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In this article I’m going to take you how to make your website as easy to use.
How easy a website is to use is based on two things;
- How it visually looks
- How it functions
Visual design is easy to assess as people form first impressions about a design almost immediately. Asking them to list a few words describing it after showing them a design is a good way to gather feedback quickly.
But visual details like fonts, colours and layouts have important effects on usability beyond first impressions, if you want to make choices based on performance and results.
Your website isn’t easy to use until you prove it.
So a great starting point is to test it with real people, as that’s the only way you will truly discover if it’s easy to use. I’ve put together a few tips, not only will they help keep your visitors on your website but do what they came to do because your website is easy to use.
First here are just a few basic things to look over before testing begins;
- Understand who is visiting your website and why.
- Check your navigation titles or labels are meaningful.
- Test each webpage for a consistent look.
- Check your website search facility works.
- Ensure each page is relevant.
When a potential client lands on your website or web page it’s important you meet their expectations. The one area to focus on is your navigation – if your website visitors can’t find their way around they will leave.
Here are a few practical things to make your website easy to navigate.
- Try not to use small fonts and avoid menu icons.
- Place your menu consistently in the same place on all pages and where your visitors expect to find it.
- Make sure your menu is interactive and they look like links.
- Create visual cues so your menus have enough emphasis and importance on the page.
- Remove any visual clutter around your menus.
- Use a contrasting colour in your links.
How and what do you test on your website?
Website testing will provide you with insights into how your website works for your visitors. It can be as simple or involved as your budget allows.
Here are a few ideas to get you started on how to test your website;
- Try “speak allowed testing” this is about asking them to describe how they feel as they perform specific tasks.
- Create scenarios that help them relate to tasks, for example “Your company is considering merging with another company – find legal information about this and who to contact”.
- Consider the basics like finding your location, telephone number or contact information. If your visitors are not able to find this quickly they get frustrated.
- Test your conversions paths, for example register for a seminar or sign up for a newsletter.
- Test all of these functions on mobile first
A B Website Testing
Try A B testing, all this needs is different versions of your landing pages and the results are compared to find out which delivers more goals.
What do we test?
You may have an idea of what’s working and what is not - the choice of what to test will more than likely have revealed itself. For example you would like to increase the number of email seminar or newsletter sign ups – let me take you through some examples of what you can test against when looking for barriers that prevent users from signing up;
- Look at variations of the types of fields in the form
- The length of online forms
- Wording around buttons when convincing visitors to sign up
- Make sure you display of privacy policy
Each A B test is very different and can depend on a combination of elements – for example the visitor type and company offering. Here are some elements you can test first:
- Amount of text on the page, short v long.
- Page title or description.
- Button’s, wording, size, colour and placement.
- Layout and style of website like images on landings pages.
Let’s look at three essential A B website test checks in more detail
1. Test your “Call to Action” buttons.
A way to increase conversion rates is to run some tests on your call to action buttons. Test changes to colour, label name and where they are placed. Remove clutter around each button so it sits in its own space giving it importance.
2. Test Your Navigation.
Find out which are your most popular pages and change the order of your navigation accordingly. Then measure which order brings in the highest number of clicks for the pages that are most important for converting.
3. Test Your Login and Signup Buttons
If your website offers newsletter sign ups and/or log in, decide which action is more valuable. Is it more important to get new users to sign up, or to get people logging in? When you know which is a priority, try swapping the order or colour of these buttons.
Remember to observe things like how much they read, or how much they understood.
This is sometimes a difficult choice getting real people to test your website and can leave egos bruised, my first time testing largely failed and I felt terrible. The benefits of asking people to constructively feedback will not only give you great results but will also out strip anything your competitors are doing. I’d consider testing in some way on a regular basis.
We know people don’t behave how they say or how you think they will – so testing with real people will result in a website that’s easy to use.