Effective Web Design Usability Principles

Website Design Usability Tips

1. Getting to know about audience members

You want a site that has personality and quality content based on your audience taste. You have to understand their color preferences, technical skills and any prevalence of special needs.

2. Make the interface simple and obvious

The more obvious the interface is, the less frustration the site visitor has to guess about how your site works. You want the audience to concentrate on the content, not the interface.

3. Readability

Make paragraph easy to read. Don't use small text for font size.

4. Make your page fast loading

Reduce the waiting time is a must if your page over 20KB.

5. Avoid hidden (rollover to reveal) navigation

It makes for a very clean design if all your navigation is hidden, but it may also mean that people won't know where to click to go somewhere.

6. Get user feedback

Find out what works and what doesn't.

7. Study site visitor performance

How long does it take to performance a given task? The time it takes to do thing has got to be reasonable. If it's not reasonable, improve user interaction wherever possible.

8. Help section (site map, 404)

When site visitors make a mistake try to provide many ways to help them out of it.

9. Test early and test often

Test your code for bugs on web browsers. Test the interface for usability. Ask your friends and colleagues for in depth and valuable feedback.

Please don't think that the website usability techniques discussed above are the be all and end all of web usability as they are not.

Sam H Mah is a search engine optimization website designer who provides web standard compliant website for small and corporate clients around Canada and the world. Request a FREE usability / SEO website critique.

---

Website Background Colors and Graphics: What You Need to Know Before Designing Your Website

Designing your website means you have to be creative, plan... Read More

Should You Bother Learning HTML to Build Webpages?

The most popular method to build webpages today is to... Read More

Designing Beautiful Artist Websites ? 12 Tips To Showcase Your Art

1. Who needs an artists website?Not everyone! If you are... Read More

Web Design for Ecommerce

Your website is your tool for showing the online community... Read More

Revising Your Site - What Happened To My Search Engine Placement?

As of September, Smartads went through what so many have... Read More

The Right Trigger Words

CNN.com's designers have gone out of their way to make... Read More

How to use Emotional Content to Increase Visitor Response

Did you know that many folks make "buying decisions" when... Read More

Tips for Getting More Sales From Your Website

(1) Create a Direct Response Website, with the minimum number... Read More

Your Free Guide To Obtain A Cheap Web Design Quote

Website design is a very competitive area and there is... Read More

6 Website Design Disasters and How to Avoid Them?.

Let's face it; the line from A Field of Dreams... Read More

Why Your Site Should be Developed with CSS and Semantic Markup

Why your site should be developed with CSS and semantic... Read More

15 Website Elements That Attract Visitors

Here is a quick list of components that make a... Read More

The Secrets of The Shriekers

I am constantly bombarded with all sorts of advertisements, single-page... Read More

Why a Website Design Speaks Volumes About Your Company?

Whether a business has just got off the ground or... Read More

Has Your Design Firm Run Amuck With Your Web Site?

What's happening to good web site design? Somehow we creative... Read More

11 Steps to Sticky Web Site!

An attractive and user-friendly Web site is crucial to attracting... Read More

Web Site Templates and Their Benefits

Unarguably, the most important part of your website is content.... Read More

A Web Site That Sells Is All One Needs To Have A Successful Online Business!

There are more than billions of Web Sites, running Online... Read More

Get Rid of Your Frames

A few years ago a lot of websites utilized frame... Read More

7 Ways of Building Customers Trust With Your Web Site

When I purchase something from a web site I first... Read More

Don?t Put Your Slogan in the Title Tag - Optimize Your Web Pages

Don't just put your slogan in the title tag when... Read More

Tips On Effectively Organizing Your Navigation

Not all links are created equal.While all of your links... Read More

6 Design Flaws Newbie Web Designers Make: Fool Everyone Into Thinking You Know What Youre Doing

Even if you're not an accomplished webmaster you can still... Read More

Free Website Design Tips

In this article I will give a few tips of... Read More

Why You Want to Include an FAQ In Your Site

Congratulations! You've got a brand new site and it's doing... Read More

How to Design Website Which Google Likes

Are you going to design or redesign new website or... Read More

Web Marketing: Design Mistakes That Drive Customers Away In Droves

They may look cutting edge, but if you want a... Read More

Website Design: Color Me Blue

Chris, a new consulting client, asked me to help him... Read More

Hacked Off with CSS?

For those not familiar with CSS Hacks, they are ways... Read More

3 Simple Ways To Dramatically Improve Your Website

Before you start worrying about marketing your website on the... Read More

A Landing Page is Not an Order Page (and why it matters)

To explain my point I need to first confuse the... Read More

Your Site Map: Spider Food or Just A Light Snack?

Mechanical spiders have to eat. In fact, they usually have... Read More

Build It And Build It Cheap!

There are several very good reasons why you should consider... Read More