Usability Consultation

In today's highly competitive Internet marketplace a website must be easy to use and, most importantly, give the user instant access to the information they are seeking. If a website does not fulfill this requirement, a competitor's website is just a click away. Internet users can and will go elsewhere if they cannot find what they are looking for within just a few seconds. As the competition has mounted, website usability has become the most important consideration when designing a website.

Website Usability Tip: Most website hosting companies provide statistic reports that will outline your website's traffic and how long visitors are spending on each page. If visitors are spending less than a few seconds on each page, it is time to consider usability consultation.

Return to Top

Usability Principals

Although there are many usability principals to consider, here is a list of some basics principals of a user friendly website:

• Clear, easy to read navigation that remains consistent throughout the website
• Accessibility features such as printable pages, providing a text only version of the website, site maps, colors, and font sizes
• Search engine optimization
• Quick loading graphics
• Text that carries keywords and gives the user the information they are seeking
• For larger websites, a search feature
• Conduct user testing

For a complete usability evaluation of your website, or more information, please contact our website usability team.

Return to Top

User Testing

User testing is conducted on a website to show areas of the website that need improvement in order to be more user friendly.  Even the best intending website designers and business owners sometimes miss usability issues during the design process, for this reason this type of testing is helpful on both existing websites as well as new websites.

Thorough testing is done by selecting a small, but diverse, group of Internet users to simply use the website being tested.  These people do not have special training but they are encouraged to give their opinions and suggestions.  While they are using the website, the usability consultant watches carefully and notes any additional difficulties with the user experience.

Once testing is complete, the usability consultant prepares a report of recommended improvements for the website design team to carry out.  If you think your website would benefit from usability testing please contact our website usability team.

Return to Top

Accessibility

Ensuring your website is accessible to people with disabilities has become an important ethical foundation of online business. In fact, it isn't just the right thing to do; it is currently law for all federal agencies and will be law for all online businesses in the near future.

There is a large potential market as nearly 65% of the U.S. population has a disability. Without accessibility features build into your website you are missing important sales.

Accessibility Tip: It is estimated that there are over 32 million people in the U.S. with some form of disability that may inhibit their web surfing experience. When conducting usability testing and considering accessibility, it is a good idea to have at least one user who is among that population and using adaptive technology. This will ensure the website is accessible to all users.

For more information on Accessibility please read:

World Wide Web Consortium - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
Wikipedia-Web Accessibility
Section 508 Federal Rehabilitation Act
Web-based Intranet and Internet Information and Applications

To review the accessible features of this website please visit:

Oregon Web Weavers Accessibility Statement

If you would like to make your website more accessible please contact our website usability team for a consultation.

Return to Top

Accessibility Tools

There are many coding tools and techniques used to build accessible websites. These are built into the hidden code of a website to assist people using adaptive, or assistive, technology. There are also some evident tools available on most accessible websites including:

Text resizing features

This will enlarge or reduce the text size for easier reading.

Print page feature

This feature enables you to print the page.

Text only version

This feature offers a high contrast, graphic free version of the website using black text on a white background for the easiest reading.