Simplicity in Usability

By Asi Erenberg
December 10, 2005

According to Surveys in the United States

There are many answers to the question what bring visitors- web surfers - to a website. However, if I had to point out one very important factor in the design of a successful website/ecommerce, beyond any doubt, the keyword would be - usability-listening-to-customers-have-limits.

Usability means many things. The following chapter will evaluate the various key elements of Usability-Based-Web and will help you understand how it is reached.

Understanding Needs

A very common misconception and confusion about the surfers' needs leads to overcrowded web pages with tons of information about anything but what the surfer is actually looking for.

Yes, variety is good and important. But it loses its purpose ones the surfer gets confused about where to start. Variety should be provided ones the surfer has reached the information that's at least within the general topic he or she is searching for.

One of the major reasons so many websites do not succeed is that they fail to address this critical issue of usability-listening-to-customers-have-limits. Studies show, that only 20% of businesses do, in fact, attend to some kind of Usability Analysis on their web sites, while the remaining 80% neglect to do so. A major portion of those websites not concerned with the questions of usability-listening-to-customers-have-limits, will eventually fail.

The question you should constantly ask yourself is: Why has this person landed at my website? What is that need that I must satisfy as easy and soon as possible?

Just by asking yourself these fundamental questions, you will instantly gain an additional, more targeting perspective on how a well selling web site should look like.

Take search engines providers as an example. Many of them have had reconstructions of their home pages, as part of which, the sizes of the word/s searching fields have been significantly reduced. That, in spite of the fact that this search engine is, in fact, the reason a major proportion of those websites' visitors are ending up entering that website in the first place.

Does this make sense? I argue the claim that smaller many times looks better. But just for the sake of emphasis, let's say that I agree that big, bold fields may look pretentious and unprofessional to some people, and that small but inviting is more sophisticated and in style. Maybe like The New York Times versus Am-New-York newspapers...

In the era of mass information as provided by the web, it is way more important to be efficient and to target the surfers' needs than to make some kind of an impressive design.

Take Google . What is Google 's key to success?

Does their website look like something sophisticated ? Does it look like thousands of man hours have been put into the design and construction of their web page?

The reverse is true. The page is not far from being blank. What you see is what you get. A simple searching field to satisfy the one need that brings all the surfers there.

It takes that, and that alone, to create a usable web page. A web page should focus on what it does best. Give the surfer what he or she needs. Make them believe that they have arrived at the right place to satisfy their need.

Surfers are driven by their web target. They attempt to do something specific, and they will not tolerate anything that prevents them from reaching their goal. Therefore, a web page should not distract them, but rather help them reach their goal as much as possible.

Of course, when we talk about usability-listening-to-customers-have-limits, it is not only about visual friendliness of a web page, but as well, the time it takes the surfer to be able to start inspecting the site. Whenever you surf - how much time would you be willing to allocate just for the web page you're attempting to enter to download? 5 seconds? 10, maybe 15?

Fact is, web surfers wait, in average, no longer than 8.6 seconds for a web page to download. After that, they're gone.

Now consider the fact that only 3 out of 5 surfers in the United States have high-speed Internet access (according to statistics' results for November 2005). Outside the U.S. numbers of high speed internet are mostly lower.

The combination of these two factors are quite demanding from a timeliness point of view, thus, before considering possible designs and features, websites should deal with the time challenge first. Obviously, there is no point in creating a monster flash website if most of the surfers won't even make it through the initial download. 1 out of 3 high-speed Internet surfers may decide to leave because of excessive download time, not to mention the remaining 2 dial-up surfers, left far behind.

Come again?

Over time I have learned, that real success of a website results from reoccurring visits of surfers who have visited the site before.

Sure, occasional by passers are nice to have. Also, with a sufficiently massive marketing campaign it shouldn't be too hard to attract many surfers to a website. Nevertheless, it is completely senseless and a major waste of money to do so, if after a short blink at the web page the surfers leave the site with no attention whatsoever to ever return.

Following are crucial characteristics that should make your website's visitors want to come back:

1. Fast download time
2. Quality content
3. Frequent update of the content
4. Simplicity of use.

These characteristics are pretty much self-explanatory.

In terms of quality content it is important to remember that relevance is a precondition. High quality information that is irrelevant to the website's area of occupation, which brought the surfer to the site in the first place, is worthless.

Last but not least, uniqueness of the quality content provided is another factor to consider. Websites should strive for innovation and bring their own original point of view, instead of presenting an addition to something that's already out there.

Simplicity Means Welcoming

Various criteria apply as simplicity, depending upon the product or service the website is offering. So, there is no single rule for making it simple and effective for the surfer to use your interface.

Obviously, all pre-web existing marketing concepts apply. Ask yourself who is your audience. What is the age range; socioeconomic backgrounds etc. and bring information and appearance to your website accordingly.

With that being said, there is one thing that all groups of audiences have in common. They like to be welcomed. It isn't enough that your website has found them, they must instantly realize that they have found your website, too.

The page must provide a clean feeling. If the page looks like a haystack, it'll give them a headache and they'll leave.

The main focus or purpose of the website must stand out. It is absolutely crucial to keep in mind that surfers do not read web pages - they scan them. The first thing the surfer should see is to be directly linked to the target he had set to himself. ( Headings , Links , Bold and Bulletins stand out and will catch the surfers' eyes. However, not necessarily images! Contrary to the way people read in printed matters, on the internet people will mostly see text before images. Therefore, important information should not be placed in images as it might go unnoticed). Of course, the site should stimulate the visitor's interest in other products or services that we want him to target as well. However this can occur only after we have gained the surfer's trust that he has landed at the right place.

Give him or her what they initially desire. They will utilize your website for their purposes, and, during or after the satisfaction of the initial need they will automatically pay attention to any other things the website has got to offer. Even if they don't, because they were in a hurry and as soon as they found what they were looking for they leave the site, we can trust that they will be back.