Making your site useful for users is the key to achieving reach and conversions; otherwise what even is the point of having one. Phoenix web design brings to you a list of helpful web usability tips that can be easily employed and will do wonders for improving the user experience.
Keep reading for tips that provide a good starting point for increasing the usability of your website.
Keep Content Concise
Web users have very short attention spans and don’t read articles thoroughly in their entirety. Most often users tend to skim webpages to find the information they want, searching for keywords. A study has found that cutting roughly half the words on webpages can increase usability by 58%.
Shorter articles enhance readability. The reason being, length of sentences and words influence the ease of reading and comprehension. Cut out all the unnecessary information and get to the point as quickly as possible. Using easy-to-understand words and phrases and avoiding long paragraphs and sentences go a long way in improving usability.
Break – Up Long Articles
Readers inspect web pages in blocks and sections as compartmentalized chunks of information. A good strategy is to break up long articles into sections so that users can easily skim down the page with keyword-rich headings to aid skimming. Consider organizing your thoughts in logical chunks by first outlining what you’ll write before writing a post.
Designing and structuring your webpages with skimming in mind can improve usability by as much as 47%. You can follow the inverted pyramid writing style to place important information at the top of your articles. Also, front-load keywords in web page titles, headings and links.
Implement Site Search
When users are looking for something specific they typically look for a text field where they can enter their search term and quickly get the information. A site search allows your users to jump to the pages that may contain the information they’re currently seeking.
Place the search text field on the top of your web page, include a search button and clearly specify the ‘search’ text. Make it stand out on the page so that users can easily locate it. You can do so by using vivid colors that fits the design theme.
Responsive Design
A responsive web design reacts to the size of a user’s device by creating a system for a single site with one URL and one content source. It has a fluid and flexible layout which adjusts according to screen size of the user, thus offering an optimized browsing experience.
It guarantees that any user on any device will have the best and most consistent experience possible on your website, thereby increasing reach to customers and increasing visibility on search engines. You can also get your analytics, tracking and reporting can be consolidated in one place.
Today, users don’t just seek information, they interact with it in more novel ways than we can ever imagine. Usability is critical to a website’s success and you should take all possible steps to make your site more user friendly.
