Jul 31 2009
Usability is an area of web design and development that actually encompasses many different features. But the core of it is simply making a website easy for its visitors to use. Even in 2009 I still see sites that make mistakes that cause usability hurdles to pop up for even web savvy users. It's a shame too since they can easily be fixed. So here's a short list of things you can do to improve your website's usability.
Make sure your links are different than the rest of your text
This one seems obvious but a lot of sites still make this mistake. If your body text is black, don't make your link text black unless it's got an underline. I would even take it a step further and make sure it changes when hovered over. Better yet, make your links a different color altogether. Making your links the same color of your text makes it virtually impossible to figure out what's a link.
Don't underline non-link text!
Somewhat opposite of the previous point, stop underlining text for emphasis. On the web, it's just not practical and will cause confusion. Underlined text means it's a link. Even if your site isn't designed to have underlined links, it's been that way on the web since its inception. So don't try to re-invent the wheel and change that. Besides, if I remember correctly, even in print, it's better to use bold or italic to indicate emphasis.
Don't resize the browser window
Large monitors are more popular now than ever before, so it's no coincidence that more people are not browsing websites with their web browser fully maximized. They do this by choice, folks, so don't try to change their decision because you think its best. Aside from being incredibly annoying, forcing a browser window to change size (even if it goes down in size), it's confusing for the less savvy. And chances are, you're going to lose a lot of eyeballs simply for being annoying with your website. I know when a website force-resizes my browser window, I'm gone in a split second. I don't care how cool your site might be.
Ditch the audio that auto-plays on your site
Seriously, that was common in the 90s and it's not only passe, it's annoying. Have you thought about the fact that people browse websites at work or in the library? And what's with the volume being so loud? Even worse is if there is no way to control the volume or the sound on the site itself. Give your users the option to turn it down or turn it off.
Ditch the "clear" or "reset" button on your form
If people really want to clear what they've put into your form they can leave it and come back or simply refresh. Putting a reset button can easily cause frustration if it's hit accidentally. A reset button has never been helpful.
Quit opening links in a new window
People started doing this because they were so deathly afraid of their visitors leaving their site. Guess what? If you're that afraid of people leaving your site, your content probably stinks. Opening a new window is a big usability no-no because you've just broken the "back" button in the browser. Besides, with every major, current browser, tabs are being used more and more and a lot of people are perfectly capable of deciding whether or not to open that link in a new window or tab.
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So go take a look at your site... does it make any of the above mistakes? Better get on that then. :)