the ideal size for text, but if your font is too small you can cause serious problems and ensure your line spacing is adequate. Poor readability increases frustration, and frustration leads to site abandonment.
4. Use Flash Sparingly
No matter how great your site looks, people won't wait 5 minutes for a plug-in to load. Use new technology sparingly and only when it really enhances your goals.
5. Images Have Appropriate ALT Tags
Not only do sight-impaired visitors use ALT tags, but search engines need them to understand your images. This is critical.
6. 404 Page
If a page on your site doesn't exist, a white page with "404 Not Found" can lose a customer. We advise using a custom 404 page, preferably one that guides your visitors to content.
Section B. Identity
A key question when someone first comes to your site is "Who are you?" It's important to answer it quickly, and make the paths to obvious follow-up questions ("What do you do?", "Why should I trust you?", etc.) clear.
7. Company Logo Is Prominently Placed
People expect your logo or brand where it's easy to find, and that usually means the upper-left of the screen.
8. Tagline Makes Company's Purpose Clear
Answer "What do you do?" concisely with a descriptive tagline. Avoid marketing jargon and boil your unique value proposition down to a few words.
9. Home-page Is Digestible In 5 Seconds
In usability, we often talk about the 5-second rule. There's some disagreement over just how many seconds you get, but website visitors are a fickle bunch, and they need to get the basic gist of your home-page in just a few moments.
10. Clear Path to Company Information
An "About Us" page may seem very much the norm, but confidence is important on the web, and people need an easy way to learn more about you.
11. Clear Path to Contact Information
Visitors want to know that they can get in touch with you if they need to, would you place an order with a company you could not contact? Without a clear "contact us" page It's hard to do business as no one can contact you. Preferably, list your contact information as text (not in an image) - it'll get picked up by search engines, including local searches.
Section C. Navigation
Once people generally know who you are and what you do, they need clear paths to the content that interests them. Information architecture is a huge topic, below are a few of the basics:
12. Main Navigation Is Easily Identifiable
Almost every site on the web has had a main menu since the first browsers came on the market. Make your main navigation easy to find, read, and use. If you have two or more navigation areas, make it clear why they're different.
13. Navigation Labels Are Clear & Concise
Don't say "Communicate Online With Our Team" when "Contact Us" will do just fine. Your main navigation should be short, to the point.
14. Number of Buttons/Links Is Reasonable
Psychologists like to argue about how many pieces of information we can process, but if you start to get past 7-or-so menu items, think hard about whether you need them. If you've got 3 layers of flyaway Javascript menus, then start over.
15. Company Logo Is Linked to Home-page
This may sound minor, but people expect logos to link to home-pages, and when they don't, confusion follows.
16. Links Are Consistent & Easy to Identify
The underlined, blue link is a staple of the web. A little artistic license is ok, but consider at least making your links either blue or underlined. Links should stand out, and you should use them sparingly enough that they don't disrupt your content.
17. Site Search Is Easy to Access
The site search must be prominent. Usability guidelines tend to prefer the upper-right corner of the page. Keep the button simple and clear - "Search" still works best for most sites.
Section D. Content
Content needs to be consistent, organized, and easy to skim through as it is one of the most important factors for both conversion, and SEO.
18. Major Headings Are Clear & Descriptive
Most people don't read online, they skim. Use headings (major and minor) to set content apart and keep it organized. Headings should be clear, and for SEO benefit, using heading tags (H1, H6, etc.).
19. Critical Content Is Above The "Fold"
The "fold" is that imaginary line where the bottom of your screen cuts off a page. Content can fall below the fold, but anything critical to understanding who you are or what you do (especially on the home-page) should fit on that first screen. Average screen resolution is 1280x1024, depending on your audience.
20. Styles & Colors Are Consistent
Layout, headings, and styles should be consistent site-wide, and colours should usually have the same meaning.
21. Emphasis areas sparingly
It's a fact of human cognition: try to draw attention to everything and you'll effectively draw attention to nothing.
22. Ads & Pop-ups Are Unobtrusive
Ads are a fact of life, but integrate them nicely into your site. If you blur the line between ads and content too much, your content will suffer.
23. Main Copy Is Concise & Explanatory
Look at your home-page - can you say the same thing in half as many words? Try to be concrete and descriptive and avoid jargon.
24. URLs Are Meaningful & User-friendly
This is a point of some debate, but meaningful keyword-based URLs are generally good for both visitors and search engines.
25. HTML Page Titles Are Explanatory
Page titles (in the tag) should be descriptive, unique, and not jammed full of keywords. Page titles are the first thing search-engine visitors see, and if those titles don't make sense or look spammy, they'll move on to the next result.
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