Web Site Usability
• Motivations of Web site visitors include:
– Learning about products or services that the company offers
– Buying products or services that the company offers
– Obtaining information about warranty, service, or repair policies
for products they purchased
– Obtaining general information about the company or
organization
– Obtaining financial information for making an investment or
credit granting decision
– Identifying the people who manage the company or organization
– Obtaining contact information for a person or department in the
organization
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Making Web Sites Accessible
• One of the best ways to accommodate
a broad range of visitor needs is to build
flexibility into the Web site’s interface
• Good site design lets visitors choose
among information attributes*
• Web sites can offer visitors multiple
information formats by including links to
files in those formats
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Making Web Sites Accessible
• Goals that should be met when constructing
Web sites:
– Offer easily accessible facts about the
organization
– Allow visitors to experience the site in different
ways and at different levels
– Sustain visitor attention and encourage return
visits
– Offer easily accessible information about products
and services
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Making Web Sites Accessible
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What does accessibility really mean?
How do people with disabilities access
webpages?
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Images & animations: Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual.
Multimedia. Provide captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of video.
Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For example,
avoid "click here."
Page organization. Use headings, lists, and consistent structure. Use CSS for
layout and style where possible.
Graphs & charts. Summarize or use the longdesc attribute.
Tables. Make line-by-line reading sensible. Summarize.
Check your work. Validate. Use tools, checklist, and guidelines at
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG
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How do you retain customers?
• One of the most common factors that influences
a site’s success is the trust customers have in
the firm and the increased loyalty that this brings
– What leads to trust?
• A 5 percent increase in customer loyalty can yield profit
increases between 25% and 80%
• Repetition of satisfactory service can build trust and
customer loyalty
• Poor customer service results in lack of trust, which can kill
loyalty
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How do you retain customers?
• Make the site usable. Usability is defined by five quality components
(Alertbox, Dr. Jakob Nielsen):
– Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first
time they encounter the design?
– Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they
perform tasks?
– Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not
using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?
– Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors,
and how easily can they recover from the errors?
– Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?
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Customer-Centric Web Site Design
• Customer-centric Web site design puts the customer at the center of
all site designs
• Guidelines:
– Design the site around how visitors will navigate the links
– Allow visitors to access information quickly
– Avoid using exaggerated marketing statements-online jobs exmple
– Avoid using business jargon and terms that visitors might not
understand
– Be consistent in use of design features and colors
– Make sure navigation controls are clearly labeled—download torrnt ex
– Test text visibility on smaller monitors—laptop-tab-cell
– Conduct usability tests
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