Website usability ? Make it work for your business...

Posted by usabilitysciences on January 5th, 2013

Website usability today has much more importance than it has ever had.  With businesses becoming technically inclined and making their presence felt online at an increasing pace, websites have come a long way in enhancing the profitability ratios. An increasingly large number of business concerns today have launched shopping sites and other such portals in an attempt to reach their customers. However, just reaching out isn’t enough. Keen attention needs to be paid on the aspect that a prospective client can only be attracted if the website is seemingly pleasant and functionally competent. This is where website usability testing services can come extremely handy.

The users have, in a large way, become impatient, and the slightest of hassle, can prove to be a catalyst for driving them away from a site. They are accustomed to getting the best of services, and demand nothing less than that. Any nuisance, even if of the smallest order may result in the user’s agitation, which is very bad for a company’s business. An error free website will come handy, and make the user feel at ease and keep him pleased.

The new consumer is smart, capable of making informed decisions, and is very difficult to manipulate. With a great amount of competition due to increasing globalization, it becomes trickier to retain a customer in the long-run. A good, user oriented website may prove to be obliging in this taxing task of winning over the customers and gaining their loyalty.

Business is the mainstay for development of most of the websites. A good website is that which can help in increasing sales, and bring good business to the organization. The usability and utility of a site should be given due consideration in order to satisfy the customers in an apt way, and hence, crack deals with them on a regular basis.

Website usability testing takes care of the fact that there is a minimum amount of errors, and the time taken to perform a given test is optimum.  Also, the success rate in procedures such as placing orders, submitting forms, making payments etc should be high. The users should not face any kind of troubles while performing these.

Web usability testing services can be improved to a large extent by giving due consideration to the below listed factors-

The website should be user friendly. It should be designed in a way that the user interface is pleasant to look at and is equally convenient to work with.

A detailed site-map can almost always come in handy for a user, especially on a website that is extensive and has a number of web-pages and links attached.

Errors on the website should be regularly checked, at pre-fixed time intervals. This will ensure efficient usability of the website on a long term basis.

A good site search tool always adds up to the convenience of the user.

Feedback forms, Sign-ups, Enquiry forms etc should be easy to fill out and submit, and should be functional at all times.

Shopping carts should be easily accessible and must be unproblematic. This can assist in obtaining orders regularly and on a large-scale.

If you are searching for companies that provide web usability testing services, then you can search the internet. There are many companies providing these services. Before hiring one, however, you should check their websites carefully to understand their expertise.

About The Author:

The article has been written by Ben Bishop, the Marketing Manager at Usability Sciences. Usability Sciences offer various Usability Testing services like – Website Usability Testing, Mobile Usability Testing, Website Design Testing, Remote Usability Testing, and Rapid Iterative Testing. They also offer Eye tracking Web Usability, Card Sorting and Intercept Survey services to improve your web experience. Besides these they also take keen interest in various online research and competitive usability research study and analysis.