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Web Site Usability Checklist

by

How can you get prospective customers to stay at your site instead of clicking away? A lot will depend on the set up and how easy it is for customers to find what they are looking for. Take a look at this web site usability checklist and make sure you're doing all you can to keep customers where you want them -- at your site instead of the competition's.

How much time do people spend on your website? Do they find the products or information you want them to find? Can they quickly find the information they want so they can either make a purchase or contact you about your services?

To be effective, your website must be easy for someone who knows nothing about your company, your products, or your website to use. A visitor must be able to find what they want in just a few seconds or they'll click away, and probably won't return.

To make sure your site is easy to use, try to look at it objectively, as though you were a stranger and answer the questions in the checklist below.

For all sites:

  • Can visitors find information and/or products easily?
     
  • Is the navigation clear and consistent throughout the site?
     
  • Does the back button always take them back to the preceding page?
     
  • Do the pages load quickly?
     
  • Can visitors easily find out who runs the site?
     
  • Can visitors easily find the name and email address of someone responsible for the site if they want to?
     
  • Are the most important elements of your site visible without scrolling up and down or from side to side on laptop screens and typical desktop screens.
     
  • Does the site look good when viewed with all the popular web browsers?
     
  • Can it be viewed on a smart phone?
     
  • Do you have alternate text tags under graphics (to allow visitors who are blind or who have graphics turned off to find important links)?
     
  • Do you have a mechanism in place to allow people to add pages to Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites?

For ecommerce sites

  • Can visitors tell immediately what you sell?
     
  • Can they quickly find products and product descriptions?
     
  • Are there links to related products (accessories to wear with a ladies suit, for instance)?
     
  • Can they tell what to click on to place an order?
     
  • Can they find the check out button when they are ready to pay for their order.
     
  • Can they find your phone number from every page in case they have a question?
     
  • Can they find your name and address, and fax number?
     
  • Can they find your email address?
     
  • Can they find price information?
     
  • Can they find shipping information and costs easily?
     
  • Can they find your guarantee and return policy?
     
  • Can they find information about the company and its management?
     
  • Can they find any other important information you want them to have?

After you've done your own review of the website, ask some people who don't know much about your business to look at the website while you watch them. Look at the things they click on and how they proceed through the site. Note whether they seemed confused or unsure what to do next at any point. Make changes to the site both on the basis of your own answers to the checklist and any problems you detect when observing others viewing the site.

Copyright © 2010 Attard Communications, Inc.
May not be copied, reprinted, or reproduced without express permission from Attard Communications, Inc.

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

About the author:
Janet Attard is the founder of the award-winning  Business Know-How small business web site and information resource. Janet is also the author of The Home Office And Small Business Answer Book and of Business Know-How: An Operational Guide For Home-Based and Micro-Sized Businesses with Limited Budgets.  Follow Janet on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/JanetAttard.

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