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Usability and Navigation

 

 

What is usability?

 

Usability refers to the quality of a website’s ease of use through effective use of color, typography and spacing.

 

The Nielsen Norman Group, a consulting firm that evaluates and researches website design, defines usability with five high-quality components:

1. Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?

2. Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?

3. Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they re-establish proficiency?

4. Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors and how easily can they recover from the errors?

5. Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?

 

Pay attention to your paywall

 

Your website’s paywall (if you have one) is one of, if not the most, crucial aspects relating to website usability. The type of paywall a site implements affects how readers consume content, so choosing a paywall that makes the price worth the profit is critical. Here are some of the most common types of paywalls:

 

Hard paywall: Users cannot see any content without paying. Many small Indiana newspapers use this type of paywall, which is often linked to a print subscription to the paper. Some newspapers, such as the San Francisco Chronicle, allow readers to access articles if they are shared on social media by someone with a subscription to the site. 

 

Soft paywall: Also known as a metered paywall, this barrier gives readers full access to the site's content, but only for a limited number of articles or for a limited amount of time after an article's publication. The New York Times and Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune are some publications that use this type of paywall. 

 

Customer surveys: A growing trend is the use of customer surveys, typically provided through Google and supplied by companies looking for inexpensive market research.  They are becoming a "paywall substitute" with money coming back to the publication for each valid survey response. 

 

 

Dos and don'ts for maximum website success

 

DO 

  • Keep content as concise as possible. Your readers are bombarded with an increasing amount of information every day. As the amount of information consumed increases, the reader's attention span decreases. Readers today have learned to consume information in a non-linear fashion, searching for key terms and skipping around instead of reading from top to bottom.

  • Be as literal as possible. The tab called “news” should honestly lead the reader to the paper’s news section; the same for the section labeled “sports.” Innovative branding can be useful in some cases, but not here.

  • Be logical and intuitive. When building a site, think from a reader’s perspective. Where would they expect a tab to lead? Make sure everything makes logical sense in its placement and follows a defined, easy-to-follow structure.

  • Make sure a reader knows what is and isn’t clickable. Choose an attribute to make a button signify “CLICK ME” — bolder text, underlines, a strong color. Readers should not be confused about where to direct their mouse.

  • Make sure things work (no broken links). Continuously test, troubleshoot and look for any bug, no matter how sneaky. Have a defined chain of command for fixes and modifications, one that ensures proper review and oversight but is also quick and efficient.

 

DON'T 

  • Use confusing or tired titles for content labels. “THE CROWD GOES WILD”? No, a simple “Sports” would probably work better. “OUT ON THE TOWN”? Instead, “Lifestyle” or “Culture” is clearer and inspires the same sentiments.

  • Bombard the reader with options. If a website is for a newspaper, its primary purpose should be encouraging and enabling a reader to access news. Being bombarded by options to comment, share or watch pop-up videos will turn a “reader” into a “viewer,” and one with a short attention span, at that.

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