My idea

sim · 02-01-2004, 02:29 PM

i dont know where this is going, but here goes, a series of questions and debates related to Web.

What is web usability, would you consider it Web Sites, a Web Page, how to access these things. or just the internet.

the internet or things related to web page(s)

**LazyJim** · 02-02-2004, 04:33 AM

what's the first question/topic?

sim · 02-02-2004, 11:35 AM

what is web usability?
the internet, or thigns related to to webpages

SVB · 02-02-2004, 11:40 AM

I say Web Usability is how well a site can be used. Is it hard to find the links. Are the buttons positioned in logical order?

**LazyJim** · 02-02-2004, 12:57 PM

and how easy it is to read, and understand what you are reading - no point talking like a university professure giving a lecture on quantum mechanics when your audience is children!

**LazyJim** · 02-02-2004, 01:00 PM

in regard to button positioning, they can be any the best order possible and it won't be usable if the structure of the site was not well planned and designed.

SVB · 02-02-2004, 01:13 PM

Yeah true, though the logical order means have them in Alphabetical order and not all mixed up, kinda spread all over the place.

**LazyJim** · 02-02-2004, 01:17 PM

lol not always alphabetical, logical is right
also the funtion to re-order often helps usability, and filtering long lists etc.

SVB · 02-02-2004, 01:33 PM

Alphabetical is just an example, eg if it is a huge list of movie names, alphabetical order would be much better than something like genre order, as its easier to find.
Any logical oder is important for good usability.
Not only a logical order, but the points you said such as being able to filter long lists. The option to view all in a list is always important I feel, as sometimes you arent sure if youve seen all the options.

**LazyJim** · 02-02-2004, 02:54 PM

yeah u need to remove all bars when u looking at stuff so u get an idea of ALL of it and know u ain't missing anything, to take that away from ppl is not a good idea

Atom · 02-02-2004, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sim

what is web usability?
the internet, or thigns related to to webpages

http://www.internet-marketing-resear...ftopic389.html

sim · 02-02-2004, 07:28 PM

you basicly saying usability is design?

Atom · 02-02-2004, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sim

you basicly saying usability is design?

Not sure who you're addressing but, if it's me ...... no...... I'm showing you where to find answers to your question/s ... :wink:

Distorted · 02-03-2004, 12:15 AM

I think that usability is all about design. What makes a site user-friendly is the way the content is presented, not the content itself, or the internet, in which it is contained.

So, everything that is visual, or audible for screen readers, is what makes a site usable, not anything else.

The programming that works behind the scenes doesn't have anything to do with usability either, since the user never sees what it does. All that they know, is that they clicked on a button, and it did what they wanted it too, which means that the design let the know how to use the site, or something...

alansmith · 02-03-2004, 05:52 AM

lol.

I know what we should do. Well make up a word. Then everybody can try and guess what it means.

**LazyJim** · 02-03-2004, 06:45 AM

lol make up a word yeah

anyway, I would say the goal of usability is to create the most efficient interface between the users of the site and it's function.

It's not the same as design though, it is an aspect or a requirement. In the design you must specify both the level of usability and who it will be used by.

In addition, you may want to specify that it should be an interesting experience to use (more fun than just utiliterian), but this is different from usability.

Good usability is a pre-requisit of good user experience - bad usability means bad experience, but good usability just means you've reached the basic foundation on which to build a more interesting experience.

mediatech · 02-03-2004, 08:24 AM

Check out Jakob Nielsen's site. He's the guru of Website Usability:

http://www.useit.com

**LazyJim** · 02-03-2004, 08:27 AM

oh yeah Jakob's site should be in everyone's bookmark list! (add it if u havn't already).

Grumpus · 02-03-2004, 08:53 AM

Hiya Gang,

Usability is a lot more than just design and where and how it's all put out on the page. In the examples below, you can see how it's also about SEO.

It's also your site's overall structure - how one page relates to another page and how you get from page A to page B (and the trip back again). As a "Usability for SE Spiders Specialist" (my own self-proclaimed term for myself - take it for what it's worth...

) I find this area to be one of the more overlooked areas of usability and, it's also a very valuable SEO consideration that gets overlooked, as well.

It's also how you get the person to "know" what lies beyond the link they are thinking about clicking before they actually click it. If it gives them something they weren't expecting then, their "frustration meter" is going to go up. If that meter reaches 100, then you've lost them. It's important to make sure they know where they are going before they get there. It's about expectations and your ability to meet them. SE's, too, are gaining the ability to generate certain expectations about what lies ahead of them. If those expectations aren't met, then all the keywords in the world aren't going to help you much - and they'll help you even less as time goes by. The "Blueberry Pancakes" experiment is a good example. Over time, with the right optimization in play, it would be possible for JS to rank well for just the term "Blueberry Pancakes" based upon that link and the few changes he made to the front page here to help Google meet those expectations about the page dealing with blueberry pancakes.

It's also about server speed and pageload times. If you have a slow server, bloaty code, unoptimized graphics, and so on, you end up with pages that take forever to load. On the internet, people want their information, but most importantly, they want it now. This also affects your SEO because there are only so many hours of crawl time between updates. If it takes the spiders forever to get each page, then it's not going to get to all (on on large sites - as many) pages as it would otherwise.

I could go on and on and on about how all of this is related. The three examples above are just a few of the things that go into usability that I didn't see mentioned above (and that popped into my head as easily related to SEO).

Usability is the mechanical counterpart to artistic design, your sales copy, and all the other "creative" type processes that go into making your web site. It is the bridge between creating expectations and meeting them.

G.

**LazyJim** · 02-03-2004, 10:53 AM

Very good insight to the relationship between SEO and Usability.
And as a side not I would like to say that creativity doesn't only apply to artistic practices, there's no reason you can't get creative with the interface mechanics - it would just be a different technique to copying well recognised interfaces, meaning the users may have to learn your new interface, but it might be a lot more usable afterwards.

They way I see it, Usability, SEO and Accessibility are all just facets of design. I'm not trying to demote them at all, we do need specialists in all of them.

Two important things...
Each project will place a different importance on different facets.
Each facet have very similar goals and are affected by similar things (such as structure).

Personally I consider Search Engines to be another user of web sites. Increasing accessibility for search engines is similar to increasing accessibility for humans. However, SE's do not always appear on my list of target users, and accessibility and usability are obviously not the be all and end all of SEO.

It's like I keep saying, Usability is part of the foundations for your site. And good foundations will benefit many aspects of design including SEO.