Introduction to Web Usability

Web usability is important for the success of any website. Understanding how to improve the usability of your website and decreasing error rates will help you create a successful online presence.

What is Web Usability?

Web usability is an approach for making websites easier to use, learn and remember without any special training. Web usability is defined by five quality components:

Learnability: First-time users' ability to learn how to accomplish basic tasks.

Efficiency: The ease with which users can perform tasks once they have learned the design.

Memorability: A user's ability to remember the functionality of the website after not using it for a period of time.

Errors: The amount of errors users encounter while navigating a website and the degree of significance of these errors.

Satisfaction: The satisfaction you get from using a website.

Why is Web Usability Important?

For any website, usability is important because it can determine the success or failure of the website. If a home page is difficult to navigate or understand, users will tend to leave before even navigating further. A website that is hard to read, will typically turn away users. Websites with too many errors may frustrate users and prevent use of the website. Upon leaving a website, users will look for an easier, more user-friendly website to use. Therefore, it is very important to make your website easy to understand and use in order to succeed with your online goals.

Remember the first law of e-commerce: "If users cannot find the product, they cannot buy it either" (Usability 101).

Improvement Rate of Web Usability

Formal usability metrics of about 262 websites showed a 17% improvement in the last decade (from 2000 to 2010) on failure rates (not being able to proficiently use a website). Website conversion rates doubled during this same time period from an average of 1% to 2%. Looking at the improvement rate of web usability over a long-term period, on average web usability improves by 6% a year (Progress in Usability).

What this all means is that web usability is in the infancy stage and has a long way to go until we reach a period where websites are very easy to use.

Jakob Nielson's Alertbox. Usability 101. Introduction to Usability. Accessed May 25, 2010. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html


Jakob Nielson's Alertbox. Progress in Usability: Fast or Slow?. Accessed May 25, 2010. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/usability-progress-rate.html