What is Website Usability?
Website usability means designing websites that make it easy for users to achieve what they set out to do on the site. It is web design that is not just professional but also enables web visitors to achieve their specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction.

Why is Website Usability Important?
At Small Biz Express, we believe that website design with a focus on usability is important to users so that they can perform their tasks accurately and completely.  Lack of usability can cost time and effort, and can greatly determine the success or failure of a website.

Given a choice, people tend to use websites that are more user-friendly. Thus,  better website design with an eye on usability directly affects your sales, cost, usage, customer loyalty and almost every other aspect of online business.

Recent studies suggest that changing your website design to make it more usable can increase the sales/conversion rate by 100%. Changing your website design to improve usability results in returns that are several times more than the actual money invested in this effort.

What factors contribute to improve Website Usability?
Usability evaluation of Website design falls under the following 6 categories:

• Ordering to Save Time & Effort
• Navigation & Links
• Functionality & Expectation Management
• User-Relevant Language & Content
• Error-Handling, Support & Feedback Prompts
• Layout Aesthetics, Visual Clarity, Colors & Images

1. Ordering to Saving Time & Effort
In a world where time is money,  at Small Biz Express, we believe that it is important to design websites that save the time & effort of your users.
Usability studies have shown that 8.6 seconds is the maximum time web users will wait for a page to download.  So while going through the website design process, keep the following things in mind:
- Design websites that take less than 8 seconds to upload
- Keep the size of your Web pages to the bare minimum. (As Website size is inversely proportional to the download speed)
- Ensure that the website design process follows consistency of language and graphics to reduce confusion
- Avoid website design options that include opening new windows

2. Navigation & Links
Navigation means your visitors can clearly determine their current location within the Website structure and easily move across various pages. Web navigation can be simplified by judgmental use of links during website design.
There are three types of links:

• Structural links - links within a Website, such as links to next pages and home.
• Embedded links - indicate that more information is available about underlined linked words.
• Associative links – links direct users to other sites that may be of interest to the users.

Here are some user-friendly navigation techniques that we recommend while going through the web design process
- Include a search function. Ideally, use a simple search box on the homepage.
- Provide a consistent link to the homepage from every webpage and access from the homepage to all possible existing pages.
- Provide a sitemap. A site map tells the user the current location and the exact position of the subpages.
- Don’t confuse the user with too many links.

3. Functionality & Expectation Management
Functionality and Expectation Management involve setting expectations of the  visitors and ensuring they are met on the Website.

• Ensure that during the website design process each item of functionality is clearly labeled. For instance, naming the shopping space as “shopping cart”.
• Design the website so that all common functions are available on the site ;without forcing the customer to visit another site to complete an interaction.
• At Small Biz Express, we strongly recommend a website design that requires no special plug-ins or tools to operate.
• Ensure that through the website design process there is only one term to describe an item. For instance, menu items should match page titles and conventional terms are used to describe common functions such as “search” or “submit.”
• If you are selling products or services online, the shopping cart usability is essential to the success of your online business.

4. User-Relevant Language & Content
Identify your target audience before writing the content in the website design process.
Consider the 5 following factors:

• Age: What age-group does your target audience belong to?
• Gender: Do your products/services only cater to Males/Females?
• Geography: Do you cater to any particular area, do you serve state-wide or do you serve nation-wide?
• Prospects or Customers: Is your content meant for existing customers or do you want to invite new leads or is the content meant for generic usage?
• Interest in a specific area: Is your content meant for people with any particular set of interests? Are they outdoor enthusiasts? Do they belong to a particular profession?

5. Error-Handling, Support & Feedback Prompts:
Error handling is the  likelihood of errors occurring on your Website and finding solutions for errors. Feedback prompting is  providing messages for all interactions through your Website.

• Ensure that your Website design provides a help section that is concise and relevant
• Design the Website to ensure the visitor is not forced into unnecessary actions
• Provide simple, concisely-stated escape from an error situation
• Design websites that enable the display of immediate, precise message prompts directing the users to further specific actions (For instance, request to wait and contact details)

6. Layout Aesthetics, Visual Clarity, Colors & Images At Small Biz Express, we are strong proponents of a simple website design. Here are some of our internal recommendations to new web designers

• Keep the page clean and readable
• Avoid reverse fonts
• Avoid light fonts on light backgrounds or dark fonts on dark backgrounds
• Design each page with the “key message in mind”