What is Usability?

A Web site -- whether informational or transactional, internet or intranet -- too often is created in a reality-free zone. The client and project team spend many months and many dollars to strategize, design, and build a site that fulfills every requirement, satisfies the stakeholders, and drips cool.

Then reality rushes back in.

Users can't find what they want. Potential customers dump shopping carts without buying. Employees can't figure out the new intranet tools. Clients try the order entry system once, then go back to the fax machine. The feedback bin fills with flames. What happened? The site was designed to please everyone except the user.

Regardless of a site's intended audience -- consumers, other businesses, employees, students -- it is not enough to design the site to the preferences of the client or the project team. The site must take users into account by adhering to high standards of usability.

Web site usability is the practice of pleasing the user by making sites easy to use. Fortunately, it is not rocket science. To build a usable web site, first gather information on the users and their needs. Next, apply accepted usability standards to design a site that meets those needs. Test the design with experts and real users, Fix it if it's broken, then test again.