Help users achieve a goal, usually to find something, such as information, or obtain something, such as a book.
Make it easy for them to achieve that goal
Make it possible to achieve the goal quickly
Make achieving that goal a pleasant experience
A site will be generally usable if:
The content is good and relevant
The content is easy to find
The content can be found quickly
The page is pleasant to look at and cleanly designed.
1.3.1 Good Content
A site with good content, regardless of its subject, is one that provides products or information that is useful or beneficial to users. A good usable site will make it clear what information or content is available and at what price AND what is not available. A good usable site should define clearly all subscription packages offered.
1.3.2 Ease of Access to Information
Bearing in mind that many users are inexperienced, it may be necessary to include explanations of things you consider self-explanatory. For example, an inexperienced user may need an explanation of how to use a drop down menu.
1.3.3 Quick Access to Information
This is the aim of the majority of web users. It can be broken into two important aspects:
Speed of page loading
This requires, in particular, attention to images to ensure they are properly optimized and do not excessively delay load time. It may also mean breaking up long articles and ensuring that important content is at the top of the page where it will load first.
Speed of Access to content
This is where the much-vaunted 3-click rule comes in - no important content should be more than 3 clicks from the home page. Some standards even say that it should be no more than two clicks.
One helpful way to speed access to content is to consider each type of user, select the content that they are most likely to be interested in and create links from the home page to one piece of content for each group. This will get them quickly to the appropriate part of the site.
1.3.4 Cleanly Designed Pages
Cleanly designed pages are pleasant to look at and easy to read. It is almost impossible to make a site with an image shown as a tiled background usable - the whole thing is too distracting and confusing. It takes no great design skills to create clean pages; it just requires thought and adherence to the principle that when it comes to design, less usually is more.
1.3.5 Download Status
Most paid membership websites are limited to online access and information download rather than selling products. There should be clear download instructions. In case of information download, it is crucial that you show a download bar and the download status.
Many websites offer huge files for download but while the user is downloading he/she has no idea of the status of the download or the speed of the download. This is very frustrating especially in the case of larger files and often you’d see users canceling the download midway and leaving the website. Your website should also state the size of the file in kilobytes and the estimated time of download for a user having a 56K modem, DSL, Cable and so on.
1.3.6 Usability Problems
Remember that if at any stage you feel the urge to intervene and explain, then you have identified a usability problem.
