Website Usability Leads to Conversions

Known as the web's Usability Czar, Jakob Nielsen is one of the Internet's most respected consultants, authors and commentators. Nielsen Normal Group , usability issues have an enormous effect on website revenues. As clients ultimately measure the success of search marketing campaigns by their ROI, search marketers might benefit from a quick review of some of Dr. Nielsen's basic ideas and observations. Usability, as defined by Dr. Nielsen is, " ...a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use." In a short August 2003 essay titled, "Learnability ". When a new visitor enters a website, how easy is it for them to perform basic tasks like moving from point A to point B, gathering information, or using embedded tools such as maps, video-players or currency exchange calculators? The second is labeled "Efficiency". Once a new visitor gets used to the site, how quickly can they use the site and its tools to perform tasks? Third on Dr. Nielsen's list is "Memorability". On subsequent visits to a site, how quickly can users find their way around and use site tools and features? The next component is labeled "Errors". Web designers should ask how many errors do site visitors make, how severe are those errors, and how easy is it to recover from those errors? The fifth component is labeled "Satisfaction". How pleasant is the design and does the design please the user? It is fairly easy to see how applying these simple tests of usability might affect website traffic, visitor retention and ultimately ROI. In a widely published quote from his essay, Dr. Nielsen bluntly notes the importance of usability stating, "On the Web, usability is a necessary condition for survival. If a website is difficult to use, people leave. If the homepage fails to clearly state what a company offers and what users can do on the site, people leave. If users get lost on a website, they leave. If a website's information is hard to read or doesn't answer users' key questions, they leave . Note a pattern here? There's no such thing as a user reading a website manual or otherwise spending much time trying to figure out an interface. There are plenty of other websites available; leaving is the first line of defense when users encounter a difficulty." Understanding these ideas is one thing. Employing them in site design is obviously more difficult. Designers and their consultants work in a bubble of online information and often neglect to consider user experience. For example, many sites are designed in the favourite colours of the designer. While a designer might like striking colours and psychedelic graphics, it doesn't necessarily mean folks visiting his or her site will. Similarly, site designers often know exactly where information and products can be found within the sites they build but the navigation options they often provide visitors serve to push traffic to competing sites. As noted previously, many of the major search engines have taken Dr. Nielsen's theories to heart. Google, Yahoo, MSN and the rest spend a lot of time conducting discrete user research and overt beta testing, using the findings of their surveys to adapt page and product design to users' wants and needs. In a recent StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc. Based in Victoria, BC, Canada, StepForth is the result of the consolidation of BraveArt Website Management, Promotion Experts, and Phoenix Creative Works, and has provided professional search engine placement and management services since 1997. http://www.stepforth.com/ Tel - 250-385-1190 Toll Free - 877-385-5526 Fax - 250-385-1198