Website usability

There is over 750 million people in the world who have a disability. As we move forward more and more people are using the Internet and it is crucial that the web becomes accessible to everyone.

Why website usability is important

Some tasks on the Internet, such as purchasing are ofter difficult for a person with a disability. many websites are not accessible to large segments of the disabled communities (blind, beaf and hard of heading in particular) and as the Internet and the services it provides become more interactive people with disabilities are going to find it increasingly difficult to use the Internet unless we address the problem.

Usability is an aspect of web development which is constantly overlooked, mainly because its hard to identify why a part is useable and why a part isn’t. If your browsing a website in search of a particular product and can’t find it you start getting frustrated and possibly leave the site for a competitors site. Now if this is your web site, you’ve possibly lost business due to your sites poor usability!

By carrying out usability research you dramatically reduce the chances of failure, it works by identifying how your potential client base will use your web site and where areas can be improved.

Conducting Usability research

Below are a couple of examples of techniques which can be used in usability research

• Online questionnaires which can be filled out by people visiting the site allowing anonymous points of view.
• Sit down with users, see how they interact with the web site, listen and watch their reactions.

In order to get a complete set of results from your usability research a number of approaches must be undertaken, this is because people often give one perspective when being watched and another when they don’t feel under pressure.

We can help

We can help you carry out usability research on current sites, please contact us if your interested.