6 principles to improve usability of web sites

Is it easy to design, make and maintain a good site that is beautiful and easy to use? There are many ways to achieve this goal, but there are a number of approaches that do not work.

Let's see how we can do it!

Typically, there are three types of Web sites:

The first kind of website has outstanding originality and design. This kind of website can let you send out "wow" praise. But, unfortunately, they have no more than good design.

The second site lacks originality and design, but you can find what you want right away! But do you turn it off because they're visually unattractive?

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

A good-looking web site has no value if it doesn't allow users to continue to access, increase the use of conversion rates, or reach sales targets. If you want them to come back, instead of just leaving after the compliment. You should not just satisfy the user's visual pleasure.

If your goal is to expect users to go back to your site and become loyal users, you should consider improving usability and user-centric design principles. This means focusing on the needs of users and providing them with efficient, easy-to-use Web sites. If you do, you will gain trust. It's as simple as that.

Please note that increasing usability does not equate to improving the user experience, and the user experience focuses on improving the user's psychological positive feelings. Of course, increasing usability will make your users happy, which will eventually lead to a positive user experience.

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

1 Don't let the user think

This is the most important principle to improve usability, by Steve Krug in his book Don T make Me think!.

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

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

This is the most important principle to improve usability, by Steve Krug in his book Don T make Me think!.

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

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

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

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

2 Avoid "choose phobia"

When a person faces too many options, they tend not to make any choices, or choose an option that is already familiar. This "phobia of choice" is not only on the web, it's also common in life. For example, in a café facing the various coffee names written on the blackboard. "Phobia of choice" is really disturbing, it will give people the choice to abandon, or choose to return to the place they already know.

New users should have no need to dwell on where to go next. This page of MailChimp also does very well in this area.

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

3 give the user immediately what they want

When browsing the web, users look like they hang 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 meets their needs, they click Open.

Experience: Don't let users feel "this looks like a long read."

For example, visual means can be used to meet the needs of these fast surfers.

Below is an example of Bang2joom's plan to visually visualize the paid program.

Allows users to visually contrast the differences between different payment schemes, choosing the right, very clear and simple.

4 "Search"

Your site provides content to meet the needs of users, search is meaningful. In particular, like Wikipedia, which has a large number of different areas of content of the site, "search" function is necessary.

Best Practices for the search box handy:

The search box has to be on all pages, not just the home page.

The search box is long enough (like Google's) to make it easy for users to view and modify.

The search box is smart. Users can provide a similar "common search term" for reference when searching. In addition, when a user enters a word, you can provide some "recommended results" directly below. Apple's website search is a good example of this best practice.

5 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 hours on this site and didn't realize it was a bit hard to use.

The adult situation is different. They are more conservative, more concise and more resistant to new things.

Therefore, when designing a website, you should also take into account your target audience.

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

A few quick tips!

Pay attention to the "banner blind spot", in fact, users often ignore things that look very much like advertising, they notice the ads, but still ignore it. Try not to show elements that look like ads (such as block information stacked on the right side of a Web page).

If you want to register, measure the time of the user, minimize the number of options that need to be filled in, leaving only the most important.

Allow "One-click Unsubscribe".

Never forget your mobile phone users. Do responsive design!

Do not allow users to rely only on the browser's forward fallback. If they need to "return", let them use "back" on the site instead of the browser.

Let the design serve the content.

Emphasize the link. By moving the mouse over the text, there is a pointer change to identify a link that is a disaster experience.

At this point, I think you are ready to improve the usability of your site, let users have a better experience it.

These principles, of course, do not apply to all situations and may require specific analysis. However, we still have one hand, the last point of the 6 principles is to really apply all the circumstances. Finally, and the most important point.

6 test!

Testing-This is the key to success in improving usability of your site. We first said that 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 results, continuous improvement, in order to continuously obtain better results!