Website Usability & Navigation
What Usability is to web design, Navigation is to the Web site.
Usability is about ensuring better download time; it's about ensuring that your visitors do not give up on your home page. If users do not find the information they are looking for, or if they do not find it quickly, they will look elsewhere and your business will lose a prospect. Usability design will depend on your target audience and the purpose of your website.
A well-laid-out navigation plan will also ensure that you are able to guide the user to pages and content which you wish to promote. Good navigation and usability will help you extract better returns on your digital marketing investments, be it SEO, SEM or Social Media
Both put together form the basis of what is called as User Experience Design which in turn leads us to the popular terminology, UI / UX design. Lets look at some reasons why we need to pay attention to usability and navigation which can also be called tips for improving navigation and usability.
- Create a convenient way to move between related pages / sections and easily to return to the home page.
- Make the information that users are most likely to need easily findable.
- Create an optimal site structure with no unnecessary levels.
- Ensure that there are no dead ends.
- Navigation tabs are located where the visitor can find them and understand them easily.
- What is clickable should look so.
- Use click triggers by way of links and navigation labels to help users achieve their goals.
- Use some standard Terminology and conventions when it comes to colours and sizes.
- For ecommerce sites a proper navigation plan which uses category, sub category and product pages with filters and sort feature etc.
- Basket and checkout links should be clearly visible on every page.
- If the plan is to throw windows or pop-ups they should have easy exit or close options.
If you want us to evaluate your website for Usability and navigation issues, click here.
