Websites should be easy to use

Aug 27 2009 by Graham Soult, The Journal

THOUGH every organisation worth its salt has an online presence, the importance of web usability is often overlooked.

Get it wrong and you risk alienating your potential customers before they’ve even had a chance to engage with you.

I often come across sites that would benefit from some honest feedback. Websites, for example, that appear to have been designed for search engines rather than for people; or sites with elaborate animated menus that complicate finding the page you want.

In addressing web usability, the first step is to recognise that your organisation’s online face can always be improved. The second is to see usability research as a core stage of the web design process.

At Marketwise Strategies, much of our work is about helping organisations better understand the market and their customers. Over the last year we have worked on projects with two of the organisations responsible for promoting the North-East – Northumberland Tourism and Visit County Durham.

Northumberland Tourism wanted to find out what its target audiences thought of its existing website, with a view to informing a full redesign. For Visit County Durham, the task was to uncover what useful tweaks could be made to the existing site.

In both cases, we invited web users to take part in informal discussion groups. First, we explored how they tended to source information online. Then, sat at computers, we gave everyone the opportunity to perform particular tasks – like finding a B&B – using our clients and some competitors’ sites.

Taking on board what we discovered, Northumberland Tourism has just relaunched its ‘Visit Northumberland’ website – and it looks great. The new site has more white space and a subtler colour scheme, complemented by beautiful, bold photographs of Northumberland. Key content – such as an interactive map – is clearly signposted from the home page.

Meanwhile, Visit County Durham can take heart from our user groups suggesting that its site is clear and easy to use, while embracing their suggestions for specific changes and additions.

These examples illustrate the value of research in building up a clear understanding of how web visitors use, and want to use, your site. Crucially, as a site owner, it allows you to go ahead and make any changes with confidence.

And your web visitors? They get to enjoy a better looking, more intuitive website that makes it a pleasure to find the information they need.

Graham Soult, senior research executive at Marketwise Strategies in Newcastle.