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Usability Testing

Posted on 17. Sep, 2009 by Lyz in blog, web usability

Usability testing is something that many web designers overlook when they’re designing and developing websites for their clients. It is however one of the most important aspects of internet marketing, because if your website has fundamental flaws in its usability you’ll be wasting money attracting visitors to your website. As search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) marketing can be very expensive, you need to ensure that your website is easy to navigate and converting well otherwise you’ll be wasting money attracting visitors who don’t convert.

Usability testing involves looking at your website thoroughly and making sure that it is easy to use for people of all ages and internet experience. It’s very easy to become blinded by your own website and believe that it’s obvious what people are supposed to do, when the truth is that a website can be very confusing if it hasn’t been designed with users in mind.

There are many things that can hinder web usability, such as an unclear navigation or navigation that moves location from page to page throughout the website. A lack of a clear link to the homepage, no search facility, text appearing below the fold and links not being clearly identified can all hinder a website’s usability and as such can hinder the conversions you will receive through the website.

Usability testing will highlight these problems so that they can be fixed which will improve the conversions and sales of your website, thus making the most of your internet traffic.

Tags: internet marketing, usability testing, web usability