Usability
Usability is a concept that defines the simplicity and usability of a software product. The user should easily find the necessary information without getting lost in the functionality and pages of the site. Also, usability implies the aesthetic pleasure of working with a product.
How To Estimate the Usability
The quality of the usability can be assessed by 5 criteria.
- Low entry threshold. This determines how easy it is for new users to perform basic actions.
- Efficiency. This criterion determines how quickly the user starts to navigate the interface and find the functions he or she needs.
- Intuitiveness. The indicator of intuitiveness demonstrates whether it is easy for a new user to navigate the site or application after returning to it after a while.
- Wrong actions. This aspect reflects the number of errors that users make, as well as the speed of their correction.
- Satisfaction. Naturally, users should be satisfied with the interface they offer.
Also, usefulness for the end user plays a significant role in determining the quality of usability, being responsible for their ability to quickly and efficiently solve particular problems or tasks using specific UI elements.
SoundCloud: Usability Case Study
To optimize and estimate usability you need testing. Here is a good case from SoundCloud.
In 2019, they decided to test their mobile app through continuous usability testing. A team that conducted testing found more than 100 regular user testers from 22 countries. Participants discovered more than 150 usability issues in the very first usability tests.
What is interesting here is that all these issues were not found with internal bug testing. The idea is simple: if you want to run an effective usability test, you need real users. Remote testing with them is not very expensive.
Usability testing can help to provide user-friendly experience, find and fix bugs, improve designing and development cycle.
How To Assess the Usability
Here are the main site components that you should check. Pay attention to them on every stage of designing.
Structure
The structure of the solution should be simple. When a user lands on a site, he or she should immediately understand where they are and where they need to click to perform the targeted action.
Bread crumbs
Sites with a complex structure cannot do without breadcrumbs. They demonstrate the relationship between pages, helping the user understand where he or she is.
Purchase path and product list
Every fourth user abandons a purchase due to difficulties in the checkout process. Therefore, try to make the path to ordering simple and straightforward, without unnecessary confirmation. Also, users leave the site when they have to spend too much time searching for a product. The path from shopping cart to purchase should be as simple as possible.
Search
By improving and simplifying the search engine, you improve conversions by helping users find the content they want faster.
Errors
Help users when they make mistakes. Explain what’s wrong and how to fix it.
Contacts
When you provide a minimum of contact information, the site is unlikely to be trusted by users.
Design
One of the typical mistakes of web resource owners is to forget about user convenience in pursuit of a beautiful design. But there is another extreme — an absolute disregard for the rules and trends of modern design. Therefore, it is important to find a balance here.
Performance
This is one of the most important indicators. If the page takes more than five seconds to load, the user will most likely leave the site.
404 page
Explain the problem and apologize for the inconvenience. Avoid deadends — help users to get back on track by offering some links.
