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Here are a few basic usability issues I would like to mention. Keep in mind, you should not assume that users know how to navigate through your site. Customers should never have to search all over your site to find your contact information. Your phone number should be placed in the header of every page. Add category text links to the bottom of every page. Not only is this good for the engines, but it helps customers navigate through the site especially if they scrolled to get to the bottom of the page. Add a search button to the top of every page. Have your call to actions above the fold. Once customers are in your website, it will benefit you and your customers if you add helpful instructions to help the user take action. Users should be able to look at a site and tell immediately what they should do next. Add a categorized text link site map. Again, not only is this good for the engines, but it helps customers. Make your site easy to navigate with clear category/product links and have the navigation consistent throughout the site. Once a customer decides to buy a product, try to keep the checkout process no more than 3 clicks. Shipping information should be clear and easy to find. Product descriptions should be clear and concise. Write for the user, not the engines. Testimonials should be displayed on pages to increase your new customer confidence level. Once a customer is in your shopping cart, ready to buy, show the steps needed to purchase and let them know what step they are on. Let customers know your site is safe to purchase from with hacker safe/scanalert and other security features. There are still people using a 56k modem. Check the download times of your site. You may not want to spend several thousands of dollars to get the download below 30 seconds on a 56k, but in most cases it is just a matter of optimizing an image or two on the home page. Check your site in IE, Firefox, and other browsers. It is amazing what a site can look like in IE over Firefox. | |||||||||||
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Vote:
November 8th I have another to add that I ran into this morning. If you lucked out and ended getting a phone number that is also your company name, PLEASE place the numbers under the letters of your number so the customer does not have to waste time trying to figure out what number goes where. 1-800-555-MIKE 1-800-555-6453  Reply
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4.00 (Good) Vote:
October 2007 This list is great because it has all the major key points of usable Web sites, but I take issue with one of your points because it has become so ambiguous over time. What, at this point, is a true call to action? Is it to get somebody to buy something? Is it your primary navigation? Is it an ad for a new service the company offers? Or is it the advertising you host for others? Or, heaven forbid, is it all of those?
The reason it is important to clarify is the fact that the "fold" as a consistent measurement is increasingly becoming irrelevant, and therefore there is less dependable real estate to work with from a design perspective. In the course of one day I use a laptop with a widescreen display and a second monitor with the traditional 4:3 aspect ratio. My monitor at home is 16:9. Now the mean is 4:3 at 1024x768 resolution, but in 1 year will it still be?
I think this rule needs to be flexible and the attention should be placed on the hierarchy of information on the page, which will organically determine what floats to the top. Would you agree or do you think I'm totally off base here? Here I am in my first comment and I'm already getting nitpicky.
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5.00 (Excellent) Vote:
October 2007 Here is my answer to both your questions. 1. What, at this point, is a true call to action? Is it to get somebody to buy something? Is it your primary navigation? Is it an ad for a new service the company offers? Or is it the advertising you host for others? Or, heaven forbid, is it all of those? answer- it is the heaven forbid answer. 2. the "fold" as a consistent measurement is increasingly becoming irrelevant, Answer- based on my answer above, I disagree. Through analytics you can tell what screen resolutions are mostly used. Also, there is always going to be an "above the fold" area. This is even more important if you are in a highly competitive field. You can spend thousands of dollars and hours getting traffic to your site, but if your message is not clear that you offer what they are looking for in a timely manner, they are gone. Reply
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4.00 (Good) Vote:
October 2007 The call to action on shopping sites has always kind of stumped me....I mean, beyond a BUY now button...what is there...
maybe a FREE SHIPPING or Buy 2 get one free offfer. I know that when I shop on the web, I just bounce back from site to site seeing where I can get the lowest price and that is the "call to action" that I look for. Reply
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5.00 (Excellent) Vote:
October 2007 If your site actually does offer the lowest price, then heck yes. What would get you to buy? Feel like the site and company is safe and secure, great price, easy to find phone and contact info, etc.. So basically, answer this question. When you buy online, why did you choose that site to buy from? If you dont have the lowest prices, then you have to emphasize your other features. Reply
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Vote:
October 2007 I think the overall "safe" feeling that I get from a site.
Will I get the product I want? Will my CC # be safe? Will they get me my order quickly? Is the checkout process easy? Reply
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Vote:
October 2007 Good article.
I think the real key is having the checkout process be as few clicks as possible. Just like in a brick-and-mortar store...the easier it is to check out...the better chance of getting a customer to buy something. I think we all have been in a store and seen a long line or convoluted checkout process and just left. The internet is the same way. If a site has 18 steps in the checkout process, there will be tons of abandoned shopping carts. Reply
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October 2007 Dan, I agree. Everyone needs to keep this in mind when they are deciding which Content Management System and shopping cart to use. I have discussed the issue with many clients and sometimes the reply is, we can do anything about that because of our CMS. Reply
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October 2007 Nice list Al, it's always handy to have these sort of conversion checklists...and use them every time you update your website. We use a CMS system, and it's easy to go down the "creative" rabbit-hole forgetting all about usability...
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