Website Usability and User Expectations

It is imperative to do a usability testing before launching a website. Professionals working at website design Sydney companies do a usability heuristic evaluation. This is compared against a list of guidelines and widely accepted principles. Ideally, this should be done by professional usability experts. If this is not possible, then you should conduct your company’s site heuristic evaluation yourself. This is not an ideal solution- but it is better than not doing anything at all.

According to Sydney web design professionals, heuristic evaluation should not offer more than is required for the user to complete a task. The more the task, the greater the user must filter the noise. A feature that is peripheral or unrelated to the main content can confuse users who are new to the website. If there is a compulsory requirement for advanced features, it is recommended to place them in a separate web page. Furthermore, the website must also look good. Removal of extra features does not mean decreasing the beauty quotient of the site. Visual cues can be present to make the site attractive. It must be mentioned that great design is an ideal combination of looks and functionality.

High standards and consistency are the two pillars of great website design. Industry standards state that the local navigation bar should be displayed on the left side of the web page. Users find it annoying if it is located on the right side. Another common standard is that a hyperlink is represented by a blue underlined text. If you change the color, or remove the underline, users will be confused.

A website design Sydney Company lays stress on the display of error, its prevention and subsequent recovery. An accurate description of the error should be provided-along with the possible solutions that can be implemented to recover from the error.

Attracting More Visitors by Increasing Usability

The biggest problem of web design Sydney professionals is to maintain the usability of the site. This is a serious issue as if a visitor does not feel comfortable when browsing through the site, or searching for a specific product or service, he or she may not click the next time.

One of the more prominent mistakes in website design that relates to usability is the issue of too much noise. Some web pages are so cluttered that it can be very hard for users to miss the feature or link they are searching for.  Web design professionals advocates two possible solutions to reduce web page noise. The first solution is obvious: simply lessen the page noise level. It can be done by removing or toning down the images that lie in the background. Fewer colors should be used. The thumb rule is to use a maximum of two main colors per web page. The content on the page should be trimmed down. The “white space” that exists between images and text can be increased.  The amount of movement on the page, like animated buttons and banners should be lessened. Only two or three main fonts on a page should be used. One font should be for the headings, one for the main text and another one should be employed to attract viewer attention if required.

Creative logo design experts recommend that important elements in a web page should be given increased prominence. The important item should be moved to a more visible location on the page; usually on the top. Images should be employed to attract the attention of the user. The font size of the title or headline should be increased or added. The text size should be increased. The color of the text can be changed and the item’s background color should also be changed.