Creating User Friendly Web Sites

You know from your own experience that some Web sites work better than others. Some are simple and clean, well organized, and enable the user to find relevant and meaningful information easily and quickly. Others, even though they might be graphically dazzling and clever, suffer from inconsistent content presentation, confuse the viewer with questionable or incomplete navigation, and end up wasting the visitor's time.

Considering the millions of Web sites that reside on the Internet, you'd think that some tried and true fundamentals for creating user friendly Web sites would have emerged by now. Well, they have, and they are collectively grouped under the broad heading of Web "usability."

Any discussion of Web usability must include Jakob Nielson (www.useit.com), the leading authority on the subject. A former engineer and interface researcher with Sun Microsystems, Nielson has been called, among similar things, the "king of usability," one of the "Web's most influential people," and "the world's expert on user-friendly design." Two of his best-known books, Designing Web Usability and Homepage Usability are valuable resources - veritable textbooks - for those who are frequently involved with Web site development.

The essential goal of Web usability is to create a simple, user-friendly Web experience. That may sound like an easy enough task, but the overwhelming number of unsuccessful Web sites attests otherwise. Many sites fail because the site builder overlooked a cardinal rule of Web site design: Web sites are for visitors. That means visitors must not only find and subsequently be attracted to your site, but also perceive enough worthwhile information to induce them to browse further. What's more, in that critical first seven seconds, your Web site must answer several vital questions, including:

where am I?,
what does this site do/provide?, and
how do I find my way around?

Web site usability issues take dozens of creative and technical factors into consideration: home page design, screen real estate usage, graphic loading speed, site organization, consistency of content presentation, typography, writing style, navigation and linking, search engine optimization, browser settings, Internet access speed, user expectations, Web conventions, and many more. When understood and practiced by the designer, these factors can lead to a satisfying user experience and successful Web site.

When it's all said and done, your Web site is a valuable marketing communications asset. If a visitor fails to quickly perceive what your Web site is all about, they move on to something else. When that happens, an opportunity is lost.

This month's columnist is Steve Brightbill. Mr. Brightbill is a 30-year business-to-business marketing veteran and an associate of Wise Women Communications.