See the very benefit! 6 Principles for improving site usability

Typically, there are three types of websites:

The first kind of website has outstanding creativity and design. This site will give you a "wow" of praise. But, unfortunately, they don't have much more than good design.

The second site lacks creativity and design, but you can find what you're looking for right away! But will you turn it off because they're visually unattractive?

The best website is the perfect combination of usability and visual attraction. Such a site will attract you to continue to visit it. From a marketing perspective, this is the best type.

Good-looking websites don't have any value if they don't allow users to continue to visit, increase their use of conversion rates, or reach sales targets. If you want them back, instead of just finishing the compliment, turn around and leave. You should not just meet the user's visual pleasure.

If your goal is to expect users to continue to visit your site and become loyal users, then you should consider improving site usability and user-centric design principles. This means focusing on the needs of users and providing them with efficient, user-friendly websites. If you do, you will gain trust. It's so simple.

Note that increasing usability is not the same as improving the user experience, and the focus of the user experience is to improve the user's psychological positive feelings. Of course, increasing usability will make your users happy, which will ultimately lead to a positive user experience.

Let's start by talking about some simple principles for improving usability.

first, do not let users think

This is the most important principle for improving usability, as Steve Krug in his book Don T make Me Think.

Designer's must-read books, in the "Awesome!" The designer is highly recommended in the full self-study guide, and is also accompanied by a PDF download.

Web pages should be understood as soon as they come up. Users subconsciously know where to point and where to get what they want. Don't think about it at all.

Doing this will undoubtedly make your users happy. Let's take MailChimp to make a classic example.

MailChimp

This page of MailChimp is very simple. There is no groundbreaking design to improve usability, just let the right things appear in the right place (where the user expects them to appear).

Another good thing about this page is that it doesn't make users feel "opt for phobia", which is another principle that must be known.

second, avoid "choose phobia"

When a person faces too many options, they often do not make any choices, or choose an option that is already most familiar to them. This "phobia of choice" is not just on the web, it's also common in life. For example, in a café facing the various coffee names written on the blackboard. "Choose phobia" is really disturbing, it will let people give up the choice, or choose to go back to where they are already familiar.

New users should be completely free from the next point. This page of MailChimp is also doing very well in this area.

Tip: The most necessary options must be highlighted, such as the important action button "free registration". Other options can be "more", which effectively avoids having too many options on one page.

Non-important options can be added to "more"

third, immediately give the user what they want

When users browse the site, they look like they're hanging out in a traditional offline store, and don't look at all the details, they're just looking for what they really need. Users do not read verbatim on the site, they only browse at random. Once something satisfies their needs, they click Open.

Experience: Don't let users think "this looks like a long time".

For example, they can be visually adapted to meet the needs of these fast-browsing people.

Below is an example of Bang2joom's beautifully visualizing the pay plan.

Visualize information for quick and easy browsing

Allows users to visually compare the differences between different pay plans, choose the right, very clear and simple.

four, to have "search"

Your site provides content to meet the needs of users, search is meaningful. "Search" is a must, especially for sites with a large number of different domain content, such as Wikipedia.

Search by Wikipedia

Best Practices for serving search boxes:

• The search box is available on all pages, not just on the home page.
• The search box is long enough (like Google's) to make it easy for users to view and modify.
• Search box to be smart. When searching, users can provide a similar "common search term" for reference. In addition, when the user enters a word, you can provide some "recommended results" directly below. The search on Apple's official website is a good example of this best practice.

Search on Apple's official website

v. Know your users

Young geeks love to explore new things. A somewhat complex website, if there is good content, will have a strong interest in young people. They may also be curious to explore all the options and click on all the buttons. Like GameStop, once I spent a few hours on this site and didn't realize it was a bit hard to use.

style= "COLOR: #e36c09 ″ Gamestop

And the adult situation is not the same. They are more conservative, more concise, and more resistant to new things.

Therefore, you should also consider your target audience when designing your website.

Google, for example, has a very broad user base, but no one will encounter use barriers because it is a very good balance between simplicity and functionality.

A few more quick tricks!

• Note "Banner blind", in fact, users often ignore things that look like ads, they notice the ads, but still ignore it. Try not to show elements that look like ads (for example, block information stacked on the right side of the page).
• If you ask for registration, measure the user's time, minimize the number of options you need to fill out, leaving only the most important.
• Allow "One click to unsubscribe".
• Never forget your mobile phone users. Do responsive design!
• Do not let users rely solely on the browser's forward and backward. If they need to "return", let them use "back" on the website instead of the browser.
• Let the design serve the content.
• emphasis on links. A pointer change can be done by moving the mouse over the text to identify a link that is a disaster experience.

At this point, I think you are ready, to improve the usability of your site, so that users have a more cool experience it.

Of course, these principles do not apply in all cases and may require specific analysis of specific circumstances. However, we have left a hand, and the last point of the 6 principles is that it really applies to all situations. Finally, and is the most important point.

VI. Testing

testing, which is the key to success in improving site usability. We said at the outset, there are countless ways to design, production and maintenance of a successful website, although to try it, after testing, please be sure to pass the test to check the effect, continuous improvement, to continue to achieve better results!

Finally, good luck to you!

See the very benefit! 6 Principles for improving site usability