11 Quick and Easy Ways to Improve Site Usability
One of the most important parts of a good website is usability. It can measure how easy (or difficult) it is for someone, who may or may not have seen your site before, get around and use your site. It pretty much includes how easily your visitors can find their way around your site, how quickly they can find exactly what they need, and ease of user interaction.
Here is a list of easy ways to quickly improve your site's usability.
- Place your logo in the top left corner and make it a link to the home page.
- Make sure that the text is a size that is easy to read.
- Don't fill up your sidebar with useless widgets.
- Link to other pages within the content.
- Put some spacing in between each paragraph and list item.
- Use a custom 404 error page.
- Underline your links and make them a different colour from normal text.
- Add a search box on every page, where it is easy to find.
- Make sure you don't have any broken links.
- Provide ways for the user to share the post with others at the bottom of each post.
- Include a few useful navigation links in your footer.
Can you think of any other ways to improve site usability? Be sure to leave a comment.
Also: Happy Thanksgiving!
Hey there! This is rod from Brazil and I think those tips are really useful for improving a site's usability. I hope to get more tips soon.
Cheers.
I'm removing useless widgets now on my blog. Thanks again for the tip. I really wanted to do this but I'm hesitating because, for me it looks nice. but my site is getting slower and slower so I guess, your advice is right.
Great list. Some seem so simple, yet they are easy to overlook. Looking forward to more tips!
Make things obvious. Use common nomenclature. Use breadcrumbs on pages to help people find their way back and know where they are. Don't build your content around SEO. Build the SEO around the content.
@rod, @Stacy: It's great that you liked it!
@Susan: Those are also some very helpful tips! Thanks!
I would also add related posts with thumbnails if possible. This will not only make it more useful for the reader but also give you more pageviews which is great.
Another thing to think about is threaded comments. By adding those it becomes easier to have a discussion.
@Stefan: Very useful tips. I am planning on implementing those features in this theme, at some point.
Thanks Your information....
its very useful
As for me #4 and #6 are the most important tips from this article . However , the rest good too,every new/good webmaster should follow this rules..
Very Informative Tips. We will apply this techniques to our Future Projects. Thanks sharing.
Great steps and very informative.Thanks for sharing..
I like to share the ways to improve E-commerce site usability..
Identify users with their e-mail address.
Break up the ordering process into bite size chunks.
Tell users where they are and where they're going.
Don't make the ordering process harder than it needs to be.
Address common user queries.
Highlight required fields.
Make the ordering process flexible.
Put users' minds at ease.
Have users confirm their order before buying then provide confirmation.
Send a confirmation e-mail.