The Low Cost Web site Design Secrets series continues. You’ll always be able to click the link to view the entire series below.

Low Cost Web Site Design Secret Number Five: Avoid These Common Usability Mistakes

So what are these common usability mistakes?

One of the most common mistaks is building a site that does not appear to have a clear purpose. If you show your site to a novice internet user and they can’t figure out how to get around, you’ll want to review this issue.

Other common mistakes include:

• long scrolling pages (the skinnier the scrollbar, the closer you are to losing your audience),
• animated text (those tricks are for kids),
• dark backgrounds (they work on some “fun” sites, but not for businesses),
• long download times (how long does it take you to click away when a page doesn’t load?), and,
• outdated information (people expect the web to be fresh).

In short, a usable site will:

help users achieve a goal, usually to find something
make it easy for them to achieve that goal
make it possible to achieve the goal quickly
make achieving that goal a pleasant experience

Identifying problems with usability for your site need be no more complicated than asking a few friends to use your site and, if possible, watching them silently as they do this. Watching users try to find information on your site can be both instructive and quite revealing!

Not sure if your site measures up?

For a free consultation on your Web site usability, write to me at nina@interdream-designs.com, or click the link below to ask me a question.

Nina

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