Usability refers to the ease with which visitors are able to move around and through your website. Ideally, it is “whether a product is efficient, effective, and satisfying for those who use it.”
For website design and development, it comes down to “factors that contribute to the perceived trustworthiness of an eCommerce site.”
Understanding this concept, and addressing the characteristics that make a website “usable” should be the number one requirement for any web design project. Usability is the one characteristic that can make or break your website.
Think about it. Once a surfer lands on your page, you have less than five seconds to capture her attention. If your site is properly configured, this task should be completed thoughtlessly.
A website properly configured for usability should “strike a unique balance on each project between business goals and context, user needs and behavior, and content.”
For the user, their experience should comply with the following:
• Useful, the “content should be original and fulfill a need”
• Usable. “Site must be easy to use."
• Desirable. “Image, identity, brand, and other design elements are used to evoke emotion and appreciation."
• Findable. “Content needs to be navigable and locatable onsite and offsite.”
• Accessible. “Content needs to be accessible to people with disabilities.”
• Credible. “Users must trust and believe what you tell them.”
Adhering to these guiding principles will insure that visitors to your site will visit, browse, enjoy, stay and most importantly, return.
References:
http://www.usabilitybok.org/what-is-usability
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/07/building-trust-on-ecommerce-home-pages.php
http://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/user-experience.html
