10 Essential Characteristics of a User-Friendly Website

Think your website is user-friendly? Think again. The way we browse is always changing – and to be able to deliver truly impeccable user experiences, we are going to need to consider what our visitors expect of us. Here’s ten things you should be focusing on at all times:

Mobile Compatibility

Is your website mobile-friendly? Can it be easily browsed and read from a phone? If not, you are losing out on a growing browsing trend – and Google will soon be ranking mobile-friendly sites with preference.

General Accessibility

Is your website available in different languages? How about larger fonts? Is there a readable text-only version? Consider making yourself accessible to all needs.

Good Information Architecture

A disorganised website is going to lose interest from people and fast. Section and order your content and pages in an order or sequence that makes logical and practical sense!

Well-Formatted Content

Badly-written or poorly-organised content, too, is a major visitor turn-off. Content that is well-formatted and planned out shows that you genuinely care – and it’s easier to read, too.

Quick Loading Times

You only have a few seconds to grab that crucial visitor interest – if you’re still asking them to load certain content after even 20 seconds, your chance has gone. Make your site as fast as possible for even the slowest of 3G.

Effective Navigation

Websites that are easy to navigate boast menus that are easy to find, well-structured and quick to load. Getting lost is never fun, online or offline.

Quick Error-Handling

Thoroughly test drive your site. Beyond this, always be quick to respond to errors – have a contingency plan set up – and don’t let a single dead link or unavailable piece of media pass you by.

Valid Mark-Up and Clean Code

You’re going to need to make sure that everything behind the scenes works just as well as it does on full view – clean up your code with help from a web design specialist.

Attractive Colours

Within your branding – consider mild, empowering colours for your website. Clashing, loud, vibrant colours that may have gone down well in the 90s may not work so well nowadays.

Usable Forms

Finally, if you’re going to need any information from your users, present a form system that’s easy to read and simple to use across all devices. Even the most basic forms on desktop can translate badly to mobile.

Posted in Website Design

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