Millions of Web sites offer users information, goods, services, and entertainment. But many of these sites are difficult to use, don't work properly, and ultimately don't attract or keep users. By following a usability engineering process, users' abilities to find information and satisfaction with Web sites improve significantly.
Usability measures the quality of a user's experience when interacting with a product or system-whether a Web site, a software application, mobile technology, or any user-operated device. In general, it refers to how well users can learn and use a product to achieve their goals and how satisfied they are with that process.
Usability is typically measured by conducting usability testing. There are several measures of usability, including:
- Effectiveness
- Efficiency
- Satisfaction
- Ease of learning
- Memorability
- Error frequency and severity
Good usability transcends age, geography and culture, says usability expert Dr. Jakob Nielsen. He is considered the web usability guru, and is president of the Neilsen-Norman Group and author of
Designing Web Usability: the Practice of Simplicity and
Prioritizing Web Usability (and several other books).
The Web site will succeed in attracting visitors if it is designed according to how humans think and behave. There are endless stories of customers who say in focus groups that they would love a certain feature, but who never use it once it is launched because it is too cumbersome, too expensive, or doesn't really meet their needs in real use. The point is that market research forms the starting point but has to be supplemented with usability engineering if you want a design that works when people try to use it.
Fullestop.co.uk employs User-Centered Design (key methodology for carrying out usability) into its projects because we understand that the success of a project relates to the quality of the user experience. The main usability rules: speak the users' language, answer the users' questions, and have a simple design that's easy to navigate with a clean structure that reflects the way users think of your products; are cottoned on by us.
Dr. Jakob Nielson recommends companies to spend 10 percent of their Web budget on usability. That's what they need to find out what customers want. Then, spend the remaining 90 percent of the budget on building that.
Good usability approximately doubles the effect of the project because users can accomplish about twice as much with an easier interface. Usability increases the benefits of the design by 100% at a cost of 10% of the investment in developing it. Thus, the benefits are ten times the cost, leading to an average ROI (Return on Investment) estimate of 1000%
Usability is an investment, not an added expense. It can have a positive impact on a company's bottom line if a Web site is built based on what customers want. Usability increases customer satisfaction, productivity, and leads to customer trust and loyalty. For more information,
Contact Us
