It is not enough to have a beautiful web design with a high impact image on the home page like so many of the 2015 web design trends I have seen lately. You have to make website usable, easy-to-use, obvious, accessible, and intuitive. The best website user experiences (UX) will be those that are so easy to use, navigate, and operate that you don’t think about it … you just do it. I have compiled a list of usability best practices that will go a long way towards making websites more pleasurable and effective user experiences:
Usability Checklist (Best Practices)
- Don’t make web visitors read your mind
- If you expect a date to be entered in a certain format, show them the format you expect before they enter the data
- If a field is required, give a visual indicator (* required) that it is required
- Give people relevant and appropriate instructions and helpful hints
- Give people an indicator if the system is working and not necessarily stuck or waiting on you
- Reward good behavior
- If people enter data correctly, give them a check or a smiley face
- If people do not enter data correctly, help them, don’t reprimand them or give them a warning or error!
- Give people a status update, like a progress bar
- Eliminate the chance of human error
- Give people a calendar or date picker instead of asking them to give you a date in free form
- If you have discrete options then give people a pull-down pick list or radio buttons or check boxes
- Make your CAPTCHA (Are you human?) easier to read and see
- Be consistent
- Don’t make people have to learn each new page or section of the site
- Data entry forms on one page should have similar behavior to other data entry forms
- Don’t move buttons around from page to page
- Follow the proximity principle
- Like things (similar things) should be grouped together
- Relevant things should be offered to your web visitor
- Be real
- Buttons should look like buttons – if it looks like a button, it should be pushable
- Links should look like links – if it looks like a link, it should be clickable
- Headings should look like headings – a heading should not necessarily be clickable
- Be organized
- Thing should be where they are supposed to be
- Have a place for every thing and put everything in its proper place
In its simplest terms, your website and application should be so simple and so easy that even a child, who doesn’t know how to read, and navigate it.
